philip in china

Does any body have any advice on making bone handles for knives please?

My Brooks weighs 2.2.0 and it certainly rings like a bell on the stump! I don't worry as I always wear hearing protection when forging and the ring is a good advert! Of course ringing actually means nothing. A bell rings, well- like a bell, but would make a lousy anvil!

My mid sized Rhino didn't ring very much. I then mounted it on a sictern full of concrete. That killed the bit of ring it had.

The main advantage with ring is that a cast iron anvil with a steel face that sort of buzzes rather than rings has probably got a loose face.

Having just read back a bit I see mention of the Rhinos from www.incandescent-iron.com I have one of each size. I like them a lot and for the price I doubt if they can be beaten. They are very well finished and as hard as a mother in law's heart. Being alloy steel I suspect helps. If you see the prices remember that the company gives a discount if you are an ABANA member.

I use the little one as a travelling anvil. I understand that some farriers find them convenient. The big one is great as a striking anvil. I think the point is they are relatively cheap so for the same price you can get a heavier anvil which is usually good news.

Not sure if this is a request for addresses of current anvil suppliers or looking for recommendations.

One current supplier, not US but UK, is www.anvils.co.uk That will take you to the Vaughans website (watch the spelling not Vaughns!) I think they must have the most comprehensive range available ranging from tiny jewellers types upto 250 Kg both single and double horn. Also sawmakers round anvils. They also sell a couple of designs of farriers anvils. Just make sure you are sitting down when you look at the prices. I have a 125 Kg (280 pounder) and think it is wonderful. It would just not be economic to ship one to USA though.

That address is worth visiting to see their catalogue. It gives all sorts of ideas for tools which I then go out and make for myself.

On anvil care I made a cover that goes over my Brooks anvil. It padlocks in place and stops any students messing around and damaging the face! It is just a piece of channel iron with a ring underneath to fit over the horn. I then forged a pin to go through the channel and the hardy hole. There is a hole punched in this to take a padlock.

It is such a success that I have bolted my bar shear to it and so use the Brooks as a base for my shear.

What made me do this was when one of the locals had actually arc welded on the face of one of my anvils!! Fortunately it was only a Chinese cast iron one. Otherwise blood would have flowed.

Of course if using your toecaps as a tool it is important to remember if you happen NOT to be wearing them................

I wear fairly cheap steel toecapped boots from a local store in UK. What I have, though, are external steel toecaps. I prefer these to internals. As I not only blacksmith but also do all sorts of other maintenance type jobs I spend a lot of time on hands and knees. This, I find, tends to wear away the leather on the front of internal toecapped boots. Then they leak. Of course this doesn't happen with the external toecaps.

I also tend to use my toecaps as a tool. If moving anything and I need a fulcrum, for example, in goes the toe.

I am just about to start with a new group of students here. I have recommended that they buy ear plugs (muffs are available), I have suggested they get their own safety goggles but I have said categorically- no toecaps, no smithing.

Yes it will work. It won't be ideal but any coal will work up to a point. Just try it and see how you get on. Especially when starting don't get too hung up on what you have got. Just get some metal hot and hit it.

Bituminous- for a number of reasons. As already said it cokes up better but also anthracite is very difficult to light. As you get closer to pure carbon the fuel gets harder to light and to keep going as there is a lower proportion of volatiles- so wood is about the easiest to light, then bituminous coal, then harder and harder grades of coal and finally coke which is very difficult to light and will go out without a forced air draught almost continually. I suppose the ultimate would be to try to forge on a fire of diamonds which are pure carbon- but don't tell the wife I said you could use hers.

I have a similar swage block from Steve at www.incandescent-iron.com His are made from steel so I got one because mine has to withstand a lot of abuse from students!

Like you I never would have guessed how useful it would be until I got it. Making some security grilles was mainly just arc welding but I like to flatten the ends of the bars to get a better fit against the angle iron frame. I can forge them flat with the swage block faster than I can grind them. Can even pass them over war to the guy who is welding.

Does Salt Fork give an ABANA discount? I know Steve does.

The basic problem was this- the workshop is 1.5 metres higher than the road immediately outside. Between them is a 30 degree slope. The power hammer weighs about 950Kg and is slightly top heavy. There is nothing in the workshop from which to winch.

Step 1 was to drill the back wall in 2 spots- about a metre apart and immediately opposite the door and the slope. I had some 25mm bars with one end threaded and a ring forged on the other end. I passed one of these through each hole. To spread the weight better I used a 20Kg weightlifting disc as a washer on each. This gave me 2 eyes which were very firmly anchored through the wall.

Step 2 was a slight change of plan. Originally I had thought simply of winching from those eyes but I actually got some about 30mm hex bar which I threaded through the eyes and then winched from that. I thought that the potential bend in the bar would lessen the chance of a cataclysmic failure should anything get jammed.

The winch was a 2 tonne chain hoist which was happy to work laterally. A friend and I connected a nylon strap around the big casting on the hammer. This was then connected to the hook of the hoist. The hammer was on a pallet on the pallet jack.

Step 3 was actually doing the move! My friend pulled the chains most of the time and we managed to creep the big girl up the ramp. A couple of times we stopped briefly. At those stages we simply dropped the pallet so that inertia held it steady. Once we had to unstrap as the chains weren't long enough to do the move in 1 go. At that stage we simply roped the top of the machine to the bar from which we were winching. We could have simply used the tightener on the strap to finish the move but that would have been painfully slow so we stopped and ran the chain back out to full length. A bit of persuasion over ledges, the runners for the doors etc. using a 2 metre crowbar was the only other effort needed.

Step 4 will be (note the future tense) to get the hammer in place.

The point is that by following advice, working slowly and intelligently we managed to move the hammer up an awkward slope and have both lived to tell the tale.

I am delighted to see that Vaughans are still in business. I would rather see a good supplier in business than get a short term boost from a bankruptcy sale

There aren't enough suppliers so we can't afford to lose one.

I had a query with Vaughans and did get a reply. I would be sorry to hear that they had closed. I shall see if I can get an answer.

That Glendale place seems odd. The illustrations on their website just look to have been scanned out of a Victorian or Edwardian catalogue. I didn't find a single picture of any actual product! Also there are no prices specified anywhere- you have to yelephone for those.

Did anybody try Vaughans website??

Years ago I was upbraided on the anvilfire forums for casting aspersions on the Hofi anvil. I did it in a way that was sort of rude, and I apologized at the time. I still question, however, and will always question the need for four (four!!) pritchel holes. The Ozark anvil is only slightly less outlandish with three. I'm sure the metallurgical properties of both anvils are excellent, but I cannot help but suspect that they are both products of people re-inventing the wheel.

From my earlier post I didn't want to suggest that all anvils out of Asia are junk. There are at least 2 manufacturers who have very high grade steel anvils cast in China- but don't expect to get those for a couple of hundred bucks!!

Steel from a ship- recast does not necessarily equal cast steel!

A lot of asian casting is done in cupola furnaces. The result- whether you put in iron or steel is cast iron!

In the absence of any form of testing on the anvil it is, as you say, only a matter of speculation but a cheap anvil coming out of India is far more likely to be cast iron than cast steel.

I wouldn't assume that the expression "cast steel" means much! I have seen cast iron ASOs so described! They look like iron ASOs to me.

I use anvils- I don't collect them! In my experience, though, usually cleaning the aging off an antique in one way of reducing the value!

Here in Sichuan I have major problems with rust as it is both warm and humid. SO I either paint or, more usually, oil the sides of the anvil. If I know I am unlikely to use a particular anvil for a while I also lightly grease the face. As soon as it gets used the grease burns off. The oiled finish on the sides keeps the appearance of the anvil the same but prevents rust going any further.

If you are oiling or greasing to prevent decay don't forget to put some underneath! Just because you can't see the rust doesn't mean it isn't eating away.

I will try that one again. I registered a few months ago but was deleted because they assumed I was not real because I am in China!

I know the difference so please let's not start that one.

Is there a good farriers website on the internet?

I shall be back in UK for about 5 weeks. I fly back here on, don't laugh, Friday 13th of August.

Anybody doing anything in particular?

A question and I hope an answer.

Why take off the paint? Most of my anvils are painted. It stops the sides from rusting. Work keeps the faces clean.

To strip paint I just use ...... paint stripper. Any commercial brand will do it. I believe it is only a sticky form of a very caustic soda solution anyway. In UK there was a brand called nitromors which was as good as anything. Do it somewhere warm or put the anvil out in the sun. As with so many reactions warmth speeds things up a lot. Then as the guys say dispose of the waste responsibly.

Did you get the job? If so how did it go?

I have hit stuff cold with my 25Kg Anyang. I can't say that I noticed any bad effects on my joints!

I have the Big Blu DVD on power hammer techniques. They show texturing cold. I don't know what the difference would be between a Big Blu and an Anyang.

It must just be a matter of physics. If the steel is cold then yes it must be harder on the dies but are we arguing the number of angels on a pinhead? Will the dies actually be damaged? Mine don't appear to be.

I tried to PM you, Matt, but this machine doesn't seem to want to send PMs.

BTW I am absolutely NOT on commission from Vaughans but I do wonder if any anvil manufacturer in the world has as large a range of anvils as they have. I certainly am not aware of anybody but don't claim to be an expert. Maybe one of the real experts on the site could answer that one.

Let's have a picture! It might be a Vaughans that got sneaked out of the system somewhere before it was heat treated. It might be a copy that somebody has made from an original Vaughan in which case it could be made of anything.

BTW to the person who had difficulty believing the claimed hardness of a Brooks anvil- I have no problem as I own and use one. They are tremendously good, hard anvils.

If it is a genuine Brooks then it really is worth getting it professionally heat treated. How big is it? Did you mention?