Dan P.

cool beanz! It will be nice to see her after a wash and a brush up and some new duds.

I think a small tinsmith's or silversmith's anvil would be most suitable. I think a large amount of cold working is going to be inevitable, too. I would also add that I think you are going to have a lot of misery trying to use a draw plate on bloom/wrought. Given the time frame you are looking at, needles would probably be fairly large by modern standards, certainly the ones made of iron/steel, probably no smaller than 1mm diameter, which is not that hard to forge by hand (no drawplate). You might also be interested in this book; http://www.shirebooks.co.uk/store/Needlemaking_9780852635636 Lastly, please share your results, it sounds like an interesting project!

I expect that once anvil-casting technology became established, a lot of companies had a stab at it. There used to be a LOT of foundries in the UK.

In this particular conflict there are definitely no winners. Pretty grim stuff.

Looks like a Brooks/ JB to me. A lot of MOD stuff seems to have the date stamped into it. If it is a JB made in 1940 it would have been made at a time when time and quality were something of a luxury. I'm sure it would be a manufacturer stamp, as I think most UK made anvils were forged up till around that date. I had a JB dated 1952. It was good and hard, but the casting was pretty shocking, full of cracks and voids. Where are you located? If you are in the UK (or Canada?) it is probably an "emergency" war anvil.

I think those are usually known as coach or wheel wrights' anvils. A swayed part of the face is very useful in straightening bars, as well. Nice score!

I don't think there is or has been anything used to coat iron/steel that is not in some way toxic when burned off. Whether it's toxic in the sense of causing black snot, or causing instant death, that is the question!

Well said.

Years ago some idiot thought it would be a good idea to cast some aluminium into building sand mixed with old engine oil. Unless you like the smell of burning dirty oil, and a workshop made unusable by being filled with smoke, I would avoid this method.

Zinc paint? Lead paint? Cadmium paint!?! Unfortunately there are so many airborne nasties in this trade other than just the celebrity ones like zinc fumes.

It's just what makes sense to me!

forge weld them all together and make one 24lb sledge.

What's the difference between a swage and a regular thread-cutting die? Also, I've tapped a bit of wrought iron in the past, and it can be a bugger when the tap catches on a bit of slag- it'll have you doing the snapped-tap war-dance in no time! Not such a problem cutting the male threads (what is that called? Die-ing??).

Very tidy! Was the bick machined?

Colleen, I was thinking of the interface between craft and "applied art", the subservience of craft and material/medium to forms that they do not necessarily or naturally fit into, the tension between art, artifice, artificial art and artful artifice, how "folk art" is the only true art because it is art that reflects the technique and medium, rather than just ephemeral concept, and how that is nonsense because I am also totally into conceptual art. The problem with sharing these thoughts is that in my head the canon of reference is totally sound, but on an internet forum it is difficult to allow people to see what I have seen, and then of course they may not even be interested in doing so. My thoughts on a more literal reading of the topic at hand; I am not sure why people are being so hyperbolic about the skill of masters, how we/I/they are not fit to humble themselves, etc. etc. Blacksmithing is just a trade. It is a set of skills, of knowledge, of tricks and tips and knacks, very few of which can't be learned or worked out with time. Given a basic aptitude, the more you do it, the better you get. Blacksmithing is maybe a little bit magical, sometimes, more so to non-smiths perhaps, but it is just what it is, a trade, like any other, and there a plenty of crummy blacksmiths who are called blacksmiths because that is what they do for a living, and ever was it so. I wonder if they get this kind of excitement over at the pottery/basket weaving/brewing/nose-picking forums? PS Basher- 1 nomination for poet laureate of smiths

beth, blackersmith (are you Alan Evans?), I'm afraid I cannot offer any perspective today. I started writing some perspective, but bored myself so hard and so fast that I gave up.

I've been a professional blacksmith since 2003, and I still can't light a cigarette that way, and believe me I've tried! I would also like to add that that "masterpiece" on the Wisconsin History site, while obviously made utilizing a broad range of very well-developed skills, is a hideous mish-mash of styles, topped off with some kind of frightening DMT entity. I'm not sure if that makes it "good" or not? Which brings me to the verge of going on ramble through my thoughts on ironwork, forge-work, fabrication, and an analysis of their place in the history of applied arts. But I won't, because I should already be at work, tig-welding together a frame and cladding it in lead, you know, as we "blacksmiths" do.

Fred, if you drill the same size as the square hole you want, you will have little round bite marks on the sides of the square. If you imagine, the square edges of the drift are pushing the hole out in all directions, and will push the drilled sides out too. Hard to describe, sorry.

It's personal preference, really. There are pros and cons, but they sort of balance out. And I wouldn't want that side shelf either.

This made me laugh (in a nice way)!

It'd be a flat belt held together by a pin; http://www.lathes.co.uk/flatbeltclips/ or similar. Good find!

I've seen one of those in the flesh before, and they come up on ebay (UK) from time to time. They are usually smaller anvils, yours is bigger, but always with those strange chopped off looking shoulders by the bick. I think the one I saw was a JB, maybe a Peter Wright? Not necessarily very old, looks like a good anvil.

Very cool!

Speaking of dogs and forges, I have to keep mine out; they drink my quenching oil!

I don't usually use a hot cut hardy,I use a hot set instead, but similarly have found that a curved edge is more useful, primarily because it can be "walked" across the work, like a creasing tool.