Dan P.

I thought about bidding on all of those anvils, and I'm glad they went to a good home. It is the second one that is the most enigmatic, though. Dovetailed recesses are not so uncommon in continental anvils, while quite rare in English. But to have an English anvil with two dovetails AND two bicks! Wow! As to their respective uses, I expect your thoughts as to what their use was are as good as anybody's. Dan

There's no brake. It's not so much that the belt grabs, but that the mechanism is quite heavy and sluggish. In order to get it going at a decent pace at the begining, you have to really stomp on the pedal, and then be very delicate in easing off. There is (was) a seperate issue of the belt twisting (causing it to shorten and tighten) which made the hammer go a bit mental. I the event, both problems have been solved by tightening the belt a good deal.

Frosty, you are right about the timbers. I think the footing for this hammer will have to be re-done, unfortunately. I think the rocking is pretty much inevitable given the mechanism, unless the hammer is fixed to something really stable. The other problem, that of the clutch, has become even more complicated. The balance between the belt driving the drive wheel and over-driving it is,thus far, a mystery to me. Unfortunately, my only reference to this kind of clutch is a few internet videos, soI'm sure there are details I'm missing out on. Anyway, after fannying about with it for the last two days, I am leaning toward replacing it with a slack belt clutch, which generally makes much more sense to me. I did find a video of this guy, who seems to have his fork clutch well enough sorted, but it seems perhaps at the expense of his hammer giving real welly.

It made it worse. I'm sure I will find a balance. It's the rockin' and a boppin' from side to side that is my main concern.

Well, I fired her up today.This is not the most refined beast in the world, but I do not expect her to be. There is some fine tuning to do of the springs tension etc, but mostly I am pleased with how she goes. But, there are two problems. One I think is intractable; When the fork brings the belt back to the idle position, it causes the belt to twist slightly, which increases its tension, which causes the drive wheel (which the belt is still on) to go like the clappers which causes the last two or three beats of the hammer to be considerably stronger than those preceeding them. It's not the worst thing in the world, some belt dressing might help with it. The other problem is more serious; she wobbles from side to side quite alot. The movement seems to be coming from her hind end, I think from the idle wheel. She is sat on sleepers, which sit on the clay beneath my floor, and I have a nasty feeling that the top of the problem is simply inadequate footing. Anyway, video to come.

To amend my "what's it worth" estimation of £75 to be more in line with with John N's wise words, I think it could be had from old matey down the road for £50-75 (or a tenner). If I needed an anvil, though, I would, and have, bought them on ebay for between £80-120. That is of course the irony of ebay, you end up paying more for something you very likely don't see before hand. My worst ebay purchase was a practically new 3cwt JB anvil that was pullulating with casting flaws. The anvil in your picture looks like a good one, though. I've owned a few of that type (also JB?) and they've all been well made.

If you can only get something small, I would recommend that it be a stump rather than anvil shaped. Even a block of mild steel.

Pretty slick tongs. My first pair of tongs were (are) so shockingly awful that they ended up being quite useful for a purpose totally different than that for which the were intended.

4-5 cwt? A wild guess.

If you are talking about the very well established (and besides, self-evident) technique of using the edges of your hammer as a pein, I don't need to try it, because I have lots of hammers, each having a different primary function, as is normal and correct for a blacksmith. If you are talking about making a hammer with more work surfaces available than yours (which you say has the most) or even a cat's head (which has 100% more than yours, by some wierd metaphysical hiccup in the time-space continuum), again, I don't really need to, for the reason previously stated. Your hammer looks like an excellent hammer, and you are obviously an accomplished smith, but I feel that one or both of us is courting the controversy that surround claims made of particular hammers by those that have created them and/or use them, and so I'll leave it at that. Except to say, a62rambler, my most used hammer is about 2.5 lbs hammer with one flat, square face.

I think iron/steel is (was?) going for about £100 a ton, so no, not really. As to what it's worth (I'm presuming you're in the UK); £75?

Shipping? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320886062276?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_500wt_1363

Nothing wrong with that anvil. Get rid of the pitting with a floor sander (it'll take a few belts!), don't worry about the chipping, andit should be good to go. And it's big.

a62rambler, that is an exceedingly generous offer, but I'm afraid I chucked my cat's head hammer in the skip, where it belongs. Brian, I'm afraid I remain skeptical of your claim, which is quite a bold one!

But a cat's head hammer is a rounding hammer, but with a clipping pein and a cross pein, so surely it must trump yours? -Dan

apparently nitrogen is the business for plasma cutting, especially stainless.

On the question of getting the job done, I am very liberal in terms of my definition of what is a blacksmith, or what is blacksmith's work, but I'm inclined to agree with BlackHammerForge's instructor on the fire welding thing.

And that is the reason I have two sets sitting in my shed! Oh dear.

Actually Tom, now I think of it, I could set you up with the metalwork and woodwork of an old set of cylindrical bellows. It's a lot of work, needs all new leather, but free to a good home.

Aaah, I see. Well, Tom, if you want another one...

I would strongly second the idea of focusing on the slide if you want to regulate air flow into your fire. For any other reason I cannot comment, but a dimmer does not work fast enough to give you the control you need. If your blower makes an annoying noise, get a new one. They are cheap(ish) for being such an important piece of kit. Extractor fans, Clarke, Axminster, etc. will do fine. Bouncy castle blowers can be found cheap second hand (ebay). If you can make it up to north Gloucestershire I have a bouncy castle blower going cheap that will blow your wig clean off.

Owen, thank you for the stream of sound advice that you have offered. Beth, I am a seasonal hair cuttee. Spring means time to thin the thatch. As it happens, poor Mrs. P. is not entirely responsible for my strange tonsure, as some weeks previously I had cut my own hair (Step 1; Put elastic band around head. Step 2; Cut away hair that is in the line of vision, using elastic band as a straight edge) and she, tired of walking around with someone she described as looking like a "medieval henchman", was left trying to make the best of a bad lot.

If anyone has any opinions on my question in post 11, I would love to hear them!

I'm not sure what you are seeing in No.22, that is a photo of the mounting for the springs and helve, the only other thing thing they are attached to is the cam (eccentric?) thingy in No.17. Now, if you look at post No. 16 you will see some little galvanized washers, peeping out just below the motor pulley, on the pedal bar. That is where the bar pivots. The only other thing that the bar is attached to is the thing in post No. 20, and the spring in front of the frame which returns it to idle position. In post No.21 it may appear that the thing pictured in No. 20 is attached to the frame, but it is not. As is often my problem, I don't really have the language to describe these things, and so I'm not sure what you mean by spring clamp or shaft mount, but I hope it should be easy enough to work out. If it clarifies anything, looking at along its length from the hammer end, the pedal bar that extends along the left attaches to the rod that activates the fork, and thus the hammer. The bar that goes down the right hand side doesn't do anything except attach to the pivot and has a cross bar that hold everything in place.

As you can see, the body is constructed from channel iron, with some sheet bolted on using enormously over sized bolts, to make it look nice. Lastly a picture of the other lower die, a really goofy shape, in my opinion;