nonjic

From the way you have phrased your question it makes it sound like you know nothing about the trade, or industry. This makes it a very high risk investment. Anyones skills can be utilised to make money for them. You can make money off the back of anyones skills, in any industry, if YOU have the skill to do it. The fact you have to ask the question does not bode well for your pockets, in my opinion. The question sounds like the business studies assignments we had to complete when I was 15. Break it down into fixed costs, variable costs, forecast your revenues, forecast your cashflow, do a monthly breakeven anaylsis - do a SWOT analysis of yourself, the blacksmith, the market. You can massively reduce the risks of investment by knowing your numbers.

There is some slick valving inside the Massey 'Clear Space' - It pumps up an internal air resovoir which is then used for the single blows. This type of hammer was made with ram weights up to #4500 lbs. This is a 10 cwt (#1100lb) we overhauled earlier this year, you can see the relationship between hand lever and ram motion a bit better on this clip. (tempory 'anvil' for test purposes!) http://youtu.be/IagkeQSzVWc

Hi Jesse, Not managed to catch to much of your TV work on this side of the pond, but great work on putting a bit of blacksmithing on the box! I dont know anyting about being 'in the spotlight' but it cant be easy having your every move analysed. Im a firm believer in doing what you love doing and the passion will show through. I think your 'offering anything back' is going to be lighting the spark in a few people who had not thought about putting hammer to anvil before, we will all benefit from that. Anyhoo, spose thats my way of saying welcome! (and ... its not often I get tool envy but that press rocks! )

I have mentioned a few times on this forum that the Massey 'Clear Space' Hammers have very good single blow control (like the steam hammers) - I have recently installed a fully restored 2 cwt (110 kg ram) Machine for my own use (actually this one is going to a customer, but I have another one which will take its place on the foundation) This is quite an upgrade from the 33lb Anyang I have been using as 'my' hammer for the last 4 years I only put the power leads to the motor yesterday, and was having a play last night. This video is just to demonstrate the control (I was impressed so took a video!) When I get to know the machine a little better I will try again with the watch 'hard' on the anvil!! I will put update this thread with some forging videos when the installation is complete. (the hammer is not quite finished yet, all the external bits are going for chrome, and the paints not finished yet.) http://youtu.be/RZDyjiOGv2Q

Heres the link.. My computer (or this site?) is acting super weird tonight, cant edit previous post...! http://www.leprevo.co.uk/

Sweet looking hammer! My first choice for strap replacement would be ......... leather ... ! These guys in Newcastle will sell you as little as you need, they sell cut strip and width you want aswell Phone them and have a chat, they are super helpful (website is terrible)

I never ceased to be amazed at how big a press you need to make a small closed die forging effectively. The high speed mechanical presses I do a lot of work on lay the power down in one hit in less than a second, yet a 1000 tonner will often only make a component of a kg or two! (and due to the speed die contact time is not a heat sucking factor! )

I use the yellow card that ear plugs are packed in, light it, stand it in forge door and then crack the gas. Why the yellow card ear plugs come in? it does not light very well with cig lighter..... but my patternwelding started to improve when I used the yellow card for the first time to light the forge, the logical bit of me knows there is no association, the logical bit of me also knows that if I use the yellow packaging to light the forge my welding is good that session. Since I always have yellow card from the earplugs I use it! this is how superstitions start :D

im with basher, its all about confidence and knowing what to look for / at. My (xxxx near perfect) venturi gas forge does a very sizeable 'whump' when lit, and can spit the ball of lit newspaper 'spill' 6' when it ignites. perfectly normal for my forge, terrifies people who have not seen it before Yellow billowey propane flare ups do not concern me (close the bottle, assess the situation).... its the prospect of unignited gas that scares me. Often gas forges require a bit of nursing untill the chamber gets hot, then they become a lot more stable. They also become much safer when they are up to heat (to my mind at least) , as they re-ignite the burner if it blows iteself out. Even though me and my gas forge are friends, I still wont leave it unattended untill the chamber has taken some colour with the heat. Just not worth the risk.

I was going to point you to the thread on BB but I see you found it You should make an engineering drawing of the ram whilst the hammer is stripped and then it would be fairly easy to get one made as a spare at your leisure when the hammer is operational (you could machine from solid easily enough) Guessing you would get change from a £1000/ for a new ram.

Great Idea for a gift, hope it will bring a smile to his face ! Make sure you show some pics when its done. As to some of the other comments in this thread, perhaps one reminder that removing a small piece of basically industrial waste without permission is enough, perhaps one suggestion to give the knife with the receipients parents permission is enough. Dont suck all of the joy out of a lovely gesture.

:D easily done! I have a steel rule at work that has 1/10" of an inch on it not 1/8".... thats lead to some near oooopps moments! least said about patternmakers contraction tapes the better!! anyhoo, the sawmakers anvil looks great. The other anvil looks like a piece of re-purposed flame cut plate with a spigot turned on it to me. Was it made to be an anvil?

not sure on your maths there.... without googleing it (from memory, always a dangerous thing!) I work on .283lbs per cubic inch for steel. so, 13x7x10" (10" assumed, it looks longer than tall) = 910 cubic inches x .283 lbs = 257 lbs edit,. (13x7x12" would put it at 309lbs)

To quote a bladesmith friend of mine (the mighty Col KC) , O1 will harden if you so much as fart near it.... I have accidently air hardened it and snapped blades, and rested it on the anvil which has quenched it, snapped blades... Although it can make mighty blades I have not had much luck with it. Ive also had some commedy tear aparts patternwelding with O1. The UK's no.1 competition cutter gave some of the best a run for their money at Bladesports Intl. at Atlanta with an O1 comp knife, against all the 'super steels' The grain in the broken blade is massive. Normalise a time or two before the heat to quench. There are more forgiving steels out there!

Ive had a year off making blades as I have had many other projects on the go. I forged this one up a couple of weeks ago, and put the heat treat and grind on it this week. It is a colaboration knife that is going to another maker for handle and guard. It will be sold and the proceeds to the 'Royal British Legion' (helping vets etc) Tried to keep it 'tight and right' - its hand sanded to 120 g at the moment. I used a dead flat carbide block as the backing for the abrasive, makes it a lot more work but hopefully the effort shows. Its the cleanest blade Ive ground so far Blade around 5"- 6" long, hopefully it will end up a little 'hunting' type knife but its out of my hands now! Sorry for the poor pics, they are off my phone and the light is bad. I will update the thread when its etched, handled and clothed!

I agree it is all realative, and everyones circumstances are different.... Just to head off topic for a bit. I was at a very well known blacksmiths shop in the UK a couple or 3 years ago. They were making a nice ornate wrought iron gate, about 42" high x 36" wide. It was top end stuff. I asked the question and was told that the gate was heading out of the door for about £15k ($24k usd). I commented that it was crazy money for a small gate. I was (quite rightly) told it was not crazy money. The house it was going on the front of was worth several million. They wanted a nice gate so bought one. A couple of planks of wood and $10 bucks worth of hardware would have filled the gap at the end of their path. They will get pleasure from that gate every day. Wont do a thing different to the imaginary 2 planks of wood and $10 bucks of hardware! anyhoo, I ramble. The P.W anvil in this thread will most likely end up on ebay in the states next year, dont know what it will make other than what someone wants to pay for it. Wont make you forge any better than that $24k gate will fill the gap in the wall, but it will bring someone pleasure for many years.

Yup, the anvils are heading state side, but for the near future they are mine! I had mixed feelings about sending anvils overseas, but in the UK most end up as garden ornaments and will never be appreciated! Grant, Ive got quite a few 400+ that all have that little 'reverse ski jump' under the horn. A good number of the 500 lb'ers have 2 hardys. Lots of the big ones dont have a cutting shelf, just a straight table to the horn. There has been a few discussions on here about people milling anvils faces, and the base not being true to the face, so the face gets milled unevenly, thus runining the anvil. I can take this one further, the 650 lb one in the photo above has a convex base, you can spin it round! this wanst lazy manufacturing as it was obviously a high dollar anvil back in the day. They must have just decided that it doesnt matter as it would be taken into account when the anvil was mounted for use. Lots of the anvils are biased towards the direction the smith stands aswell (ie, they look wonkey when viewed from the horn, or heel). To much skill involved in making them for this to be a manufacturing defect in my opinon. Its interesting in the big peter wright that the forward (horn end) hard hole was punched as a tapered 'round' hole, and then the top 1/2 of it must have been drifted out square. It makes it more personal that the punched round hole is not quite central where it exits.... we have all done it :)

Ive been buying a few nice anvils recently, but this one really stands out - going to sound all hippy now but you can feel the energy from it... A beautiful anvil so I thought I would share. 6lbs shy of 600 lbs. 42" long x 6.5" face - the classic london pattern with Peter in the second photo is over 650 lbs...

Hi, Welcome to the forum - Im afraid my knowledge on the turkish hammers is about the same as my knowledge of turkish food so can not offer much by the way of help - a couple of points that might be worth a consider though.. self contained hammers have an amount of oil they like, to much and they can play funny, not enough and the symptons are the same, erratic. I would get it so the oil is metered accuratly , check the check valves, insert a needle valve or somthing to smooth the flow. I would check the hammers speed - if self contained hammers are running to fast they can 'catch up' with themselves, ie the air has not fully exhauted before the next lot is boing pushed in. This can lead to 'grand old duke of york' syndrome, and the DT's you describe.. Love your writing style by the way - hopefully someone with a bit of know how will be along in a bit to assist you better. Also, I think someone has recently taken up the reins of SayMak ** in the states - it may be worth a call to them. edit, ** I am not sure if Sayha & SayMak are from the same stable.... sorry!

Thomas, Im not suggesting destroying an old anvil to make it a surface plate (though my p.w is one now, even though it would have had a radius top face when new!) but it the anvil has dings and pings all over the face, why not dress it up a bit? I dont really forge on the horn of my anvil, it tends to be more of a 'pushing over it' motion so im not to bothered about the finish on it as it does not indent the workpiece - an anvil without a smooth 'flatish' area on the face would be horrible to use (for me!) - I do agree with you about folks not knowing what they are doing over milling / grinding an anvil, but a tickle here and there with a grinder is not a sin!

Im of the school of thought that an anvil is a tool, and has to earn its keep. I have no problem taking a milling machine, grinder etc to the face of an anvil (I own!) I wouldnt use a hammer with indents in its face! My own main anvil is a beautiful 250 ish P/w. I milled a couple of mm from its face and dressed the edges and horn up nicely with a flap disc. My bladesmiting improved as a result. I worked on the basis that the little peter wright is mine for the next 40 odd years, if the next owner wants to moan the face is 2mm to thin when im dead im not to bothered I bought this little chap on ebay - someone had been cold chiseling on the face - Here he is after a sympathetic half hour with an angle grinder. useable again, just another chapter in his life (yes, this anvil has gender, and is not just an object to me!) , probably the oldest double horn anvil Ive ever seen, including photos online.... 4 1/2" bish bash bosch

Is the ram seal blowing ? are there any split hoses inside the machine ? Is it running at the correct speed?

Ive never seen a 6 cwt anvil in the UK, on ebay or otherwise. The biggest one I have found was a 650# (not ebay). 2 x 7 cwts would have been quite a score Owen, Ill phone you later.

Anvils are relatively inexpensive in the UK, collecting them isnt! we pay £1.40 for a litre of diesel here!!!! cant help but think I must have a screw loose, somewhere There is a pile of metal that would make even the most hardened blacksmith drool building up though :wub:

Im sending a lot of big anvils across the pond early next year, to 600lb + , classic English stuff with a bit of soul. Larry from 'monster metal' is the man to drop a note to if you want somthing with a bit of history to it, I am sure he will contact you when they arrive with more details of whats available.