wooginator

I'm afraid those peddinghaus anvils are a bit out of my price range. $250 is around my upper limit. Blacksmith anvils just seem harder to find and much more expensive (unless you search high and low to buy one in person from a yard sale or whatever and I don't really have the time).

http://www.nctoolco.com/pages/anvils3.htm It seems kind of oddly shaped, sort of thin in spots like the heel and the horn is weird. I know it's because it's a ferrier's anvil, but is there any reason this wouldn't work for more standard blacksmithing work? The largest stock I use is 5/8 mild steel or else railroad spikes which I think are a bit thicker. I'm looking for a horn that I can use to make circles and things since right now all I have is a flat steel plate. Is there any reason this horn wouldn't work for that? Thanks for any help you can give me, I'm pretty new at all this.

Thanks for all your advice, everyone! In the end I bought a pound of EZ-weld Borax flux with iron filings from the blacksmithing site I use. I'm mostly just fooling around, so if I botch or irreparably mar a couple of pieces before I get the hang of it it's no big deal. In the future I'll just buy laundry borax though.

I know flux isn't technically a tool, but I couldn't find a better forum for this question. I haven't done any forge-welding before and I'm looking to start, but the website I use (www.blacksmithsdepot.com) has a bunch of different fluxes and I don't really know which one to use or why. Can anyone recommend a specific kind or brand that you've had success with?

I was reading the Monster Anvils thread and I downloaded the (very useful) excel spreadsheet showing how efficiently a given size anvil returns energy when used with a specific hammer weight. What I was wondering is whether added mass, such as an anvil strapped to a stump, increases that return. If I take a 50 pound anvil and strap it to a 50 pound stump, is it the same (more or less) as using a 100 pound anvil? I feel like it shouldn't be but I'm not sure why.

Now that I think about it, is there any reason to use bricks to side my forge? Could I use sheet metal? At least for the sides. The back I have to have the way it is so it can have a hole in it.

When you say front do you mean the part with the fire in it and the blower under it, or the cold end? I think you mean the cold end. And where would I put those bricks? Under the steel?

I'm using a fireplace grating with a tighter, grill grating on top of it to hold the coal. The whole thing is resting on top of bricks which are on top of cinderblocks, and I'm using a fireplace blower for lack of a real blacksmith blower. It heats my steel until it's pretty bright orange, and if it's thin enough stock it'll turn yellow and start to melt. I haven't tried to forge-weld and I'm looking to try that but I'm wondering if my forge just isn't hot enough. I'm looking for advice on any changes I could make to improve it, outside the obvious like buy a better blower.

I appreciate the offer, Stewart. I just don't like to make someone go to all that trouble, even if they are compensated for it! Makes me feel bad.

What about farrier supply websites? Those seem like they'd be trustworthy and legit. Though I'm beginning to think that I'm giving too much thought to this. Considering what I've been using for an anvil, my standards are pretty much just a bit above "it doesn't break when I use it".

I think I'm going to get one online. Thanks, though, and good luck selling.

Thanks for your advice! Everyone here is so friendly. I'm currently using (and have been for about five months in total) a baseplate from a railroad track, as I was unable to find an actual section of the track and this provided me with a broad, metal surface to bang stuff on. However it's gotten a bit dented and I feel like it's absorbing a lot of the force from my blows because it's soft metal. Also, I looked into Thomas Powers' method a bit. Unfortunately...I don't really know anyone. I'm only 20 and I'm at college most of the year. Anyone else have any opinions on that menintools anvil? I don't have much money so I'd like to be as certain as possible before I buy, especially if it's from a tool company rather than, say, a farrier or blacksmith supply website.

As I search for hours for a starter anvil I find myself running across many questionable anvils and hoping that someone will have experience with them and be able to say "yeah, this works" or "no, that's a POS cast-iron ASO". Other people, feel free to post questionable anvils on this thread and hopefully people will help out! My first one is this one: http://www.menintools.com/shop/anvil.html they're very cheap but they call them "cast-iron steel" and I have no idea what that is. Is it cast-iron? Is it steel? Is it a rock?

Westchester County NY. I'm about 45 minutes north of the city, so Jersey wouldn't actually be in the middle.

I'm afraid binghamton is just a little too far for me to go, as it's about three and a half hours each way from where I am. Thanks anyway though.

Could you possibly post a photo? Also, how much were you thinking for it? Also, Thomas, endemic to what area? They don't say where they found it.

Well right now I'm using a baseplate from a railroad track. It's been doing a good job but it's getting a bit dented which is annoying as I do primarily knifesmithing and I like a nice, flat blade. Also I'm finding having a horn would be really useful because I wanted to make a doorknocker.

Ideally in Westchester County somewhere. I'd rather not pay more than $200 to $225 for it, as I'm rather poor. I'm not terribly picky about the weight (can anyone give me a concise description of how weight affects what you can work, other than size of the working surface?), something between 40 and 100 I guess. I'm new at this, just sort of muddling around on my own.

How on earth did you get a 150# anvil for 130 bucks (or was it the other way around?)? I've been looking and looking all over the internet and that's a way better deal than anything I've found. Craigslist has been equally useless.

Oh, I'm from Westchester County, NY. Not particularly rural. People always say you can find anvils at estate sales and places like that but I don't think people in my area have anvils lying around to sell. Someone on another thread recommended an anvil from a ferrier website, NC Tool Co, which is $235 for 70# and seems like a good deal, depending on shipping.

So I found this anvil from this jewelry supply website, Rio Grande (http://www.riogrande.com/MemberArea/ProductPage.aspx?assetName=113812). Since another page I read on this website pretty much discounted the NuLine "cast steel" anvil as an ASO I was wondering if anyone had any information about this one, the second cheapest one I found using google? I've never owned an anvil before, until now I've been using a baseplate from a railroad track nailed to a stump. It served me well for a while but now it's getting a little dented and I'm looking to upgrade (within my means). Any information or advice you can offer would be much appreciated.