Clif

Smiddy, How high is your anvil face? Should be about knuckle high.

It's not a bad idea to ask for x-rays of body parts, I have a sliver of hammer head in my chest from 35 years ago, still on x-rays and I have to remind the doctors about it. They won't let me beyond the outer office of the MRI department.

Andy, If you go to a gargage that works on lorries then ask for the driveshaft. US calls them axles and propshafts are called driveshafts, which are hollow. Trucks brake them every now and again so you might find a piece small enough for free. A friend of mine works in a gargage in Peterborough and gave me one section about 40 cm long. 75mm diameter and weights about 15 Kgs (about 1/4th of the shaft). If your looking for something smaller in diameter try the rear driveshaft out of a transit van, ones with the duel wheels should be about 50mm. Clif

Adam, I now have 4 anvils, or 1 anvil,2 lumps, and a something I use. My first lump was given to my 2"x2"x8", nailed it down to a heavy log and hammered away. the next year I was give more of the 2x2, had the machine shop boys cut and weld it into a "T" then they welded 10mm cheeks on it so its roughly 3" wide for 12" of the top and wieghts 60 to 80 pounds. right after that came home, I was in the iron mongers and they had a 4"x12"x12" off cut, paid £20.00 (about $32.00). Rounded off the corners, love it for my medieval demos. My real anvil came to me in July, a friend said his mother had one in her garden she wanted to get rid of, free for the cost of an hours drive, and bit of chit chat. (also came home with 20"ish of railroad rail). Ask around, let the world know what your looking for, and see what falls from the trees. Try the local garage, machinest, farmer down the road. They can only say "not that one" however in my experiance they will add "try so and so over younder" sooner or later you can get a real nice one that you can afford, till then use what you find for cheap and save up for the nice one.

John B, Thanks for the info. I have looked at the Guild's site, but you're too far for a weekend training trip. I will go over the list from the link to see who nearby will help me. Much obliged.

This topic has gone down the garden path and round Will's mother's and I have lost the plot. I thought this started off about training and safety. Now as everyone else is interested in qualifications, as a smith I have none, grew up on a farm with a smiths shed at the bottom of the garden and an old welder in the barn, did what was need to keep things going. However I spent 25 years in the US military, have prefix of Master on several qualifications, enough paper to cover a large den wall. Not one of those ceritficates ment much to the other guys I worked with, what I produced and my reputation did tho. That experiance has taught me that BOTH formal training and HANDS ON with a more experianced and skilled person is need to produce high quality work in a short time. If you go just the school route, the 'Time served' element is missed. and for those of us that are self taught then we spend too much time learning by mistakes and learning bad habits. I will not take sides here, I have seen some dangerous suggestions put forth (not so much on this web site, Glenn and others jump in on them, but youtube is scary sometimes). I have also learned a lot of good techniques. I would like to work with a smith occationaly to see how others do various tasks. As for the certificates: Red I live in England and the goverment requirements for paperwork is a**inine and over the top and it still does not stop the cowboy builders. Trying to fix shoddy workmanship through regulation is an impossibility. As I read through the replies I keep seeing the same theame: There are a lot of smiths out there that would like to' if not serve a full apprenticeship at least get the oppertunity to work with an experianced smith to learn more about the craft. Can you experienced smiths drop the bickering and possibly offer up to those of us that could use it. I have to classifiy myself as a self taught/learner smith. This is due to not finding a smith or school close enough and willing to show me smithing. I have to keep the day job to pay the mortgage and HMIR. Smithing for me is an will be a hobby for a long time. I will not be competing with you proffesionals, so my stake in this is about the training. Rather than all the sniping, how about working up some sort of training help for wantaby smiths. Red, you commented on the lack of safety. Could you do a thread on shop safety? I know there is some info on another site, but I don't remember any on the oxy/gas welding. and everyone could use safety refresher from time to time. Red, Basher, Wayne, or anyother UK based smiths; you guys know anyone around the Cambridgeshire/Norfolk area that would share info? Wayne, I met you at Pensthorpe a coulple of years ago, I am working on a travel forge based off yours, thanks for the start on the research. Glenn, sorry about the ramble

01tundra, Great snake, if you don't think it's good enough, set it aside for a couple of weeks and then look at it again. You'll think differently. Also, as you made it you will see what you call mishits and flaws, to someone else they are the charactor that separates handmade works of art from machine made stuff. My son has been bashing out knifes and quits before he should stating they are junk. Several of my reenactor friends have stated that if he finished the tangs and put handles on them, they would gladly pay good money for one. It's all in the eye of the beholder. your snake is a great first project and you should display it in the house somewhere. Then go out and bash out some more. I've been at this for a couple of years and still trying to make a 'good' pair of tongs. All my other attempts are in a bucket waiting for me to sort them out once I have finished learning how. Also, search around this and other sites for techniques. I learn something new everytime I long on.

Joshua, Good on ya for standing your ground. By now this is old news, so hope you got the other guy to come smithing with you. I only got into one fight in school, class bully picked on a smaller friend, and I stepped in. Never got mess with in school after that. I also got a reputation for being very hard to anger so I guess I was not a good target for the typical bully who is out for a reaction. Smithing is still only a hobby for me. I do Medieval reeactment demos and get a lot of support and interest. The only people that pick on me now are my family. I get ribbed all the time and then it's mostly to do with the scrounging I've done to get my stuff (and the kit). Hope you and the other guy have sorted things out.

Looks nice and practical. For the portable anvil, I use an old gas cylinder dolly to move my stump/anvil around.