Bigred1o1

thomas i know it is off topic but any chance you have a link to those photos somewhere i have seen some old stuff on large anchor making but all that stuff is very interesting

i have a few chisels kicking around made out of rebar that looks just like this and they have help up well to being used as cold chisels

lally column make great wind chimes if you cant get your hands on bell material this one was made for the guy that runs our transfer station and i managed to get all the parts out of the metal dumpster of a month or so right down to so really bad 7018 and a ball hitch for the clapper

Hans i keep an aso in the shop for when friends of the family/kids want to hammer on some steel and are more interested in action than following directions

i really like the magnet in the palm to catch the cap that is a slick idea

Ironmonger there is a 2 part epoxy called PC7 that i used to patch the table on my walker turner and it has held up quite well for over a year of oil and hard use the stuff is sandable and drys to a dark grey the one thing is make sure it gets warm enough for a good cure or it will stay slightly soft if

a simple hot finish is to rub beeswax on to the metal while it is hot enough to make the wax smoke its not perfect but gives a nice black color and seems to be a good rust preventive butchers wax works ok but it has a far lower flash point that can be put on when the metal is warm

i could be wrong but at one point I remember a discussion that was not specifically about fishers but about the overhanging edge in general that it did let you dress the edge back if damaged

its very simple place the felt on the stump anvil on top of felt cut around the base of the anvil with a utility knife and presto you don't have to worry about your felt catching on fire as its all under the anvil

that drill is fantastic for drilling holes in pipe slow and steady but she will get you there i have used one for a job off the grid and now its on my list of tools to add to the shop

google Rogue Hoe they make alot of rugged tools many of them for forest fire work and other land clearing tools that are made from old Disc Harrow Blades nice rugged tools and a good place to look for ideas as to tools to make

i am going to ring in on the side of if you can pick that up for under 25 bucks having a horn and a hardy hole is very handy keep an eye out for a piece of RR track as well but that anvil while ugly will work just not as well as many others it will be a big plus to have a "real" anvil to let your friends and family work on down the road i have an old cast anvil that is beat to heck but still works fine as an upsetting block on the floor and gets pulled out when i have someone with no hammer control but lots of enthusiasm in the shop it lets me teach them and give them advice without flinching

well if you end up in norther Vermont let me know least i can do is give you a good feed on the way through

having worked on anvils from swaybacked with broken out parts of the face all the way up to razor edged and glass smooth i will skill the glass smooth but man i like having an anvil with a sharp edge on at least part of it and then i nice gradual radius so that i can find the edge i need when i need it yes a hardy tool can do all than and make you a bowl of popcorn as well i am lucky enough to have a 305lb pw that has had a hard life but still very serviceable a little dip in one part of the face is handy and there is plenty to flat face for when i need it the edges are rough the "sharpest part is blunter than my pointer finger this is no big deal as i have second lighter anvil to one side that is nice and flat with crips edges that i have dressed to suet my needs this lets me work with what i need by pivoting to my left or right as i take work out of the forge i have found this saves me time and keep the face of the anvil free of tooling when ever possible i guess what i am driving at is yes you can use a hardy tool for good edges but having an anvil with at least some good edges sure is nice

there is nothing that says that had to be an id mark/stamp lots of troops and people would decorate kit with their own identifiers when they had free time i know when doing trail maintenance and people were board at night while camping on sight lots of handles got infancy crew designators burned or carved into them to pass the time