Timothy Miller

When you bent it did it snap abruptly?

Looks like old mild steel to me. It's good stuff soft and easy to forge. It's not worth much but it's fun to play with. It is "virgin steel" with no recycled content, Probably.

I have 3 Bader space savers. You can buy belts from the company. They are a great company to deal with.

He is the guy taking the coffee order that's why he looks like a god.

I know that hammer his name is Bob.

Just to clarify what you have there in not really considered an anvil. It is a bick iron sometimes called a stake anvil. It was intended as more of a shaping tool more than a forging tool. Though it is fine for light forging. Usually it was used in conjunction with a heavier anvil especially a hornless block anvil. If I was going to fix up a tool like that I would be inclined to fill the holes with weld rather than grind away the base material. it really depends on your skills and how much you work you are willing to do. But as I said before its an antique and my strategy would be to remove the ugly base and find a nice hunk of wood to mount it too. Keeping the plate does not improve the usefulness of the tool and detracts from its appearance. See the link below for a historical perspective on the use of this tool. '>

Those are normally called hammer eye tongs. They are for holding hammers and other handled tools by the handle hole.

What you have there is called a bick iron. Being that that stake is at least 100 years old if not 200 years old and qualifies as an antique I would bring it back to original. The stand is ugly and inhibits the usefulness of it as a tool. I would carefully remove it from the base only grinding away the weld. I would find a nice log about 20" tall and about as wide and mount it in that. This would be how it would have been mounted in most instances.

I would probaly get arrested for stealing if I lived closer.

Why not try it and let us know if it works.

There is nothing wrong with using W1 for hammers. It gives a nice hard face that wont ding. I like it for smaller hammers that I use for fine work. The faces hold their finish longer. Nice work by the way, I like your filing bench too.

The mounting bracket on your vise replacement along with the bolt T handle. Here are some photos of a similar vice in my collection the box and screw are a later replacement and the pivot bolt is wrong but the bracket is original. This is the style of mounting bracket it probably would have had.

'?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> This is one I did last winter.

This is about as simple as a mount can get and still have it do good job at holding the vice rigidly in place so you can work efficiently.

The slot gives clearance so the two sides can be drawn out on the flats of swage. This tool would be used with a corresponding top tool. If you tried to use it as a true swage the iron would upset into the slot and get wedged into place. this is why caulking swages have sloped sides.

your not going to do to well flux core welding "tool grade steel" Unless you follow careful procedure. I have been a welder for about 18 years I have never liked using the smaller flux core welders. It kind of felt like I was playing with an lazy bake oven and not a real welding machine. I bought a miller 250 when I opened for $1800 in 1998 its still going strong and making me money. Its not a portable machine but I have not one regret about buying it. I also have a ranger 8 welder generator that I bought in 1999 its still going strong I paid 2500 for it. I guess if you are doing auto body work the 120V welders are the right tool for the job. But if you want to weld up 1/2" steel in one pass your not going to do it. I have never regretted buying good tools. I have regretted buying cheep and underpowered tools though.

I have a reprint of an english tool catalog from 1820. They call these kind of vices "table vices". Your vise has been repaired the screw and box are a replacement. Also the mounting plate has been brazed back on it most likely was a tenon mount that went threw the back leg and held a small leaf spring with a small wedge. The coil spring is a modern replacement.

Leg vices don't have acme threads they have square threads. New vices may have acme threads but this style of thread was not invented until the late 19th century. Square threads are superior for vices because they do not exert bursting pressure on the box. Just had to clear this up as it is a common misunderstanding.

Tig welding is not the proper process for welding wrought iron. A gas torch is the preferred method and produces better welds stronger welds if you must weld it. The idea that you can just cut and weld Wrought Iron like steel is incorrect. Some do use bronze as filler because it does not damage the wrought iron and you can tell where new material was added on important historic works. When you weld those split sections back on there will be a serious weakness in the structure of the gate. If you had a torch you could heat up the rivets and easily remove them. This is a project for someone with some forging skills to undertake not a job for a "welder". Sadly much historic ironwork is treated in this way.

Most vices I have fixed up did have high carbon steel jaw faces though they were not always that hard. I suspect the many vices jaws get softened from being clamped tightly to hot steel over the years. I have rehardned and toothed two vises so far in the forge it is a tough job to get everything lined up properly. Doc's idea is probably a bunch less work.

If you want to use modern fabrication methods to repair your vise jaws you would be better off filling in the gouges in the jaws and grinding it back to the original shape. Your plan is unlikely to produce a clean even surface. Remember to preheat because most vise jaws are high carbon steel and require extra care when welding.

I don't agree with the toe calks idea because those swages are normally tapered they don't have parallel sides. Also the slots are very deep. Though this tool appears to be a shop made tool so it could be what that particular smith liked to use. I have seen more than one star drill swage and they all had parallel sides and were deeper than they were wide.

I want to say reforging star drills.

This really should be pined to the top of the anvil section .

I would have gotten that water jet cut cold punching holes is so 20th century. :D