Timothy Miller

I agree you can find them cheep but you may wait years before you find one for 10 bucks.  I got given 2 in a trade for a swage block with some stakes.  Tire kickers and cheep people will not help you horse-trade your way into better tooling.

One could weld copper to steel with copper wire.  You would be welding to the copper but brazing to the steel. 

It seems to me they go for 150 to 200 on ebay if they are in good shape.  That one seems to be in good shape.  If you put out the effort you get the price. 

If you use more expensive materials like bronze you can charge more than one would for steel and make more profit.

I was referring to the guy that made the hammer eye drift

different thread.  I have forged 1 1/4 square down to a blunt point by hand with a 4 lb hammer its actually not that hard if you can get blazing hot and hit it hard.  Don't ask me to do it 3 times in a row though.

Some of you guys are nuts! drawing 1 1/4" HC without a power hammer is not fun. I would think at least a buddy with a heavy hammer would make it at least tolerable. Really, 3 hours drawing something out is insane.

 

As far as quenching, I tend to quench when changing sides, just to keep the heat down. The more I can keep the heat away from my body, the longer I can work. I don't worry too much about a36 hardening too much, I've had it happen, but when I am done forging it, there is very little reason to bend it cold. Generally, after the last operation I don't quench, just set it on the ground. By the time I am done with the last ones, hte first are usually cool.

 

I have made exactly one hammer. Took the Brazeal Bros workshop. It taught me the value of a good hammer. It also taught me to make my own handles, and taught me not to be afraid of modifying existing hammers. I have found that I can make more money doing my regular ironwork than I save by making hammers. Since I made that hammer though, I have not bought any more, and that is my go to hammer. I love it.

If you read the first post you will see it was 1 1/4" by 1/8".

English Colonial starts with the 1607 date---disregarding the lost colony

 

Spanish colonial starts a bit earlier.  (We are part of the USA you know...)

 

As for sources "Anvils in America" Richard Postman is the go to book for anvil info on this side of the pond.

 

He also did one on the Mousehole Forge and is supposed to be having an update coming out with more info on English anvils...

 

As America was sparsely populated and low in Industry in the early years anvils dating to that time tend to be small and rare making some folks pay a premium for them.  As the "anvil collection" population is pretty sparse the market is not very deep for them.

 

Folks interested in historical recreation of that era look for them to have a more accurate kit---again a shallow market.

Don't forget the Dutch Colonial anvils in New York, the Russian colonial anvils in Alaska and the French Colonial anvils in Louisiana.  I even heard there were some basalt anvils left over from the Kingdom of Hawaii.   

The colonial period is 1607 from the founding of James town Virginia to the war for independence 1776.   England exported many tools to America as part of its policy of mercantilism and stifled American manufacturing to prevent competition.  Anything from this time period tends to be held in great esteem by most Americans. 

I see your point but that's not the case for me, my case is a boring and long winded story centered around 8 years of poor health. I will desperately try not to slip into the Catch 22 you describe though!

So only the second part applies.  But don't be afraid to charge what you need to charge. 

Your broke because you are not charging enough and your not charging enough because your broke. 

I quenched so that I could flip them around to work the other end, or I would have just let the sit awhile.

This is one of the reasons to use tongs.  Never quench steel unless you are tiring to harden it.  Even air cooled some steels will be brittle bend cold or to hard to saw/drill.  

I know this has probably been beat to death, but would regular ole rebar be sufficient to use for decorative items like wall hangers, draw/cabinet handles, and the like?  Nothing really weight bearing or structural, just decorative items.

It can be but it is hard to work with.  It takes about twice the work to forge as opposed to regular steel. 

You may do best with working over the center of the anvil with a round faced hammer.  I only say this because your anvil moves and it sounds like you may not be able fasten it to the floor. If you strike straight down the anvil will move less.  I normally do most of my forging with a power hammer but when I do work like this by hand I draw with a round faced hammer over the horn.  Top (hammer) and bottom (horn) rounded surfaces perpendicular to the stock work best for drawing.  Also get the steel as hot as it will stand without burning it.  A good high yellow heat will aid in drawing making the steel as soft as possible.  As you get closer to final shape you can lower the heat somewhat.  The kinds of steel axles are made from tend to be able to stand a small bit of overheating in my experience.

Perhaps it is time to spring for some new steel of known properties? 

Just picked up a book on the painter Bruegel and saw a knife in one of his pictures that was a really good match for yours when it had a wood handle.

 

"Classics of the World's Great Art: The Complete Paintings of Bruegel" copyright 1967 Standard book number: 8109-5502-4

 

The peasants' wedding.  The book has a closeup that shows the knife well on the main table under the elbow of a fellow handing bows of something around

They are eating porridge or at least that's what they told us in art history class.  

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

At my local historical society they have a bike with a wood frame and forged hardware.  They called it a hobby horse.  If you want to forge it you will need to delve heavily into traditional methods. these skills take years to build.  Forget welding unless you mean forge welding. Think about rivets bolts pins and forge brazing as means of joining. It can be done because there are historical examples.   I would think about using recycled steel instead of making your own. 

http://amhistory.si.edu/onthemove/collection/object_264.html

Making gifts and low dollar stuff is a hard way to make a buck. 

The rule of thumb with cold punching is you should not punch steel thicker than the diameter of the punch.  People have been drilling holes since the stone age.  Smiths often would hot punch holes because it was faster than drilling but this was before powered drill presses and high speed steel twist drills.

If you want to punch 1/8 thru 1/4 you are going to have a tough job because the punch will be so thin it will tend to heat soften and mushroom in the hole and get stuck.  A hole like this would be made easily and efficiently by drilling even blacksmiths of old would have looked to drill a hole of that size.  If the stock were thinner it could be cold punched. 

My opinion, and experience is that as soon as you identify a piece of equipment that will really save you time and money it is your obligation to purchase it as a business person.  When I built a tumbler I remember thinking I wish I could buy another machine that would save this much time.  Same thing with the work truck, forklift, Air hammer, natural gas forge and induction heater.  Good equipment that is set up and ready to use is worth the expense.  Broken tools, excessive projects and clutter hold you back and sap your motivation.

Don't spin it too fast if that thing comes apart it will kill you. It has happened I am not making this up.

This is an excellent material to learn to forge weld with. 

You could always call your local welding/fab shop and ask if they have any cut offs that they would be willing to sell.  I have piles of stuff I am always happy help out an earnest smith.  The unearnest and long talkers get charged more.

What is so hard about buying some 1/2" or 3/8" round to work with from your local steel supply.  Rebar is hard to work with and it cost money too.  All of us only get so much time at the forge before we take the big dirt nap why waste it with working with junk.  Its the particle board of the metal world.