Kristopher Skelton

Thanks Neal. I'm in the Pacific Northwest, and if this anvil has been local for most of its life it might have been used to fix the same type of tool.

I think that settles it 3 of 3 say Hay Budden, so that's what I'm gonna call it from here on out. thanks gents!

Hi folks I picked up this anvil over the weekend and am curious whether we can figure out origins and whatnot just for the fun of solving a mystery. I've done as much research as I think I can on the internet and my best guess is -maybe- an Arm and Hammer, and that's based soley on the rough finish under the heel. I don't think I found some piece of history or anything, but I think I got a good deal on what should prove to be a serviceable anvil. Here's what I know for sure: It's heavy: the seller said 400#. It rings like a church bell on the face, heel and horn. The body makes almost no noise in comparison. The only identifiable markings are on the left front foot (if you're about to put your eye out with the horn, that is) and it appears to be a 5-digit number. Most of it has been obliterated by years of punching and chiseling. Maybe someone can explain why someone would go to the foot of an anvil when they needed a place to set a punch... The rest of the body, face and horn had been treated the same way- punch and chisel marks all over. And there is also a number 6 or 9 just under the horn (this would depend on whether it was punched in top down or rightside up). The face is somewhat swaybacked. I worked on it with my grinder and it became evident very quickly that this anvil had been abused and repaired several times. You can see the welding on the face in the blog photos (below). The hardy is 1.45" and the pritchel is 5/8. The heel from the hardy back is the only part of the anvil that was spared from the mad chiseler. The feet do not have ledges (whereas my Peter Wright does- and the logo on that anvil is easy to read, so that was a no-brainer). There is no indentation/depression under the anvil, though there is a lip about 1/2" wide by maybe 1/8" (I didn't measure it). The bottom of the base has a square hole and has rusted some, giving a ropey, wrought-iron look. I can take as many pics as you like and they can be huge if need be. For now here's a link to my blog with a few pics that can be enlarged anvil posting Thanks in advance!

I've seen fresnel lenses that were about 3'x5'. American Science & Surplus : Send to a Friend I was thinking it would be cool to try to set something up where the light would be focused into a firebrick forge... Too bad I live in Seattle where it -might- work 3 days a year. TX and AZ would have a better shot.

I've been buying my belts from Supergrit.com and they've been nothing but awesome. The website is great, the pricing and shipping have been very good.

habu68: dodecahedron is your 12 sided three dimensional object ;)

Any guess how much weight you lost on the hammer? That's a good way to see whether you like the diag peens- you can't get too sad about a $5 hammer and 2 hours of work if you don't like it :)

The sound is travelling through the two thinnest parts- the horn and the heel. Hold onto the horn and tap the face of the anvil and you will feel the vibration in your hand as well as notice that the ring is dampened. Do the same with your hand on the anvil's side. The bolt through the heel is a great idea, all of that sound energy goes into moving the bolt (and I'll give it a try to see how effective it is). What I've done is taken two speaker magnets (from 10" subwoofers) and put one on top of the horn, near the tip and one under the heel just under the hardy hole (it gets repositioned whenever I need to use a tool ) . There's still a slight ring but nothing like the noise without them. The vibrations through the anvil are often enough to shake one or both loose but they're easily replaced.

Any piece of metal with sufficient mass will do the job... some better than others. If you're going to the scrapyard for rail, you might find something suited to smithing that requires less initial work. Sawyers anvils look like steel blocks with little feet. Japanese swordsmtihs use blocks that look to be about 4x6 on the main face and sunk into the ground probably 6" or more. If you're desperate enough to use some rail, you're in a position to look at the cast steel anvils from Harbor Freight. I'm not going to listen to the detractors. I used one for a few years until I saved up enough for the Peter Wright I'm currently using. Yep, the face gets dings and the horn's nothing to write home about. But it's 110# of steel that can be readily mounted to a stump, anvil stand, whathaveyou and they have a hardy hole for tools... can't say that about rail I've seen them on sale for about $70. Plus they're an excuse to but a $15 angle grinder and some disks while you're there, to clean up the face :)

So you're welding mild then? in the case of the 1/2" round bar, I would: Get forge to temp bend bar back on itself and make sure it's properly aligned (I would probably cut halfway through at the bend first, your mileage may vary) Get it hot again enough flux to get between the pieces and scrape off any of the fluffies on the outside of where the weld would be. I use good ol borax. More heat flux a little more back in the heat. Get something to drink. Go to the bathroom. Talk to the wife... whatever is going to take 5 minutes or so for the heat to soak into the core of the metal. I'm looking for the flux to start rolling around on the piece. Just like tossing a little water in a hot skillet to make sure it's hot enough for pancakes I don't get sparks from my propane forge. From solid fuel I would expect a little sparking- but be aware that yellow outside doesn't mean yellow inside. bring the whole piece up to temp. take it out, firm but light taps- don't kill it. wire brush the heavy scale away. back in the fire flux wait hit it again.... rinse. repeat. the best tip I've been given is: less air. That promotes scale formation and will burn the steel (as mentioned above)

My problem with the show is that they start with a bad premise: hammers explode; gun barrels will make that banana peel effect like in a CARTOON (what's next- the myth that if you don't look down you don't fall off a cliff?!); swords cut through other swords. Then they test to the bad premise, show that the REAL myth does in fact happen (hammers chip and the pieces are lethal/very dangerous; gun barrels can split when you leave in the barrel sight; swords can be broken by another sword so that it looks like it's been cut.) And who wasn't watching and thinking "hmm... he just quenched that entire all-steel hammer. The neck is gonna snap like a twig before the head explodes"? But oh well, at least people are aware that blacksmiths are still around and it's not as easy as just throwing stuff in a fire :D

I like my panelbeater bag (heavy leather bag filled with sand) and a plastic forming mallet- one end with a large radius and the otehr with a small radius. I've made several of the shape you're describing for similar projects (sunflower, an iron 8-rayed Sun with a dished copper center, for example). For the texture, I took an autobody hammer with the very pointy cone end (almost sharp) and blunted it then lightly hammered the inside of the dish over wood to give it a dimpled appearance.

I vassilate all the time between feeling like I need to use my 1x42 belt grinder and then feeling guilty when I do, like I'm not doing it "the traditional way". But then I remind myself that if I was able to ship this thing and a generator back to any culture that made weapons on a mass scale (Celts, Vikings, Romans, Greeks- possible exception: the Japanese) they'd probably think it was a gift from their gods... and then they'd burn me at the stake for being a witch or something, but still. This is a tool that would have been used. Production has always been about numbers. More widgets per day is better. Look at the historic evidence that sandstone grind wheels (some of them huge) were used for shaping all manner of tools and weapons. I use what I feel will give the best end result. Most days that's hand filing and sandpaper because I don't ruin perfectly good blades using those tools (and I'm not good enough with the grinder for it to be really any faster or cheaper than files and papers). I usually save the grinder for polishing handles and such. I don't say our use of machines is not "traditional" but I will say they're not in keeping with the neo-tribal/primitive movement. Edge sharpening is technically stock removal, just to stoke the flames of the "you don't have to remove stock" argument :P

If you're making a lot of scale, I'd recommend working on the atmosphere in your fire. Probably too oxidizing (too much air). If you're in a solid fuel fire, make a lage pile of fuel and bring the blade higher in the pile (farther away from the air blast). If you're using propane, cut the air flow back some (usually quite a bit) and adjust the gas so you have an orangey-yellow flame coming out the front of the forge. Too much blue coming out is too much fuel and no flame is not enough fuel (or too much air). You don't need to melt the steel, just get it hot enough to work Most of the good bladesmiths I've watched generally have scale that leaves only a fine black powder on the anvil. Large flakes are too much, I think. In the "Historic Bladesmithing" video from Wareham Forge he does all of his pit removal and shaping prior to heat treat. I've done that on a few knives now and the end result is just a real treat to work with. The little bit of scale slides right off with some sand paper and I don't spend days trying to ruin a new file by filing out a pit (and a lot of my pits were caused by excess scale- killed two birds with one stone) The rest of my pits are caused by poor hammer control. In addition to simply getting better with the tool, I've taken to using a lighter hammer (4-6oz autobody hammers) to hammer out the dents before I start heat treating/ finishing work. Good luck!

:D That's good actually I was thinking I had TWO more books to buy, one being super-rare and the other more common. It's actually in the newest Lindsay Books catalog with the other blacksmithing books, so I may have to place an ordeer....darn.... Thanks for checking in and confirming the title.