journey333

On 10/2/2018 at 12:27 PM, foundryguy said:

My son is going to put one on ebay for $200 in hopes it takes care of some of the re-sellers. I would rather the end user buy them at the OEM price we are charging. Its a work in progress! 

Assuming it is your sons ebay page, I see that he did this. It is the first listing I see when I searched for "Holland Anvil Swage". Good job at undercutting the upsellers.

I am an infrequent user of this forum and happened upon this thread after seeing an upsellers $275 craigslist ad for your swage block and going straight to Google to see what I could find about it. Now when it is time for me to purchase I know where to go. 

I just have to say I love all of the knowledge I find in these threads. Thanks for the copper hammer education.

2 hours ago, JHCC said:

Nice haul. The pointy sledgehammer is a “top maul” and is used in various maritime contexts.

Ahh, thanks for setting me straight on that, JHHC. Looks like it needs a much shorter handle than it currently has. Thanks also for the copper hammer explanation, makes sense.

2 hours ago, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

I often use my brass hammer with the cut off hardy, don't have to be near as careful.

Thanks for the idea, Irondragon.

I went out east of town to walk my dog in the desert, and came across a neighborhood yard sale and an estate sale on the drive (much to the dog's chagrin as she had to wait  in the car). Came away with a nice draw knife ($1!!), a big eye drift that needs some love ($5), a copper (?) hammer head that is quite heavy ($1), a wooden mallet ($5), a few chisels (50 cents each), a small saw set ($4), a horse tail broom (stamped "SANITIZED") (free) and what I take to be an old wheelbarrow wheel that will see new life as a lazy-susan tool hanger of some sort. 

At my last stop (after the dog was finally walked) I came across this interesting tool:

I was intrigued by the gears and had to ask what it was. I ended up getting a nice tale from the old fella about how he would help his grandfather use it to cut off bull horns. I am not sure if this tool will ever turn in to anything than a story waiting to be told, but I had to buy it. He asked for $5, but I felt like the story alone was worth that, so I gave him $20 and he was thankful and said the extra would go into the donation jar for his son's cancer treatments. 

Any idea what a copper or brass hammer would be used for? 

I came across this anvil on craigslist, and was wondering if it is a real anvil or an ASO. Other pic...

They just call it  #9 anvil and don't list a weight. They want $100 for it.

I was cruising eBay and came across this 20 lb. SODERFORS BENCH ANVIL  current bidding has it at $447.10--reserve not met! Any idea what makes it so special? Or is it the madness of crowds, so to speak?

Journey,

Don't mean to threadjack, but I'm getting ready to change my anvil stand from something like yours to a stump I just got ahold of. I had the thought of doing something very similar in terms of putting wheels and a handle on it to make it easier to move around. Does the handle in the picture come out of the holder fairly easily? I was considering pinning it in place with a bolt or something so I could get the handle out of the way when I'm working.

Thanks in advance.

I'm looking forward to seeing the suggestions for your shop build. I am thinking of doing something similar in the near future.

It this the one with pages of tool drawings lined up by age---so a picture of planes over the centuries and another of saws, etc?

Based on your recommendation and another review online, I bought a copy off of Amazon. Looking forward to reading it!

I am about to start building my shop, which will be an open air smithy until I can afford to build a shed for it. I would appreciate suggestions as to layout. Here are some of the details:
I live in the high desert of Oregon. The annual precipitation averages 11.7 in (300 mm), with an annual average snowfall of 27.6 inches (70.1 cm).
The area I plan on using (without storage area) is 12' x 18'.
It is mostly under a couple of large Ponderosa pine trees, between the house and a small storage shed that is overflowing with my tools and household stuff. I will probably remove the lowest branches of the trees, but they are not really in the way currently. I think having it under the trees is a good idea, as it gets really hot and bright here.
I plan on putting down gravel, after I have set my leg vise in place (I have an 8"x8"x4.5' pressure treated board for that).
My anvil is on a stand that I built out of 4x4's, and will of necessity be moveable. I might even put a handle and wheels on it like this one:

Though the wheels would have to be bigger to go over gravel.

I have a welding table that is 4'x4'. It will serve as my layout table for the time being.

I have a small coal forge that looks similar to this one in size, though someone added 4" walls around half of the pan:

What considerations should I use in planning the layout, other than the 2 stride triangle of forge/anvil/post vise?

How should I minimize the fire danger of a coal forge under pine trees in desert dry conditions? I was thinking of building a chimney/wall that would help not only remove the smoke, but provide some shade for checking the color of the heated metal.

Any suggestions are appreciated, as I am new to this and most of you have seen many shop set ups in your time, I image.

Just have to resurrect this thread to say thanks for posting this Timothy. My anvil is a HB from 1914, so it is nice to see the catalog as well.

Just to revisit this...it looks like the vise didn't meet the reserve price...at $866. I wonder if he sold at that price after the auction ended.

Glenn that is a great work flow idea and I am going to use it and try to pass it on, thanks.

Whirly, I hope to someday make tongs as nice as that. Good job.

Hay Budden is a good manufacturer, and this has been on my radar for a few weeks, just a bit of a drive for me (3+ hours one way). If you are close enough and an anvil of that size works, I think you should get it. See if he can go down in price a bit; I have seen it on cl for at least 3 weeks, so he may be willing to work with you.

You might give this guy a call, see if he is willing to work on price with you. http://waco.craigslist.org/atq/3066440089.html

Today a 1970 edition of Machinery's Handbook followed me home, for the cheap price of $3. The thrift store was selling books by the pound, you see. I had only yesterday been reading How Do I Get Started In Blacksmithing on Anvilfire, and recalled the title when I was browsing the books section.

The rider on those clamps when flung can lop off large chunks of finger meat if it catches your hand inbetween the divots

I bought some bar clamps like that when one of the school districts shut down all of it's shop classes I bid $5 each for them, kept two and sold the other eight for $20 each to a cabinet maker, I also bought a small sheet metal brake for $10 and a really nice metal shear for $15 those I kept. It's terrible that they closed down the classes but I got a few good things out of it. The lathes went for small fortunes though as did most of the other shop equipment. Nice bottle wrench you got there Thomas!

As I am just beginning to outfit my soon-to-be built smithy, I just bought it to have a straight peen. Once I start actually forging, I will evaluate to see which hammers I really like.

..Naner,naner,naner............... :P

The spring is loose, especially at the bottom. The handle is bent. There is some heavy rust. The screw seems to be slightly bent, though I didn't notice until I had opened it all the way up.The jaws tighten a little bit on one side first. I love it, and I imagine all but the bent screw I can fix.

Just saw one of those on ebay, iirc, and was wondering what the hole was for!

Used by line men to screw the metal pegs into telephone poles. Most likely has 'Bell', AT&T, or someother company logo on the hammer. They are collectible.