Thomas Dean

You have made a treasure of a friend, now cultivate that friendship! Have him over and LISTEN. You may have to hear about some stuff that you will think at the time unimportant but rest assured there will most likely be a lesson in it. You are most fortunate indeed.

Very nice! Love all the different joinery used

For the $$ I would go with the Miller Dialarc. You will only need the HF (High Frequency) when welding Alum. (you can TIG weld without the HF)and since you have never struck an arc I doubt that you will be needing that for a while. and you can add a HF box later if you really need it. You can stick weld or TIG weld with this machine and it has a large range, from light work to heavy (or at least as heavy as you will probably be doing.) As far as testing it out, there again, you having never done this before would be like trying to buy an airplane having never flown one before and going out to test fly it! Get someone that knows their stuff to go with you and help you out. Buy them lunch or pay for their time...could save you a LOT of heartache in the long run. If you have a community college in your area as the welding instuctor to go with you or just go to a welding shop in town and ask if anyone of the employees would be willing to help you out. You might even make a good friend with someone like this that would be willing to help you learn to use your new toy!

Way to go Ken!! Great that you and your son are going to take this journey together. Should be hours of good times for sure
And yes, Stuart, we have heard of that anvil....no need to steal the newbie's thunder tho...

Howdy from East TEXAS!! and welcome to IFI! I'm assuming that is Houston, TEXAS and not Houston, MO. With that thought, check into HABA!! That is the Houston area ABANA group and they are very active and super friendly! that web site is www.habairon.com they have their next meeting times/location posted and GO!! You will meet like minded folks and all willing to help. Usually at meeting there will be some tailgating where you can possibly pick up a decent anvil or what ever.

Listen to Thomas Powers on the "Ways of growing your anvil collection"! I have used this method with with success as others have.

Also, for what it's worth, I doubt that this is a Vulcan as there is no Vulcan emblem on the side, no weight markings on the center of the front feet, and this has an indention in the middle of the back feet that Vulcan does not have. The Badger anvil has this and from what I can tell from "Anvils in America" this one has the 'look' of a Badger....JMO tho.... Now go check that HABA site!

ya mean you STILL don't have it???! whatchawaitin4?

Maybe early 1800's but not colonial. It has a hardir hole, pritchel hole AND horn, none of which showed up on an anvil til after 1820ish.

Congrats! Looks like her little sisters and brother are happy too. Pray that Mommy and Elizabeth are doing well. Cute baby.

Did you get anything? Shame no one could make a go of buying the business but do hope all the tools went to those that will use them!

Beth, you are too close to this. Don't look at it with the eye of the person that created it, look at it as tho it is the very first time you have seen it. When you have put as much time in making it, then hand painting 5+ COATS of finish you see every hammer mark, every little bend, twist, miss strike that there is in this piece. You are not looking at the beauty of it, just the machanics. So I say again, step back and see it as it is, a fantastic piece of work. Elegantly simple Your work is surpurb.

Howdy from East TEXAS!! and welcome to IFI!
The North Texas Blacksmith Assoc. is having their HammerFest the Labor Day weekend. A great opportunity to see it happen, meet like minded folks, and get your hands dirty. You can get your hands dirty at the open forges that will be going on every day during the conference. check out their web site www.ntxba.org to get ALL the info. I can garrantee you will have a great time!

Schools closest to you are the Gunter brothers and Frank Turley both in New Mexico and then there is Bryan Brazeal in Miss. I have seen the Gunters demonstrate at the Saltfork Conference a few years back and have been to there shop/school, fantastic facilities. I have taken a couple days of instruction from Brian Brazeal back in April and came away very pleased with the time and $$ spent. Mr. Turley I only know from here but his knowledge of this art is beyond words. His school in Santa Fe, NM is the "grand daddy of the blacksmith schools"!

Join an ABANA group. Saltfork has a bunch that meet in the northwest region of Oklahoma, SWABA is the New Mexico group and then the North Texas Blacksmith Assoc meet in the Dallas metroplex area. Have fun!

Thanks for all the info everybody but I'm still curious as to where i am able to purchase gold inlay wire... I was also informed there is fine gold wire lined inside an airbag. Can anyone validate this information for me? Thank you all.

-Hillbilly

That may be the reason they are so darned expensive to replace once deployed!

The Jr. college in Paris, TX is the best school for learning to make jewelry here in the States. Nice little town and James Alcorn, member here on IFI, lives in Paris and runs his studio in the historical down town area.

Praying for your complete healing. GOD bless you and the medical staff that will be attending.

South Texas is fairly large... if you are near the San Antonio area there is the Balcones Forge blacksmith group www.balconesforge.org if near the Houston area then try the HABA group www.habairon.org Both groups are excellent and welcome newbies with open arms. Check each site for info on meeting dates and locations. (also, for us older folks, could you maybe put in some punctuation marks where needed....makes your thoughts easier to follow.) BTW, Howdy from East TEXAS!! and welcome to IFI! you will love this site, tons of info and friendly folk.

I bought 4 of them out in ABQ, NM 2yrs ago and paid $4.00 each, they are WI. 2 months ago I bought 6 or 7 more for $5.00 each. These were at an estate sale and they had sold several others at $12.00ea. Told the guy running the "junk" section of the sale that I would take all of them for the 5 bucks ea., since it was the last day of a 4 day sale he was glad to be rid of them.

Well, you missed a treat! Watching the Young Smiths do their thing was fun and inspiring. They made a hot cut for the hardie, 2# hammer (I bought that! :) ) cupping tool, handled punch, a small grill with a crane and cattails n grass--all forged welded, a very nice piece. There were maybe 50 folks there with representatives from Balcones, HABA, LAMA, and Saltfork! The auction brought about double of what we were hoping for. After most everyone had left the boys got to play on the power hammers; Big Blue, Kick-Ass, and then BIG BOY Nazel 3B! Alan got the a piece of 1 1/2"rd and let them go at it. Alex was first and did a fairly good job, then Daniel took a turn also doing well--especially for never having used a hammer this size. THEN Dave took a turn and WOW!! The middle of the stock not hammered was about 4"long and he drew it out to 3/4"dia, by nearly 4ft. long. Looked like it had been machined and perfectly straight! He was dubbed THE KING!! The expressions the boys had on their faces as they used each hammer was priceless! Sorry you had to miss it but your reason is perfectly understandable!

Seems too large for lighting a pipe....too small for fire place logs....think I would go with fire tongs for the forge. OMO tho

So Jerry, ya gonna move to MO.?!?!? Sure will miss you down here if you do. Susie bought me "A day with the Blacksmith" there years ago and I really had a good time. I was just starting out and that is where I learned to make the Russan Rose. Good guys to work with....and I still have that rose!

Had a wonderful time! Sorry for those that couldn't make it. The auction was mind blowing as we took in nearly DOUBLE of what we had first expected, just a testament to the hearts of the blacksmith community. There were representatives of HABA, Balcones, LAMA, and Saltfork present! All I can say to those of you that could not come, you missed a great day! You will just have to look at Lyle's pictures and the videos on Face Book and YouTube now.

Dave Custer was KING of the Nazel 3B!!! He took 1.5"rd down to 3/4" rd and made it look as though it had been turned in a lathe! and it was perfectly straight! It was fun watching Dave, Daniel, and Alex work on the Big Blue, Kick-Ass, and the BIG BOY, especially watching the expressions on each face as they worked the metal. Priceless!

A Special Thank YOU!! goes to Alan n Jeff Lee and the Steephollow Forgeworks for hosting this event. To Bryan n da Boys, Dave, Daniel, Kainon, and Alex for the SHOW! and to Lyle for all the Pictures. Karen and Patrica also cooked and cleaned and no telling what all with little or no recognition during this journey. Thank you all.

To Bryan...."Now what do ya wanta do?" :D

Value is subjective. Location, condition, are you selling or buying. Hay Budden was made in Brooklin, NY, USA so the weight will be in lbs. English made anvils used the cwt. system, European made are kg, and some are in lbs. Not sure what the 8 and 13 would be.... Nice looking anvil. Check the face plate by tapping the entire face with a hammer. If it rings all over it is good, sometimes you may hear a thud which means there is a seperation. If that seperation is out of the 'sweet' spot like more to the tail that would not be too much problem but if under the sweet spot, well then.....

If you were to build a tool box for blacksmithing, what size would you make the box, what would be a suggested weight of the box, and what tools or other objects would you include in the box?

I spoke with David and have made changes to the original post to make it more generic.

This amended post makes some of the earlier poster look as tho they TOTALLY misunderstood the question! If I'm not mistaken the original post was asking about a tool box that was going to be made by a member of a group, filled with tools and supplies by members then sold/auctioned/raffled of by said group as a fund raiser.............. A NEW post should have been started for a "generic" tool box.............

I am begining to think that "ciladog" is actually the "deceased" Howard Hughes. . . have you tried case hardening steel in a box packed with fingernail clippings yet. . .

Not yet, but I'm thinking of using 'toe jam' for a lubricant....any thoughts?

Hay Budden #s don't go that high! Most likely it is as mentioned above; "136144" If so than your anvil was born in 1907 The weight will be stamped on the waist under the name. I have 2 HB that were born in 1921...one weighs 185#s the other 105#. The '35' in most likely the inspectors ID #

BTW, Howdy from East TEXAS!! and welcome to IFI! Helps us help you if we have a general idea of where you are located. IFI has members from over 50 countries! Just go to your profile and update. We don't need your house address but a town/city/village and state or country would help.

You may know this but here is the formula for Super Quench http://www.cvbg.org/superquench.PDF OSHA force him to quit using a lye quench, this is what they came up with.

I agree Mr. Turley! If you will look at the boxes that BAM and Saltfork do you will understand. These are pieces of ART!! I know of 3 boxes that are Displayed for their beauty. The tools, though all very nice and extremely well made are being used...well, MOST of them anyway. :P Alan and Jeff Lee have a box with some special tools that they don't use. For the most part the wife will take possession of the box and let hubby have the "old ugly tools".