Stephen Olivo

LOL just about 3 weeks ago I watched the woodwrights shop on pbs web page and they had one all about one that looks very much like the one you have. You might be interested in watching it. Let me see if I can find it. Its a fun video to watch. :D Looks like you have some fun ahead of you and lots of hard work. :D http://video.pbs.org/video/2296983856

Proper fit will fix the jumping too. but wedging is handy when locking the tool to the anvil will help the forging process (just like securing your anvil will help with the forging on top of it.) Part of it is a trade off speed in change over stability of tool. Most of the tools I use for my hardy are low to the anvil and are used in quick sucession of one another so the speed is key there. Some taller tools used for a longer time like a cone mandrell for arrow heads might benifit from having it wedged into the hole it all depends on how you use it. Just another personall choice. Look at the shefield knife makers and the dovetailed anvil faces and tooling they have. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpeyhC-UIFg None of that jumps around but then they are limited on the speed of changeout or how many different operations they can do before a brake and changing of tooling is required.

Looking good :D

It was a lot of fun. :D

The names are interchangable same tool. On your stave problem you might look into making a simple shaving horse. I have had two so far and they are wonderfull clamping devices for securely holding wood while being worked. Best thing to do is get involved with your local guild/group make friends. Before you know it you'll have 4 post vices just like me :D one of which still hasn't found a mounting. Lyle (Brian Brazeal works with him a lot) and I both have vulcan anvils and they are a dream in many ways. Their horns are a little flatter on the top than most anvils though. You might enjoy seeing the pictures I took at the class they gave up here I think a year and a half past. https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/108205902509248083781/albums/5686598867461291057 My anvil is on a stump. http://ipneto.deviantart.com/gallery/184874?offset=168#/d2nilx2

first you would have to decide what kind of bellows you wanted to make. I can think of at least 5 different types off the top of my head right now. All of which can be made with scraps. My first bellows was a box bellows made out of stuff I scrounged up for no money what so ever. creativity is the key and understanding how the bellows you want to make works.

Your welcome. If you can I would also look for one with as little ring as possible (the nabors will like you better) a nice thick heavy waist is a very good thing on your anvil. Try and get the heavyist anvil that you can still move around as it will make each blow more efective and won't bounce around on you as much even when using sledge hammers on it (you can also bolt it securely to a heavy base to help with adding weight). One good set of books that I would deffinatly buy and read through probably several times is Mark Asperys books http://www.markaspery.com/School_of_Blacksmithing/Home.html Also keep en eye out for a post vice with a really nice screw on it. They are made for holding hot steel and for haveing sledge hammers used on them.

Welcome! :D

Welcome. :D I would sugjest if you do get a peice of rail road track to check out anvilfire.com they have some things about mounting them to get the most from them. As for your anvil aquiring look for a nice sized hardend ball bearing(make sure it is hardend) that you can drop on the anvil with a rooler next to it. This will help you measure the rebound of the anvil. You are looking for something in the 80 to 90 percentile (ball bearing droped from 10 inches above anvil bounces back up on first bounce to 8 or 9 inches) winding sticks and lvls are also good to check an anvil with when your looking to buy one from someone. As my guilds sticker says "the life so short the craft so long to learn." :D enjoy your path :D

drill is an option though it might catch and that could be very dangerous. Tack weld a peice onto it and pull. But I think the chisel it is probably your best bet for clean easy removal.

Nice looking vices. :D Thanks for sharing. For future endevers your springs can be made from mild steel and they will work wonderfully. There have been several posts on here dealing with making vice springs and other parts. http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/30779-grandfathers-vise/ I love that machinest vice you have there. Gets me thinking about all sortsa stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Nice anvil.

My first temperary vice stand was actually a stump and another log. It worked although not nearly as well as what I have now.Its a way to start with limited fabrication ability. Let me see if I can find a picture of it. . . http://ipneto.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=408#/d1ocd6n ahh there it is. It worked. If it was barried a couple feet into an earth footing it would have worked better but as you can see I had no where to do that. It also needed a band to hold the leg of the vice to it for more stability. But it gave me something to work with for the beggining. Hope this helps :D

Welcome aboard.

Very nice looking arrow heads. Thanks for the fun video to watch. :D

Thanks for all the great info I have wanted to make at least one for my own use and find this info very usefull.

Turned out awsome. I loved to see the progress and stuff you had to deal with. Really nifty to read the thoughts everyone has.

Water in the ash dump bucket to coolhot embers would be a plus. You might want more of a table to hold coals and if your like me several peices to the thing I am working on. A blacksmith helper to hold long bars in the fire. A thick chunk of steel even if it is just mild steel with as heavy a weight as you can get and move around would be a good place to start with for a simple anvil. Firmly attach it to the stump for added weight and to keep it from dancing around on you as you work. A forge rag might be a handy thing to have. If your standing when forging you might want a taller stump to work off of to keep your back intact. A lot of what your going to find is tailoring it to the way you work. So start making things and think about how you can improve it to make it better for you. everyone is so different.

They took away most of our shop classes, "traditional art classes" and many other things in schools here in the U.S. I didn't even have the chance at a shop class in high school. Introducing kids at young ages to the options out there has diminished with the years and this sort of hands on thing has been the first to be droped. Not to mention those of us not in the first part of the alphabet don't get many choices as to classes to persue. Took me all 4 years to get into a drawing class. I was sad that I never had the choice but there are many big problems with the schooling here and the blacksmithing in school is only one of many signs of very large problems. sorry ranting..

I would agree it looks like someone tried to repair the chipped edges by welding new ones on. It is good to work some on it before modding it to fit your needs. It really will depend on what aspects of forging and how much you do as to what you will want to do to make those edges more usible. Be aware that sharp edges in most forging will cause problem areas that can cause a part to come apart in two or more peices in the middle of you working on it or sadly once you've put a lot of work into finishing it.

Welcome. I hope you enjoy your forey into this wonderfull craft. Just an fyi the ring is often a misunderstood aspect of the anvil and actually not important and may be more detrimental to your hearing and work as it takes away energy that would otherwise go to the work. It is the rebound of the anvil that matters and the ring is only a byproduct of the shape of the anvil (think tuning fork). Rebound can be measured by dropping a hardend ball bearing next to a ruler from the 10 inch mark and seeng how far the first bounce brings it back up the ruler. sorry I just chring everytime I hear it refered to in a positive manner as the ring only helps to aid in the destruction of anyone in decible ranges hearing. It looks like you have a very nice anvil and a good set of tooling to start off. I still have yet to acuire or make one of those nice cone mandralls. Looking good!

In reference to paulky. The tools aren't secured in any perminant or semi permenant way to the handle. The tools themselves may on a rare ocasion come off the handle with a miss hit but no more then they fly out of the hand from a miss hit. It really is so that when you brake a handle (which I have done many times and sometimes right in the middle of an important operation) I can just grab any handle out of a top tool and bam same heat still working. Put that together with eas and limited time of making the handle and the tools eye and you get a lot of pluses out of this style. Its not the only way to do it but it has its advantages especialy when you use them frequently. The eye is tapered in only one direction unlike a normal hammer eye (at least mine are) and the friction along with the fact that most blows from the sledge hammer (arch of blow) tend to force the tool head onto the handle more than off helps it. The only way to really see if it works is to make one and come to your own decisions. side note I also have some earlyer top tools that I made that just have a rectangular eye that has no taper to it watsoever and these seem to work just as well. Same amount of times they fly off the handle etc.. I like the tapered hole better only because I can use the same drift I use for making hammers there for less tooling/interchangable tooling though I still have the drift from the rectangular holes, and given a pinch any of my top tool handles can be substituted for my hammer handle and with little work wedged in to make a new hammer handle. Now to the video. enjoyable watching. Thanks for sharing. few little notes. On that anvil you seem to have a tendency to hold your hand up a little high skewing your flatter hits in the video. It took a while for me to just set the flatter down and let it sit there instead of holding it in a given place/angle. Its also helpfull to roll the square peice up so that you can see the top corner sit right above the lower one as you place it on the anvil (start with your tong hand down below anvil surface and bring it up to lvl) your force will go more twords squishing the mettle then rotating it or skewing it. This is also helpfull when using hand tools to see exactly where your placing them before you strike them. and for goodness sake slow down and have fun. you two seem a bit tense. lol I still have to remind myself that I am working with a big chunk and compared to making a small ring I have a lot of time to mess around dance a hearty jig and still slowly line up each blow. whew ok that was long winded I will end with nice filming much better angles and quality than you get in a lot of other videos. Keep up the good work.

verry nice looking spatula :D

They look like peices for a bender along the same lines as a hosfelt bender just for specific operations or stock. Possibly like a bending fork for a jig with multiple curves.

The one thing not mentioned that really helps is to soak the wood form in water ...say overnight. You won't have to deal with smoke from hot forming (only steam and cooling of the metal). Most sheet metal can be domed easily enough in endgrane chiseled out doesn't even have to be that specific of a form. Free hollow in endgrane would be worth it. Its free after all :D Here is a picture of the tools I use for my sinking and raising operations. (for more complex shapes as well as bowls) Two sized ball peins not pictured a 1 1/2 lbs. one and a 1 lbs. one. The smaller one is pollished to a mirror finish for planishing over the trailer hitch ball. The three small steaks are made for use in the post vice and are reversible (six steaks for 3, from mark asperys books) The trailer hitch ball is also used in the vice. (hence the flanges for clamping, just a peice I found that worked) The sheild was made using all of these tools. Including the crack in the stump (more usefull than you might think) Its gotten dirty but was a butifully mirror bright sheild when I finished it years back. A handy modification that one of my fellow smiths has made is to make a sheet metal band that can be sinched around a log that is attached to a square shank so it can be fitted into the hardy hole of your anvil. This keeps it from dancing around when in use. Also usefull for clamping it in the vice for use. Something I just haven't gotten around to doing quite yet.