anvil

cool vid. I wonder if the 3 forged lines on both side are part of his touchmark.

Thats a good way to secure hardy tools and dies. Both the top and bottom dies for my treadle hammer are secured that way. Its actually a pretty quick setup for changing dies.

Nice basket details. Very Cool!

Pics are deceiving. If the jaws are not flush at the top, you could make jaw protectors of differing thickness to compensate, unless they just look that way because of the pic.

Yup, thats it. I remember that article, but I dont remember the name for the other rod. That doesn't sound familiar. It seems that the specs for both rods were listed. I saved it on a notepad program for a long ago phone. I still have it, and will post it here. I think I may have posted it here but I have no idea how to find it. The important thing is to shop around for a comprobal rod and do a price check. Theres a lot of reasons to reface an anvil. The cost is relative to the wear and no matter what, when done, you have for all practical purposes have a new anvil. Back in the day a smith either made, traded, or bought an anvil and when the time came he removed the old face and a team welded on another. When done, they could get another 100 years out of it. Today, one person with about 4 or so hours can do this repair, and have a restored anvil that will go another 100. No matter what, when looked at that way, a modern repair is cheap at twice the price. Not to mention the personal satisfaction with the results with every blow you make.

Also reforge or make new plates at the bottom where the hinge is. See how its bent and the bottom drop is pretty close to the jaw drop and angle. Then a little filework on the jaws and done. or you will know whats next.. Or you could draw out the leg to make it longer.

Cost, sheesh but thats a question that only you can answer. Realize that you are talking to a guy who has had a "case of the willys" for as long as I've been a full time smith. Since when does something as mundane as cost be an issue with our "hobbies"? Edit, I would stick to stick and not mess with a really good system of repair, but I haven't been a welder for a long time so thats just me. There is another manufacturer of the rod that matches the specs and is cheaper, but I don't remember the company. I have it somewhere in saved files.

lol, how true!

Pretty much nailed it. I too like a long handle and thin out the handle.

I just saw this! You are in my thoughts and just remember, this is not a good time to give up the hammer. Lets hear you ring it soon!

Thats it. And there are many other ways to modify the shaft. Too big? Fit it with a grinder. Too small? run a bead with a welder or torch and grind it or file it. These are just a few ways of handling this problem.

Also it appears you have a death grip on the handle. This will often make you use too much wrist and elbow which is why you have a sore wrist and elbow. Loosen your grip and let the hammer kinda float between pointer finger and thumb and the rest of your fingers give it a little stability. Also a hammer blow is a full body movement and, exaggerated a bit, use every joint from your toes to the hammer.

A lot of good suggestions here, but for me the primary reason for a magnet in my shop is to find critical temp, like was mentioned above. I believe crit temp is a little above where you lose magnetism. How far? Well thats sorta like a pinch of salt when you are cooking and needs a bit of practice to hit it.

Wow, to me your anvil looks rode hard and put away wet, with no good edges, dings on the face and a huge saddle in the middle. It even looks like someone welded up the pritchel hole, or broke something off in it! I would not hesitate to reface it following the procedure posted above. To have a welding shop do it is iffy to say the least for cost and quality reasons. Too often, a shop doesn't know about anvils and will use an improper rod and usually done with the best of intentions. Sometimes a local or state smithing organization has refacing workshops or may be able to turn you on to other smiths familiar with the process. Finally there is you and your skills. If you can weld and have the equipment, then go for it. If not and you are challenged to DIY, then at a minimum, rent a welder and bottles and teach yourself how to run a bead. Then follow the instructions above (Anvil Restoration) and go for it. It takes a lot of time and experience to become a "good" welder, but it doesn't take much time to learn how to run a bead and follow directions for a one off project, even refacing an anvil.

Of course looking at this from the other side of the "whole",,, now you cannot use any hardies bigger than your hole. I've found it better to modify the hardy shaft than the actual anvil.

I've never needed to use anything but 4 or 5 sheets of newspaper wadded up with a tail on the bottom and a big crown at the top. A thrifty nickel was always perfect! Think mushroom shape. Light the tail/stem, put it in your firepot stem down, place coke over the top and give it air. The crown keeps the coke at the top and out of your firepot, allowing the paper to burn and do its job. It's literally as quick as lighting a torch and adjusting your gauges. There is very little smoke and zero sparks. When the stem burns, the flames are forced upward and outward to the edges of the mushroom cap, then up into the outer edge of the coke. By the time the paper is consumed, your fire is ready to go. I never put green coal into my forge fire. This is what causes smoke and a dirty fire. Blacksmith coal should be coked around the upper edge of your firepot, then moved into the firepot to be used as your heat source. Its a continual process of fire management. "Storage" Coal around the outside of your forge, green coal close to the edge but still on the forge perimeter burns and becomes coke. Move the coke into your fire pot and cover your iron with it. Move the storage coal closer to the firepot so it can start to burn and becomes "green coal". Clinker and ash go out the bottom. Add more "storage" coal to the outside of the green coal to keep the cycle going. There is no reason to put coke at the bottom of your firepot when starting a fire, then newspaper on the top. Coke needs direct flame to burn, so all it does is block your air supply until the coke on the top is burning and the paper is consumed and out of the way. Perhaps I'm wrong but it seems that there are folks here who believe that when you use coking coal, you burn this in your firepot mixed with the produced coke. Totally wrong. You want nothing but coke in your firepot, other than your very first fire when you have no coke... Any coal in your firepot creates a dirty fire, smoke, and puts the impurities in the coal directly against your iron and will negatively effect all your work. When it becomes coke, these impurities are removed and the actual coke is pretty darn'd clean, particularly sulfur. I suspect that the green smoke sometimes seen when we produce coke is sulfur and other unwanted stuff burning off.

For some reason when I think of front and back, I use the navy fore and aft, but I don't use the terms port and starboard for left and right. I often think of the floor as the "deck". I came from a family of smokers but never smoked,, well, once in the 6th grade I did to be cool, but I didn't inhale. :) . When I was in navy bootcamp we had smoke brakes and you got a brake if you were a smoker. If not you got to pick up cig butts. I got rather passive/aggressive and picked up butts. For the most part I could care less what folks do with their ash or butts. However if anybody puts anything in my forge fire they get a short, terse, and rather forceful explanation as to just why this is inappropriate. If they take offence, too bad. Most don't.

I don't smoke, but once upon a time a dude who did came into my shop and flicked his butt into my fire. Well, boy howdy, when I got finished flicking his butt he never came back. cigarette butt of course.

Lol, yup and when I do, they are a real doozie! At least I got a good laugh over it. Hey, sometimes if I couldn't laugh at my mistakes, there would be nothing to laugh at!

I just deleted my response because I was really off base. Thanks for the headsup Glenn and JHCC. Lol, stuff happens.

the best height for an anvil stand is when your forearm is parallel to the ground and your daily driver hammer face is parallel to the ground/anvil face. Take your body stance into consideration as well when figuring the height of your forearm above grade. Subtract the height of your anvil and there you are. For me a wooden stump cut to slightly bigger size of my anvil base~ 1-1/2" or so larger on each side. Anvil notched into the endgrain of the stump with a couple inches of fine sand in this notch. This makes it easy to level and deadens the sound. The tighter the notch the better. If done, you will need no other forms of attachment to hold your anvil securely with no movement to the stump, and if needed, it can be easily and quickly removed. Make sure to figure in the deapth of this notch when figuring out where you want the top of the stump to be. For me, you can't beat having the stump buried 3' below grade. The stump is pyramidal from grade to the bottom of the stump. Dirt tamped and watered as you set it. I have an upsetting block as well. Any heavy piece of steel will work. The more mass the better. The top edge is set to grade so it is out of the way when not in use.

It's always a good shop practice to remove the hardy after you are done with it.

Actually for me, its neither a question nor an issue. There is no reason a Smith can't work to a 64th. If you can't then even a simple mortise and tenon railing will be a chore. If you can, then you might as well do all your work to a 64th.

Reminded me of a jazzman from long ago Gábor Szabó

True, which is why I started my post how I did. And also it's very situational. If I'm forging a taper in a 2' fire poker, I do as you suggest, but if I'm figuring out details for a railing that must fit in a given space, I definitely go the extra steps. And once it becomes habit,, well Its as easy to do one as the other.