anvil

Me too. Its a great addition to your scrap pile.

Just a note on my above post. My only experience with pet coke came from Wyoming. Its still available at the farrier/blacksmith supplier on the eastern slope of Colorado. If George is burning coke. Id guess it is the same. I know that density is what makes it different from Met/Blacksmiths coal. I have no clue if density is a standard or not. Pet coke is made in the Salt Lake city area and is available from a local dealer in that area. If you promise to not let it out,,, Ill confess to sometimes starting my fire with a rosebud! George, if you are burning coal, whats your source?

Nice forging and a good demo. Dennis, When I suggested you go see him, i remembered your answer from before. Lol,All things are relative. when you live where I do, Im far away and you guys are danged close. So Im glad you called him. A last suggestion. You are coming to a decision based on little experience. The important thing is to increase your experience. Why dont you do What was done in the second vid and put a red masonry bricks on top of the air inlet and add two more on each side of your air source and try it? Cant cost much. Then play with both ways until you are comfortable with both types?

JHCC, great poem. The best wood is closest to home and least price. The common wood in my area was pine, spruce and aspen. Pitch pine burns hot and long. It also liberally adds creosote to your chimney, so beware. Aspen burns hot and quick. Its great for early morning fires to take the chill off. It also helps clean out creosote, so use it often especially if you burn a lot of pitch pine. I've heated with wood most of my adult life and enjoy all phases of it. Ive cut with and for many people, but only once for money. She wanted the wood cut to lengths and I stacked it in rounds 4'x4'x8'. Wood cutters have a name for this, but I don't remember, perhaps its called a face chord. Anyway, she paid me by the stack. I priced it for what the local wood guys charged. A neighbor came over and split it and stacked it 4'x4'x8' and of course the number of stacks were appreciably fewer than mine. So she called me very irate and accused me of overcharging. She has a masters degree and is a semi well known artist. And yet she couldn't grasp the fact of the labor difference and larger quantity of wood when its split and stacked. A close call: I lived in a valley at about 8700'. The top of the valley was 9200". I was at the top and dropped a good sized standing dead Ponderosa. I live up the left fork of a Y intersection in an area, back then, that had very little traffic and most went up the right fork.I cut a round and as it begins its journey downhill, out of the corner of my eye i see a car coming up to the Y. I'm too high for him to see me but since his being there is rare, he most likely would head up the other fork. No matter what, the play is in progress and all i can do is "enjoy" the show. Of course he turned up my fork and the round was about 2/ 3ds down the mountain. I look at the intersection of log distance, car distance, and rate of travel of both and the answer is plane,,, Well, he stops about 20' from the point of impact, waits for the round to finish its journey, gives me a wave and continues on. To the day I don't know if he was just giving me a lesson or what. What i do know is my shop motto is "God smiles on Fools and Blacksmiths,,, and I'm both. He certainly smiled that day and the ole Coyote and Kokopelli were laughing to beat the band. So the moral,,, When cutting trees, or anything for that matter, Never Assume Anything.

pretty stupid

First, I want you to know I hold him in high esteem. Next, I have no reason to change what I stated above. The fabricated forge at the beginning of the vid looked to be about 4" deep. Notice the size fire he has near the end of the vid. That's about the max you can get with that forge setup. That is a small fire, and the size will limit the size and amount of iron you can work. You can with coke use that size firepot in conjunction with a couple of castable refractory bricks about 4" high and a bit longer than the firepot. The thickness should be such that when they are face to face, both bricks being a bit more than half the width, cover whole width of the firepot +. If you do this, you can have a coke fire that can be very narrow and open it up to get your 4" of coke under your work and 2" above. Please understand I'm not saying you can't use a firepot of what ever dimensions you choose and you can make it work. I am saying that for a given coke and a given blast it will take x amount of coke to consume y amount of O2. And, the dimensions I gave fill the bill for basically a one man shop any time in the history of burning coke. Finally, and I think I've given this advice to you before,,, go up to his shop and offer to work for him on a per job basis for free or perhaps room and board. Second to that, just go to his shop, knock on his door and ask him the same questions you ask here,,, get it first hand I've never known a smith who would turn someone away if he makes an attempt to come to me and asks for advice. Personally for me, My policy is to take the time unless I'm dealing with a deadline. Even then, feel free to stay and watch and I'll answer your questions

No matter what, you will nearly always end up with a burr of some sort when hot cutting. I deal with it in two ways. If it won't make a cold shut, in the same heat upset it back into the parent stock and make sure the cross section at the end is the same as the parent stock. The other way is, again in the same heat, clamp it vertical in your post vice and with an old farriers rasp, hot file it off.

Great vid, JHCC. Just because, let me point out a few similarities he and I have with respect to this topic. First, he is a right handed smith and he works hammer to the heel. This means your hammer hand is on the same side as the heel. This alone is a time saver in many ways. Notice his hammer rack which appears to be attached to the stump is on the far side, and towards the back of the heel. Given an inch or so, this is my setup as well. For me, I want nothing around my anvil because many of my forgings would be cramped by that rack. Thus, my three hammers live on the heel and I do away with a rack. This is not a critique, it's just a variation on the theme of putting your hammers that are to be immediately used as close as possible and still be out of the way. A kindred spirit, I'd say. Thomas, again you hit the hot iron where it's the hottest. Thinking of where to put your hot iron too is critical. Altho this isn't a "little thing time saver", get in the habit of always checking grey iron with the back of your hand before picking it up.

When the Carbondale coalmine closed I had a source for Wyoming petroleum coke. I burnt it for about 4 years. You need paper and wood shavings to light it instead of just a wad of newspaper, but once it gets going there is very little difference between that and breeze. It will stay lit as I described above. The important thing here is if this gent is burning just coke of any sort, it will not work in a flat bottomed forge without some way of containing it.

You guys are mixing up coke and anthracite when you say coke won't stay lit. Anthracite goes out without a good air supply. Bank coke up, put a small opening thru the top to the air grate and leave the ash dump opened a little and coke will stay lit for a long time. It appears to me that you are burning just coke, correct? You are not burning blacksmithing/metallurgical coal. if this is the case, your forge is not set up to burn just coke. Like George said, you need green coal,,, or something, to hold the coke and act as a firepot. A couple of firebrick will work. They don't even need to be permanent. You can buy them from most wood burning stores or potters supplies. This is just a quick heads up. But simply said it will work. Put the brick on each side of the grate about 6" apart. To start it, put wadded up paper in first, then a little wood shavings, but most likely all you need is enough paper. 4 sheets from a newspaper will work. Light the paper, cover with coke and give it a gentle blast. When the paper burns down, add coke from the top. the way we did a coke forge when I worked across the big pond, we made our own brick out of castable refractory. This is a powder like concrete we made two half round shapes about 4" thick,12" long and about 8" tall. Let them dry and they are ready to use

I only know Torbjorns from his YouTube vids. He is amongst the few that are worth watching. His "presence" at the forge is worth emulating. Beyond that, I have never seen any of his work, nor have I noticed the size of type of his working firepot. Fwiw, I've worked with a few smiths across the big pond as well as here in the US. I have never worked in a situation where 4" of coke wasn't the norm. I'm not a collector of tools, yet it's hard to not see what's available, either for sale, auctions, or at blacksmith conferences. I'd have to say that the most common size fits the dimensions above. Centaur sells a 2" deep 12" round firepot they label as a farriers forge. I do know that the shallower your firepot, the limit is size of iron you want to work. Not that you can't, but let's say, you might want to pack a lunch. So, if I were to make a cast firepot 2" deep I'd call it a farriers firepot or call it an affordable intro level firepot. So, again, you have a problem. Your description indicates you have an oxidizing fire. This happens when your fire won't consume all the O2. This tends to happen when your work is too close to the air inlet. You can solve this by decreasing the voluume of air, or increasing the amount of coke between your work and the air source. If you decrease the amount of air, the effective size of stock you can work decreases,,, meaning plan ahead on what you want for lunch. Correct, and when you do,shoot for about 4" and place your iron on top, with about 2" of coke over this. Then Increase the voluume of air in order to make a bigger neutral/reducing fire.

Im not a side blast man, but i do believe no matter where the air comes in, you need to consume all the O2. A good rule of thumb is 4" of coke below your work, and 2" above. I watched his vid to see how he achieves this. He made two firepots, one from stone and one from brick. The second try with brick, he put a brick on top' of the air inlet. A brick is ~4" tall. Notice he banks the coal nearly to the top of the brick. If i did this experiment, my third attempt would be to make a brick firepot ~10"x14" to match my size in my shop. Its a Centaur Forge rectangular pot, ~4" deep and ~ 10"x14" at the top. I would lay the brick to define this shape and the bottoms of the bricks would be in plane with the one sitting ontop of the air inlet. Id work my iron parallel to the forge and sitting on top of the brick. This now gives me a sideblast firepot 4" deep and 10"x14" at the top. When my iron is in the fire, I would put another ~2" of coke on the top and see how it worked. This matches my bottom blast, and should work for a side blast as well. I suspect there would be a couple more trys to dial it in, most likely to modify the bottom so as to better direct the air flow, but Im pretty sure this would work pretty well. The final step would be to make it out oh a fire clay/ fire brick. And like he did, I'd make sure there was space under the air inlet for the clinker to go. I think your major problem is not enough coke around your work to consume the O2

JHCC hits it on the head. It happens in a forge too.

Frosty, I don't know what's stuck in your craw, but I suggest you look at the title of this thread. These work big time for me. If you believe they are detrimental to efficiency, then that's your right. You know, in all these years I've never seen any of your work. I know you have seen mine and given me some nice responses. They are all done using the above little details around my anvil. Why don't you show some pics of your work and list some of the "little things" practiced by you to produce them? That would be very educational for all of us. For me, like I said, I call it limited production. If I had a production shop I'd be making pickets, as an example, for other shops, fab or blacksmith. The setup to do this would be pretty different than my per job setup. It's just my way of looking at it. And I'm not talking down to you, just responding to your statements about me.

My collecting went thru an evolution. I went from refuse nothing to being pretty discerning. Now I only look for or accept wrought, tire irons, springs from old wagons, coil and leaf springs. The latter two depend on my present stockpile. I'd rather buy my square, round and flat stock in 20' lengths. Any tools made for sale come from purchased numbered or lettered stock.

Size doesn't matter, so they say. Again, I'm not saying you should, just pointing out how. With no pics, what do you expect?

All you can say is,,, "Great" Music. How about a "great" warning for all blacksmiths? " I ain't broke, just badly bent".

To answer your question, if you do want to repair it, read this. Its the "gold" standard for anvil repair. https://www.anvilmag.com/smith/anvilres.htm

Frosty, it doesn't matter which direction the face is,,, what matters is to be consistent. Handled tools and hammers are different. Handled tools go in my tong hand and live in a different neighborhood than my hammers. Handled tools usually live, on a job basis, handle up and by the horn. Hand tools, not handled tools are like chisels, center punches, veining chisels etc. They live, on a per job basis, on the step. A tool rack keeps my non working tools. If this is closer than the above than it's just plane in the way of my primary work space. The area around both my anvil and post vice is reserved for me, no boogers or traps allowed. No I don't do production work, never have since changing the focus of my blacksmith shop from horse shoeing to working by commission. I call what I do " limited production". That's when you make a hundred pickets, 36" long with a tenon on each end ,, and to a 64th for a railing. :) . Considering I've been doing this for 35+years, I'd say that somewhere along the way I must have stumbled upon a pretty efficient setup for my work. Alas, I never worked in a factory, so ya got me there.

For what it's worth, carnuba based furniture/car polish are just variations on a theme, as is tree wax.

Actually it has nothing to do with being "Old and in the Way" or new tricks. It has all to do with how I use the other end of my cross peen... The flat face. The first step to hammer control is to be able to hit that flat face flat on the anvil. The next step is to start using the side edges of the flat face as well as the flat. Rotate the handle just a bit in your hand and you have mostly flat and a little edge. Go full bore and you are using mostly edge and very little face. As I work back to the transition, I drop the face, thus using more face as I approach the transition. Thus I use the flat face as a straight peen and a flat face. This means that my cross peen hammer serves three purposes: a cross peen, a straight peen with an infinite number of angles, and a flat face. If you apply this to a straight peen, you have a straight peen on one end, a multi-angled straight peen/fuller, and the flat face. Make sense? "Old and in the way" is a great ole album and still on my phone so I can play it whilst in the car.

I apply blo, turps, and beeswax mix hot. Depending on location, it's pretty durable. However, treat it like a piece of outside furniture and give it a quick rub down with a good carnuba based furniture/car polish like Frosty says, when needed and after a bit of time, the finish will not rust.

Lol, I don't use a straight peen for the same reason. I'd rather move the iron under my cross peen than reach for another hammer. Again, I'm not knocking these tools, just stating why I don't use them. If I had a regular job that would benefit from any tool, I'd have it and use it. Without a doubt, A diagonal peen is a cool tool to make, and that can be reason enough to forge one.

Here's a few tiny time savers. Most of these key well with what Ted said above. I set up my anvil hammer to the heel. If you spend much time working on the horn, this is the most efficient way. Here's some other benefits that come from this. I place my hammer on the heel and it takes a real effort to bump it and have it hit the deck. It's flat and a long way from the sweet spot. If you are set up hammer to the horn, the natural place to set your hammer is on the sweet spot or the step/horn combo. If it's on the sweet spot, it's in the way, especially if you use two hammers in one heat. If on the step/horn it's precarious. Watch vids by those who do this and note how many times the hammer gets bumped. Place the working face of your hammer towards the sweet spot. Match the hammer handle to anvil face angle to match the natural angle made by your hand to anvil face angle I place my hot and cold work hand tools on the step. I can put 3 or 4 and not bump them. Place them there in the order of use. When using these hand tools, put your tongs over the horn, jaws up. They will live there nicely until you need them and not fall to the ground.

Not to mention all those poor moths,,,,