anvil

Lol, I was going to post this but Glen beat me to it. If you do this you will find your anvil height is very close to knuckle height. Differing body designs create slight variations. As far as setting up your personal anvil to fit a special situation has prolly never happened anywhen during our history. In a large multi man shop it is common to have a forging station for a specific function, but certainly not every anvil set up for a striker. Lol, what's the "proper height if you have a 4'2" striker and a 7'6" striker? More to the point, anvil height should be set to where you spend the most time. So, my question is where do you spend the most time when working your anvil? Many will jump on the gold and say it's turning scrolls on the horn, working an edge doing half faced blows as in tong making, separating mass on a hardy or simply cutting off a piece. How about after your striker is done? Perhaps it's working your power hammer? Even after turning scrolls on your post vice with scrolling wrench and bending forks? Well, actually, it's none of these. At the end of a heat and before you put your iron back in the fire, or in the done pile, you nearly always go to the face of your anvil and correct for such things as edge bend and twist, level your horseshoe or scroll, remove and clean up the edges etc. Or just plane "get 'er straight". This mundane, never thought of step is nearly always done. This is where you want to set your anvil height. Knuckle height here is where it's at. This means you, the nut behind the anvil, does not have to bend over too much or forge above your center of gravity. Why? Because having to forge low or high is very hard on the back. Thus, knuckle height is a good starting point to determine your individual anvil height.

Lol, you need to check your premice. It fails because you never set your anvil on any kind of spring. Your goal is zero movement between anvil and stand and zero movement between stand and ground. If these are maxed, the mass under your hammer equals the mass of the earth. This may be a hobby for many, but it's not a hobby horse mounted on springs.

Good question. My floor is dirt and the top of the ties is grade, so no problem. I have my anvil and the top edge of my forge set at the same height. That way my forge can act as a stand when I'm forging longer pieces at my anvil. Also, because my forge has a step down(cutout), longer irons can stay in the fire, supported by a stand and be out of the way(below) those I'm forging. My table also is at the same height as my anvil. If I built my own treadle, I would make sure the face was at the same working height as my anvil, or at least match the height of my 25# lil giant. My working height is knuckle high, and I'm not a knife maker.

The mass of the stand is far less important than how the anvil is connected to the stand and how the stand is connected to the earth. All things considered, if those two connections are "perfect", you now have the mass of the earth under your hammer blow plus that of the stand and the anvil. I use a wooden stump cut to fit my anvil and buried 2'-3' into the ground. I inset my anvil into my stump and the inset is deep enough to lay in fine sand to level my anvil. The fit of anvil to stump is tight. I have very little loss to vibration or movement. Oh, and the sand deadens the ring of the anvil.

Stands are important. I have 3 adjustables and need one more. As for space around and setup. My basic forge area is an equalateral triangle. When I added my 25# lil giant it created a diamond. it's centered between my anvil and post vice, in line with my forge and about a step and a half from anvil and post vice to hammer. When I added my treadle, the hammers are side by side but spaced so as not to crowd each other. As far as space, in line, I can forge a 20' piece of flat stock, with appropriate stands and side to side, about 3' outboard and 4' or 5' in-between the two big hammers. I'd say if you are serious about a treadle, you should, if possible plan for the max. You never know what the future will bring. If that's not possible, reduce this max to meet the size of your shop. At least be aware of what the future may bring. I've built a platform out of rr ties and the two hammers are about 6" or so inboard from the outside edges. The two hammers are lagged to the ties and nothing moves. I actually use my two hammers and my anvil as a team, you might say. For instance, the treadle is great for isolating mass. The lil giant then hogs out this mass without screwing up any edges. Then My 2-1/2# crosspeen cleans up dings etc, champfers edges, and just creats a nice hand forged finish on my anvil. My setup enables this all to happen in a pretty efficient manner.

If it is a trenton and the edges and face are as good as they look, you are looking at a very good anvil. I'd guess it's priced reasonable for your area. If you are looking for an anvil and have the money, you could do a lot worse. I'd go for it. Money comes and money goes, but anvils are forever.

Is that a hand forged, carbon faced thumb drive?

No sand blasting for me either. As above, 2 coats of primer and two coats of paint for exterior. I usually do a hot oil finish for interior.

I could smell when a forge weld was ready. It didn't matter what kind of flux, no flux, or kind of metal. And no, it wasn't my beard burning. ;).

I'm totally satisfied with my Clay Spencer treadle.

Aren't you an IT? Seems that's what I remember. I find it rather refreshing that you don't have internet on your phone. Lol, no matter how old the source, if the "mix" doesn't change, the specs don't change..

I think the cheapest and as good as any is the stovepipe that comes flat and you lock it into a pipe shape. I suggest using two 6" dia sections and locking them together to make a 12" dia section.

Great vid. I can't help but do a little picky critique. 1) I would have squared up the skinny end before starting the roll. 2) I would have scarfed the other end when I was close to finishing the roll. He had a bit of problem making that last weld and this would have solved that problem. There's three good reasons for making a hammer this way. The first is if you need a hammer and all ya got Is flat stock that is wrought iron. The second is bragging rights when you are done. The third is gaining experience on hammer control and forgwelding. There's no real structural benefits

Nice!

I've only come across one or two steels where the specs say to normalize more than once. As far as proper procedure, you can't beat following the specs. Check out this apk. "The heat treaters guide companion". It's free and available for Android and iOS. I believe that is what Thomas is referring to. There is a thread here on it as well.

Incredible.

By the way, sometimes an old piece of equipment covered in hardened old grease is a sign of a well maintained tool. However, when time does it's job and the grease hardens up, it needs to be cleaned to bring it back to a good working tool.

And he will prolly make a great vid to document the whole process.

Clean it up and see what happens. And what Thomas said, use a light weight oil to prevent sticking.

1025 is a low carbon steel and not hardenable. If satin 95 is a 1095 steel, then it will make a good contrast. Just saw your new post. Ignore what I said.

I started by doing crafts fairs. Mostly as advertisement. I then pounded on many doors of interior decorators. I focused on such things as brackets, cabinet and door hardware, small lighting and basically anything that came along. It took about 2-3 years and my door/cabinet hardware really kicked in. I became the "custom" hardware guy for a local specialty upscale hardware dealer. This evolved into many kinds of small to medium sized architectural jobs, primarily fullsets of cabinets and all interior and exterior doors, bath fixtures, kitchen accessories fireplace doors and accessories and a bit of lighting. This included my own forged switch plate covers. This eventually evolved into gates, railings, lighting etc. Every pathway by our very nature is unique, but I've known a fair number of traditional architectural smiths who got started and gained much experience of all types by doing door and cabinet hardware. I strongly suggest that doing one off doors as a goal will not work. My sales pitch to interior decorators and owner builders was to use my iron as a household theme. A similar design and color used to do different things throughout the house and tie it all together.. Good luck and go for it. It's a great way to spend the time of day.

Your clutch is slicking. Just use a very light wipe of 10w30 or 30 weight on the clutch. My blocks are the original maple, I believe, but it shouldn't matter.

Or you can just use bending forks, a scrolling wrench, and a set of tongs fit tothe round crossection.

And yellow is too hot for heat treating.

3/4" round will work well for most tongs. For most of my tongs I start with 3/4" square mild steel. Some I forge weld the reins and taper as I said above. Some I draw out from the parent stock " by hammer in hand" and taper as above. Both hold up well, but I prefer drawing out with no forge weld on my 25# lil giant.