Tyr

I stopped by there Saturday morning and ended up hanging out there for well over 3 hours just checking out all the old equipment and watching the two demonstrators. It was the largest working shop I've ever come across before, awesome place.

As the others have stated any good piece of steel with some mass will suffice as an anvil. I started out on a piece of RR track about 3 feet long stood on its end with a stump under it to bring it to height. It worked well but I had to get creative using the track itself as a swage and what not, I outgrew it quickly. Until the anvil finds a permanent home something from 100-150lb would be the best. Build a nice solid stand for it and it's capable of being hauled out to the forging area from where you store it. Built a solid wood stand for mine out of 2x12 planks and forged some hooks and staples to hang tongs and hammers from so I can tote it around on a dolly wherever I need to go with it.

My 105lb-ish Trenton is my only anvil right now, gets the job done quite well.. One of these days when I can afford a true home shop I'd like to get a hold of a 200# with nice edges.

Just finished up one of my first projects, put together a drinking horn stand as a Christmas present for a friend of mine. Made out of 1/4" mild steel and finished with beeswax. Fairly simple but very fun to make, also looks really nice sitting on the shelf when not in use. :D

Thanks for all the good tips and advise guys, got in a 50lb bag of bituminous coal in today to try out. Being in the city it's a toss up on the smell bothering people and I've stuck to lump charcoal this year, but since winter is coming on no one will have windows or doors open so i thought it would be the best time to try it out and not tick off my neighbors. :lol: I haven't measured my little rivet forge yet but it's probably close to the dimensions to the one you described. Here's a photo of it along with my 100lb trenton I picked up this past spring, built the anvil stand based off of another forum member's plans. When I picked up the forge the blower ran pretty well but it was clogged up and looked to have been sitting for a long time, it had a lot of surface rust and what paint was left was speckled John Deere green and yellow. Got it apart and cleaned up the blower and got it all painted up and running like a top again, paid the guy $100 for it.

Here's my South Bend 9 inch, made in 1947 I believe.

Makes sense.. I was thinking that coal would be the right thing to get anyhow but I was curious, thanks for clearing that up guys. The info on the coal I've found is that it's bituminous coal from the West Virginia area, sold through one of the blacksmith/farrier supply stores I've dealt with online.

After some failed attempts at trying my hand at Google-fu I've come up with nothing so I'll just ask, sorry if it's a repost.. :lol: Just picked up my first portable forge with a champion blower tonight after playing around with my old brake drum setup and I'd like to try my hand at using coal as a fuel. I've been using Cowboy charcoal along with my own when I get the wood to make it and while searching I noticed that they sell both bags of coal and bags of coke. Knowing that coke is the bi-product of burning the impurities out of coal, is there any advantage to buying straight coke vs buying the same weight in coal and coking it myself? I've never lit a coal fire myself or forged with it so I'm wanting to give it a shot and figured I'd consult a few experts on the matter before making my purchase. Thanks in advance, just in my time lurking here I've learned tons of little tips and tricks that has saved me a lot of headaches not having to figure out on my own!

Sounds like it might be worth seeing if I can go down there and try to pick it up for a good price, maybe I'll luck out and be one of the few wanting it at the auction and get a deal on it. Looking around at others with the same features I wanna say its somewhere around 180# maybe at 200# even or so.. Could get out of my price range fast but I won't know until I try, maybe some other goodies will be around there to pick up if all else fails to make the trip worth while. Thanks for the info on it. :D

While looking around for a first anvil online at local sources I found this one on an auction site but has no information on it and this one photo.. It looks like a Hay Budden to me based on a local craigslist posting I found priced at a whopping $750.. Based one the lone image provided what would be an estimate on a fair value for an anvil like this? It's about an hour and a half from where I live with nothing else of interest listed so if it's likely way out of my price range or it doesn't seem worth the cost of driving there I may pass and keep watch on a closer deal. I'm located in Northeast Kansas if it helps on knowing what a quality anvil runs for in this area, a local dealer has fair shop grade anvils such as Trentons and Wrights varying 77# to just over 100# between $275-$375 but other than that I don't have anything to gauge value on in my area..

Been using that since I first started forging here recently, works well for me. Once in a while I run across a rock or something in there but I just toss em aside or put them in the quench bucket if they make it into the fire.