Black Frog

Thanks! No engraver, it was all hand chisel work. Just using different types of chisels, and time. :-)

Someone asked me about the snake opener, and it seems my picture has gone missing from that post. That'll teach me to trust uploading pics here instead of linking... I'll try it again. Anyway here's the last couple completed. The round one was a custom order for a very repeat customer....

SISCO Superior = Swedish Iron & Steel Company U.S. Importer of Swedish anvils, great stuff!

Thanks! Those are just threads on there.... I dig it.

Openers don't always have to be normal looking. This one fits in your hand surprisingly nicely. It's fun when an experiment turns out to be something your really like. :-)

The one in that display above is now in the New Jersey State Museum.

Arm & Hammer anvil. Above the weight you can see a partial bit of the arm with hammer stamp. Look for the serial number on the front of the foot under the horn.

Kohlswa had the star on their advertising... the "North Star" name could've been a U.S. import name given to Swedish anvils made for the U.S. I'd lean toward that being a Kohlswa anvil. Great stuff!

NORRISEZ brand would be my guess from the limited sized pictures. If you can get better resolution pictures, that would help a lot.....

No, not German. German labeled Trentons were forged bases.

That is an earlier Trenton with that cast base.

Totally depends on make and style. A 36" Trenton is going to be vastly different than a 36" Fisher.

When you come to iforgeiron.com and log on with your username, look in the upper right hand corner of the screen. You'll see a little envelop shaped icon with a red number by it. Click on the envelop, that takes you to your PM's (private messages).

Norther MO isn't too horribly far, Robsmith I sent you a PM.

Just because it has a hardy bulge and the rear cutout does not necessarily mean it is a Badger. Here's similar features on and old Vulcan (Illinois Iron & Bolt Co):

You guys are too kind. I'm not doing any rocket science here, anyone can do it with some practice. For forging the eye: lots of heats, nothing too fast. When approaching the final desired diameter for the eye, I switch to a lighter hammer and work darker heats. Healthy wire wheeling to remove all scale.

Been very busy doing all kinds of projects, but was pulled back into bottle opener land and commissioned to do a fancy opener for another hockey fan. Polished the leaf area like a mirror, that's the sky showing through the trees in the reflection... :-) Don't ask me why the crazy Canadians spell leaves as "LEAFS", but they do.

Ooh, that's a pricey order of parts there!

That's one of the nicest American's I've seen. Many people here would be jumping all over that if they could.....

Kyboilermaker, Your Lakeside is indeed a Trenton. You can see the faint outline of the Trenton diamond logo right with the "LAKESIDE" stamping.

I see the mark on the stand, but is there actual labeling on the anvil itself? Please post a closeup picture of the anvil markings!

Roger Rice is in charge of LG now, he only has limited parts for Mayers, most parts are not interchangeable with LG.

A lot of things look modified on that hammer. Yikes. If you Google, "Mayer power hammer" you'll find pics of original configurations.

Here is THE man, Mr. James Hay of the famed Hay-Budden Manufacturing Company. In AIA Mr. Postman includes a picture of Frederick Budden, but I had never seen any picture of Mr. James Hay. He was a Scotsman, and best I can tell was born in 1863-1864. He came to the U.S. in 1880, not a bad place for a motivated 16 or 17 yr old to land.... Being from Scotland, he was heavily involved in the Scotish groups in Brooklyn, mainly the Clan MacDonald group. James Hay was listed as a “Senior Henchman” for Clan MacDonald in 1901, Treasurer in 1902, and he was the Chief of Clan MacDonald from 1903 to 1906, yet still remained heavily involved for many years after being Chief. He was married to Ellen MacMillan Hay in Scotland when he was 12 or 13 years old. They had a son (James Jr.) and a daughter (Agnes). Even though Mr. Hay was doing quite well and had a lovely home, it seems he was still the tinkerer at heart. I found a 1902 mention of large surprise party for Mr. Hay thrown by his wife at their home. He was so busy working on his automobile out in the barn, he never noticed what was going on until his wife brought him inside to the dark parlor and “an electric spark lit all the chandeliers at once.” It was quite a party I guess…. Being well-known in the Brooklyn social scene, the wedding of the daughter of such a prominent and wealthy business person as Mr. Hay was a big deal. Agnes Hay was married in 1906. All was not rosy for Mr. James Hay. He loved his automobiles from all accounts, but in 1907 Mr. Hay was driving home from a Clan MacDonald Ball in the early morning hours and smashed into a telephone pole. His wife suffered serious internal injuries, and three other people, including his partner Frederick Budden, were said to have suffered shock. The occupants were thrown from the vehicle and the car was a complete wreck. In September of 1911 James’ son died. At the time James Jr. was the Vice President of the HB Corporation at age 25. I don’t know the reason or cause of his son’s death. But only a few months later in January of 1912, his wife Ellen Hay died as well. She and James had been married 36 years. I can only imagine the devastation to James Hay’s life. Here he was on the top of the world, wealthy and co-owning a thriving business, and then tragedy hits. Being alone in such a large house, he invited his long-time friends Mr. and Mrs. William and Margaret Ferguson to move into the handsome residence with him. The Hays and Fergusons had been very close friends for a number of years. But Margaret Ferguson was a “childhood sweetheart” of Mr. James Hay, they came from the same town in Scotland. She was said to be “attractive and of striking appearance”. Well you can imagine what happened next… quite the soap opera. James Hay went missing with Margaret Ferguson, then a few months later James Hay was sued by William Ferguson in the amount of $50,000 for “the loss of wife’s affections”. Margaret Ferguson said that her husband was cruel to her and she tried to leave him several times. My, my….

Frosty, I have a hydraulic toe lift that handles up to 750# up to 52" high. Love that thing. I lifted up the base/anvil combo up to my 1" thick steel plate table. I slid base onto the table and plenty of empty workspace between the table edge and toe lift platform edge to get up there and install the nuts. .....maybe some bad words were uttered here and there as well.