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That's me basically! Luckily I was persuaded to make better use of good materials.

Still need to set up a forge yet, slowly but steadily!

Yes, thank you for that. Nice bit of history to know about .

I haven't been able to read more than 5125 on the foot. Does anyone have the Anvils in America book to date the age of my baby?

Thanks for the replies, I guess at best it would certainly get regular oiling. I am going to go check it out tomorrow. I was just reading about Odd Duck's blowers today and I'm very curious to know if anyone has bought any from him.

I see, portability would definitely be an issue so I guess I'll find a barrel for the brake drum to sit in as per the 55 forge design. I don't know why I got so excited about that huge wheel, for some reason I felt that I really needed it. Oh well, I can definitely see it as a stand base but how would use it as a forming tool/swage block?

I found a Champion 400 blower on craigslist for $75. It is missing a top cap for the gears. Is this an important piece necessary for the well being of the blower? Also is this a good piece for a decent sized coal forge? And finally, does anyone know of a source of coal in the east Atlanta area, or within driving distance in a day? Thank for all your help.

Okay, people. Listen up. The people upstairs handed us this one and we gotta come through. We gotta find a way to make this… fit into the hole for this… using nothing but that. Ok Apollo 13 aside, I was in an overwhelmingly large scrap metal yard looking for just a brake drum and I ran across this HEAVY wheel. I think it was for a Bobcat or some heavy machinery. Its face is shallower on one side and it looked perfect to make a brake drum forge into a big brake drum forge. I was thinking of finding someone to help me weld the drum on to the bottom of the wheel (deeper side) and hooking up some piping to the bottom. Does anyone have any other suggestions on putting this together? Maybe some different materials that you would find and use? Also, how should the holes and ventilation gaps be plugged up?

A few weeks ago I posted up a 70# Columbian anvil that I had acquired and found that it was a bit more beat up than I wanted to pay good money for. Luckily the guy I got it from was happy to trade back items toward a different item, so I traded back for a ~100# Hay Budden he had just gotten in. I had presumed that these anvils would be out of the question, hard to find, too expensive for me kind of anvils, but I couldn't resist and traded back for a total of $325. I think it looks to be in good condition, what do you folks think? I also wanted to find the serial number, but all I can see was a 5-1-2-5 faintly on the front bottom of the anvil. Can someone make out any markings on these photos to find an age for it? Thanks for all your help, ya'll have been such a wealth of information. Sorry for the image size. How do I make them more easily viewable?

Yes thanks for all of your inputs. I got the Weygers and Sims books, 20 bucks for both. I'm excited for some good tips on scrap finding, resourcefulness and tool making. Is there anybody around in the east Atlanta area? I just joined so I didn't have my location profiled.

Thanks for the Mark Aspery tip, it looks more like what I think will be most helpful for me! Seems like something worth investing in.

I guess I got too excited and jumped on it, oops. Well the guy offered that I could always bring the anvil back to him and trade for another one if and when he has one available and I pay the difference if it weighs more. So this is more like less than $1 per lb kind of anvil?

I've recently checked out a couple of books on blacksmithing, The Art of Blacksmithing by Alex Bealer and The Practical Blacksmith (well some of this one, it seemed similar to Bealer's book). Now I'm looking books that is more geared more towards teaching skills and some basic projects that I could tackle, especially toolmaking as I have no blacksmithing tools. I'd love to buy all these books used but with limited supply of money, I'll have to limit myself to around 2 books as they seem to cost around $20 each. Some books that I saw that were very popular were The New Edge of the Anvil (better than The Edge of the Anvil?) by Jack Andrews, Backyard Blacksmith by Lorelei Sims, The Complete Modern Blacksmith by Alexander Weygers, and A Blacksmithing Primer by Randy McDaniel. Of these and other books you love, which 1 or 2 would be a solid book to be my personal teacher, with less on history but more on the work. Thank you for any advice!

Hello all, For the past few months I've been obsessing and reading about blacksmithing, wishing that I had an anvil and forge, then suddenly I ran across this old anvil on my way to north GA to pick up some hay for my horses. The collector says that it weighs 70# and that I could have it for $105. I didn't have a straight edge on me but it seems pretty flat, so I bounced a hammer on it (not that I have any past experience to compare it with) and that rang the anvil painfully loud and rebounded it in a significant way, unlike some of his other anvils which must have been cracked or made of cast iron. What do you all think of my "brand new" anvil? I still have to come up with materials for a forge and a place for a shop so I could take the time to repair the edge maybe or grind the top down flat. Leave it alone or is it worth touching up somehow, what would you do with this? Is this a decent anvil? A look online says that this maybe is a Colombia Hardware Co. anvil. Thanks for any help.