Marc1

Should have thought of using Google Italy. if you google "Incudine FEP" a few hits there.

Blacksmith say: If you can't hide it ... feature it!

Nice anvil. Never mind the marks on the face, don't even think of grinding it flat. Just working on it will make it better slowly, depend what you do. Anchors forging! Wow, I would have liked to see that. You would expect the anvil to be much larger even for small anchors ... who knows! His grandfather's striker must have been one eyed, so many missed hit! The marks on the side of the anvil are intriguing. It was a bad habit to test the temper of chisels on the side of the anvil but those marks are rather dull and resemble more peen hammer marks than chisel ... (?) So Italian manufacturer? The other thread says it may have been Serbian. Whatever it is it will serve you well. What do you make, or intend to make?

Harry, The gage you are using is not ideal to butt join however the shape of that cup should aid in the strength department. Hard to say without experimenting. If I were to make something like that I would tig braze it, or oxy/acetylene braze it. Latticino has given you good pointers and riveting is a good idea. The say goes ... if you can't hide it, feature it. This is the sort of job that you need to work out by yourself or, talk to someone who works regularly with brass. I don't. I still don't understand why your recent attempt failed. Do you have a picture of the solder and flux used?

Harry, you are funny. Don't despair, soft soldering is relatively easy so my guess is that you have the wrong solder, the wrong flux, the wrong heating tool and no practice. All can be overcome with a bit of patience. Frosty's idea to go to a welding supply seems like a good idea. if the desk jockey has experience and this can be a big if. Then again, you may be in luck xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Brass can be soft or hard soldered with the right alloy and the right heat. Brass wire solder according to this supplier has 38% silver and the rest is brass, so I gather it would be very expensive, and I wouldn't tell anyone to use an oxy torch without experience. Try practicing with a soldering iron and some soft solder wire with it's own flux to get you started, may be some copper cable, copper tubing then try a few offcuts of that material.

To me it seems 8 FEP A few more pictures of the mystery anvil, possibly provenience, country of origin, dimensions, brand, language to name a few I think there was a guy from Italy asking about his FEP anvil a while ago ... Not sure, FEP = Front end processor / Federal employee program / Fast Exchange Paradigm / FABRIKA ELEKTROPROIZVODA-FEP

There is a fourth way. I asked the electrician ... can you connect 3 phase? Sure! was the answer, so I got 3 phase.

Nice anvil, you can fit one higher and one lower for different jobs.

The terms are used interchangeably and lead to confusion. Silver solder is a generic term that means little. Brazing or hard soldering is done with a silver copper and phosphorus alloy that melts at 700 C more or less 1300 F and you need an oxyacetylene torch for that. The rod used for brazing is called Silver Solder because it actually contains silver. Soft soldering, that is also called silver solder due to it's colour, that is not brazing is done with a soldering wire or a bar that contains variable amounts of lead and tin. In this days of sugar free coke you can buy lead free soldering wire with tin and copper as alloys. The main difference with soft solder is the melting point that can be as low as 120 C and up to 400 C. Big difference. If you overheat the piece the solder will boil and pop all over but where you want it. Soft solder melts at very low temperature, Check the label of the one you have. The more tin the lower the temperature. Heat up the cartridge, (hopefully spent and with no primer ) just a little and touch it with your solder wire and the flame away. If the wire does not melt, give it a bit more with the torch. Just a little! and keep on going until you reach melting point for your solder. Too much heat and you just make a mess not a joint. The idea when soft soldering is that you heat the piece and the heat in the piece melts the solder. You don't heat the solder with the iron or flame. And you don't overheat.

Of course debating "old" vs "new" is like the proverbial length of a piece of string. Need more information ... however you would be surprised how enraged some people get when you venture the thought that may be ... just may be ... some new anvils today are superior to their "old" counterparts. And don't even try to compare provenience. Try to say that older german anvils are way better than older english one ... oh my! As for the working life of an anvil, I have seen anvils worked to death and discarded. PW for example are notoriously soft and would show their age more than some better german one. My 480 lb PW has had a hard life and it shows particularly in the horn that is deformed at the base from thousands of hours of repetition work in a factory ... certainly not making knifes She is semi retired now with me, and will surely last for another 2 to 300 years at this pace but would probably meet it's maker within a couple of decades of full time heavy work.

I worked for a long time in an office that processed pensions for the federal government. The software used for many years was dos based and written in Cobol language. When the new management in Canberra decided to retire the programmers that knew how to maintain the system with complete disregard to the consequence of such action, the mainframe started to fall apart, so it was time to build a new one with all the new wizbang features. Of course the team in charge of building this new era marvel, did not ask the workers , those bottom feeders ignorant peasants, but only rubbed shoulders with those of equal stature who had only a vague idea of what was expected and no idea how it was done. Long story short, the average worker would process 5 to 7 pensions a day with the old mainframe. The new super dooper "system" was able to process from zero to one a day. In 5 years since this happened, the number of workers had to be doubled and the waiting time for a pensioner to have his pension went from a few weeks to one year. No one acknowledged the mistakes, managers are recycled and moved along just to make room for new managers who have an even more patchy idea of what to do. No one asks the workers who have detailed inside knowledge of what is necessary and how to do it. The new system still does not work despite large consultancy fees paid to gurus from Germany and hundred of millions spent on local gurus of very high status. When the complaints and newspaper headlines become too much, the old mainframe is unblocked and the workers are allowed for a few weeks to use the old system that works like a charm after a few of the old timers were called back from retirement to patch it up and the backlog is cleared once more.

I think that a great feature in this forum would be to have a notice board updated with all the possible new anvil manufacturers and their updated prices. Charge a fee for each manufacturer to be on the board. Old beaten up anvils sold for more than new prices is an anomaly only possible due to ignorance / lack of information. To repeat time and time again that anvils do not improve with age, like wine or violins will also be beneficial. I remember a seasoned blacksmith on facebook debate vigorously that "old" anvils were better than new ones. The old "antique" anvils had their day in the sun and that too will pass.

I enjoy watching ebay and gumtree ads for anvils. Particularly the creative wording and what passes for an anvil. The best are those finely carved railroad tracks shaped as a pretend London pattern, turning a passable nail straightener into a church bell that would wake up the dead. I said this many times, a beginner would be well advised to buy an ASO made in China for cheap rather than any of the "antique" sold at more than new prices. The few anvil manufacturers left, must be caught in a perpetual celebration

One can twist light or heavy stock of any size in a post vice of appropriate dimensions anytime, providing it is fitted correctly and not to some wobbly contraption that needs to be stepped on to stay put, or filled with water or any other absurdity, worthy of Tom and Jerry mousetrap. A post vice needs to be mounted to a post and be able to walk around it to work on all angles and by the way you can hammer at your heart content on both jaws. That is what they are made for. (Within reason of course, a 10 kg sledgehammer on a 3" vice may be inappropriate) A parallel bench vice is usually fitted to a bench ... (obviously) and therefore precludes walking around it. Not necessary for a machinist but surely important for the blacksmith that makes larger objects. Sure, a hobby workshop that needs to be mobile to drag out on the driveway in the morning and packed up for the next weekend at night, needs some lateral thinking, nothing wrong with that. If I had fitted a post vice to a pipe welded to a round plate in our workshop in the sixties, the oldtimers would have laughed me out of the shop after forcing me to dismantle it.

Can you damage the tires if they are real frozen to the ground ?

Prices vary a lot with location, however there is something that is universal. There is the asking price and there is paid price. Many times they are a world apart. A few years ago I saw an add for a PW of very similar weight on ebay in Sydney Australia where anvil prices are even higher than where you are. Asking price was $1400. I dismissed the ad for nonsense only to see that it did not sell and was re-posted. I rung the seller and told him that he would never sell for that price and that a fair price was $600. A gamble I know but it worked. I bought it for $700. There are desperate ignorant buyers and desperate ignorant sellers in every country. As for the purchase of those tools, the only thing of value is the anvil. You decide what it is worth for you, disregard the stand since it is scrap, and the vice? well ... may be worth $50 to $100 depending of the size of your wallet. i would be inclined to pay $800 for the lot if it is nearby in Sydney Australia. Best of luck and tell us how you go! M

I think the title of this thread should be modified to a more honest one: " Mistakes I make myself all the time and wish you can learn to avoid" And a few quotes to go with that thought "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time" "There are lots of people who mistake their imagination for their memory." and there is nothing wasted in the next one ... Why Older People Have Always Trashed Young People: It’s partly fear, partly self-flattery, and partly delusion, and it’s been happening for thousands of years

To dampen the ring, build a nice solid tripod with rectangular hollow section as thick wall as you can find and a thick plate for the base. weld plates to the end of the legs and fill the pipe with sand and oil. Get two flat bar across the legs and bolt the lot down with 5/8" bolts a tight as you can. No more ringing. Just a clog clog ... or it is bump bump ... mm ... may be plonk plonk ...

The hole in the second picture has way too neat edges to be original. But what would I know ... it could be to shape nail heads. Roman? so what ... 2000 years old? Wow, hard to believe.

That anvil has one thing in it's favour ... the name in Italian means Steel ...

Max ... as much as HojPoj results when available are sure of interest, don't base his results on a purchase. It is highly likely that those anvils are of heterogeneous quality, one hard, one soft, one more so and so, some smooth one porous. The sure thing in chinese anvils is their inconsistency and just like quoting change in the weather climate change, you can rest assured that there is anvil change galore in the chinese stock of anvils, so you roll the dice and buy. Then do your testing and see if you have been lucky. A bit like buying a lottery ticket, with much better odds of course. However ... that anvil is surely way better than any bit of railroad in any shape, form or positioning.

Ha ha ... as a blacksmith, I do have super powers. The seller is way more interested in broadcasting his bias against "foreigners" then he is in selling his bit of steel. The description was in minuscule fonts attached to his draconian conditions. I understand that price is very subjective but at that price and if able to pick up so no postage, i think it is a cheap thing to have. How many beers can you buy for that money? over here it is not enough for a 6 pack or some decent fish and chips. PS THere is a typo in your title ... it is spelled Accepteble ... (Or at least that is the way Inspector Jacques Clouseau says it)

8" diameter, 71 lb, 5"1/4" high, 1018 HR steel, no Canadians nor foreign bidders. I did not know that Canadians were that short but for an anvil ... go for it. Cheap as chips !

How is Siberia in summer?

Alexander ... yes, winter is when it is cold, you have -40C really ... wow i thought that is only in Siberia. Funny enough we have summer at the moment and for the last ... well since humans were able to observe seasons changes, summer means heat. There is an idea floating about that humans are responsible for this heat. ( pull the other one) I am sorry to however feels a bit hot under the collar, I confess that I burn coal (shock horror) and i generate CO2 by existing ... ( shock horror) my garden seems to love it. You keep on doing those wonderful things you do Alex ... -40C or +40 C does not matter, we can take it. The rest can go jump