Marc1

How many anvils do you actually need? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gqn6EBwPFk

Mistake #13: Underestimate the space required and the noise and smoke pollution you will invariably create ... and ... overestimate the support from friends and family.

Yes, the business aspect of making something is clear, with all it's inherent risks and personal stress. Then there is pricing of your product, that if it is truly art, will depend of the artist's credential and position in the market. Take "The scream" by Edvard Munch, sold recently for over 100 millions. To me it is a badly executed caricature of someone with a headache or disliking the next door rock music concert by a beginner painter in early high school. According to Wiki, :"... Edvard Munch in 1893. The agonised face has become one of the most iconic images of art, seen as symbolising the anxiety of modern man." Yea right, pull the other one. But such is the art market. The more you pay the more your art piece increases in value the day you sell. A bit of a self fulfilling prophecy. What does that mean for the artist? Not much if you just get started. If you are recognised and in demand you will need to test the boundaries and price as high as you can and see what the buyers think of your product. Craft does not have that aspect and will always cap the price somehow due to it's utilitarian aspect. There is only so much one is willing to pay for a bottle opener or a knife. Architectural work may be an in between, since the value of a balustrade or gate is incorporated to the much higher value of the building and seen to increase it. Clearly utilitarian but with an artistic aspect to it that increases the "wow" factor of the real estate in question.

I wonder if there is such an organisation as ATA ... Anvil Tragic Anonymous Hum ... perhaps need to clarify what a "tragic" is? Well ... a sort of obsessed person in a pathetic way or seen that way by others ... (my definition)

The above is true of course, but the art market is not necessarily for the elite ... although one can only hope Reiterating that art is not necessarily the result of the artist will to produce it, but rather the elusive effect that such efforts can have on the public or the owner. And in case of the commision of sculptures to be exhibited in public places for example, the organisation paying for it, usually council of local government, have totally different motivations and agendas to commision the work than some wealthy ranch owner who wants a big steel horse in his driveway. Sure, you can't say you make a horse and sell it for $3 a kilo but if it is for a rich dude, then it is $10,000 I agree with all you said about reputation in business, however, if you are lucky enough to be able to produce art, your character will be of little consequence and you can behave as a brat and your art will go like hot cakes anyhow. In fact a lot of true artist are lousy in their persons skills. There are examples of artist who are well balanced and develop a well marketed business of "making art" but they are few and far between.

Ha ha Das, you don't have to convince me, if I had room I would buy a couple of hundred of the things and flog them off on ebay or gumtree

Yes, sounds funny and I get your debe debe ... however the original question sounds too much like grandma telling you that you can only drive one car and only live in one house and only fit in one suit ... and only use one anvil (sic). There is an implied judgement in it. Does anyone want to answer the other part of the op post ... "What is the attraction in buying anvils" ?

Lovely work, would like to visit sometime

If you don't forge by hand you don't need an anvil, if you make shoeing nails, you need just one very small one, Strange question. Do you believe it is wrong to have more than one anvil? How about owning more than one car? Multiple houses? There is such thing as anvil manufacturers who make excellent new anvils every day. i bet they love anvil tragics. Oh ... and I have 5 anvils and use all of them at different times depending of what I do. Also 3 vehicles and 9 houses. Not really. Can you do everything with one hammer? Walk everywhere with one pair of shoes? I must have ... uh hum ... about 25 hammers? And I don't have that many really, some 30 tongs etc etc.

Both gasless and gas shielded weld have their place. Flux cored may produce a bit of spatter but the weld is hotter and penetrates more and you can weld outside in windy conditions. Gas shield appears to be easier but it is not if you need the weld to be structural in any way. Welding requires practice and a good instructor and then more practice, a bit like shooting. You don't weld for a month and your next weld stinks. I discovered dual shield welding recently and can't get enough. You never stop learning

Fantastic work. The last bastion of blacksmithing. Is that your template? Lots of work indeed. Spiral staircase railing is the most difficult and unforgiving job you can get yourself into. And some chuncky stock too. Did you steam bend the handrail yourself?

True, and I would much more prefer that the emotions in question be qualified as positive and that negative emotions be excluded. And that common sense would prevent museums and art galleries from exhibiting piles of manure and call them art. Then again ... a lot of art is the product of the most darkest feelings of loneliness, depression, substance abuse and other very negative aspects of human kind and some of the best paintings and music are but desperate screams of a soul in pain. Yet we see or hear them as sublime and magnificent. Go figure!

Ridgid are famous for their plumbing tools. They are now a multinational company with branches around the world. I doubt they manufacture that anvil in Germany. Most likely Asia somewhere. There are few places in the world that can make a decent anvil at a decent price. Plenty that believe they can offload their scrap in the shape of an anvil. A decent place is Branco in Czechoslovakia. They have a massive variety and manufacture for a lot of blacksmith outlets. i was tempted some time ago to import a container of them to resell here, where prices are so high they make your hair curl, but decided against it due to negotiations being difficult. in hindsight should have gone in person. Not that such helps you

I would call it a trolley table, although that is a trolley-clock table

I am afraid JJ is right. The stand is supporting the anvil in the center and when using heel or horn you impart rotational force be it horizontal or vertical. The key of course is how much force. I guess if you are going to forge a little strip of flat bar using 1 lb cross peen hammer, no harm done. if you will consistently use 4 lb hammers and swing like you mean it, some of the remanent force will go to the stand and i can tell you that a weld to a 3/16 wall and a 3/8 plate will not like it one bit. if it was 1/4 wall 6" square tube single column in the center and 1" plate, you would have nothing to fear ... well assuming it is weld properly of course. As it is, and if you use the horn a lot especially sideways, you are going to crack the weld for sure. Easy remedy, make some gussets and add some weld in each of the corners of the pipes under the plate and at the bottom, if you don't want to brace the columns. Or ... unbolt the anvil and let it move freely. You get the noise back but you spare the stand. Looking at your stand once more, I like the design even when I would not build it like that. To keep the lines, you can add 4 triangular gusset at each of the outside corners of the columns at the bottom and 4 at the top at 45 degree ... and join both columns in the center with a vertical flat bar that fits neatly between them, say 1/4 of the way up from the base and short 1/4 of the way from the plate. It will still look nice and be much stronger.

There is an old photo of a scrap metal company by that name in Canada. They may well have cast that anvil from scrap ... or not ... the factory looks like the Smunz string factory from the movie Mousehunt ...

Geeee ... should have known better when I read the term "Massive" followed by the qualifier "indoor" ... I knew something was amiss. I suppose you can call it gargantuan jewelry anvil for the kitchen table See below my portable forge

And it is Marcus b and not Marc sub ... ha ha, force of habit.

I don't see how this are "gems and pearls" More like scraps and refuse. They smell off. My father used to tell me "If grandpa had wheels and a trolley he would be a tram"

Peter Wright and 450 lp. Marcsub had it right the first time. L in inches x height in inches - 110 = weight in pounds + - 20 ~ 30 lb ... works best for london pattern not so well with two horns or pigs. (no they are not farm animals)

I don't know if the OP is still interested in answers to his question but here it goes for what it is worth ... To cut that thick plate, a circular metal cutting blade is perhaps the less appropriate tool, even less if run on a woodcutting circular saw ... yet it can be used in a pinch. The way to cut thick plate as stated by Arftist is by cutting on the edge and not on the face. You must engage the least possible number of teeth at the same time to increase the pressure on each and to allow for cooling. I cut that material on the cold saw and it is slow. However since the invention of thin kerf grinding wheels, cutting thick plate is no longer a challenge. Get yourself a good quality 5" or 6" angle grinder, (we don't have 6" but 7" and then 9". 9" requires some experience and big arms) ... then ... non chinese 1mm or 2mm cutting wheels, and go real slow. Use face shield and leave the guard where it is. Cuts through it like butter. Or ... get yourself an abrasive cut off saw. They are noisy and dirty but cheap and effective.

Talking about out there solutions why not hard chrome the body of the anvil. Permanent rust protection. Then grease the face and cone ad libitum.

That is a lovely piece of steel for an improvised anvil. For anchoring you want to bolt it down in the direction of the hammer blows, so i say two steel rods vertical down, two inch from the top edge and one rod in the center more or less of the vertical plate. The 1/2" vertical rods I would weld on the underside of the horizontal plate, drill vertical holes in the timber and two blind horizontal holes 2" diameter to house the nut and allow for a spanner to tie up. The horizontal bolt would have to be a through bolt with the head countersunk and the nut recessed so that it is not in the way, and to be tied up after the verticals are done up. The hardy hole will need a bit of a cavity under it for the hardy tools to fit but not too deep. I wouldn't bother with a pritchel hole. You lose enough face to the hardy already but if you really must, have it on one side and carve a channel in the stump for the tools to get through. Nice find.

The hammer is the fingers, the steel is the clay, the anvil is the table that helps the iron stay. The fire makes me see, the colour of the metal, another blow, a few more taps and here's another petal ...

Two parts epoxy paint rules! I painted a steel ramp that links the shore to a mooring pontoon with that stuff and it is like the first day after 5 years dangling over salt water.