Marc1

So true and the reason much of the artistic work has disappeared or relegated to niche markets. Reminds me of a carpenter I knew who specialised in furniture and carvings. He was commissioned once a large studio complete with desk table and bookshelves all with intricate carvings and heavy in detail. he worked on this for years and covered each section as he progressed with canvass. When he finally finished he was unable to price it and got paid only a fraction of it's real value. I grew up in a period where we had a transition between the old style of work with no welding and all rivets and cutting hot, to electric welding, rivets only where you can see it and cut with guillotine. The angle grinder was not in use yet however the master blacksmith in the shop, used a flexible shaft with a grinding wheel (no guard) when it was needed. My mentor and master blacksmith started not as a blacksmith but as a draftsman working for the most prestigious decorative iron merchant of my time and a feared competitor of my father's art shop. He then learned the craft and begun "modernising" the methods of production in order to become competitive. What we made back in the sixties, would still be classified as top work today in Europe, but you would be able to tell the difference when comparing to a century old gate or bed. In those days it was a job to put food on the table, not a debate about purism of methods. We had pride in what we did, and we did better than others, sure. But shortcuts to be able to sell something rather than pricing ourselves out of the market was a consideration every time. Today, with a shrinking market and an aging body, the choice is simple, make something you like, the way you know best to do it. Price it accordingly or ... may be give it away if you can afford that.

Hi George, Your post is interesting and I am surprised you didn't get more replies. The most likely difference you will come across when debating art versus craft, is that art is geared towards producing emotions in the viewer, and craft produces tangible objects that can be repeated and mostly fulfil a purpose. Sure not a perfect explanation but it agrees with those who think art is vane, useless and an expression of the author's ego. I don't agree with that and think those are sour grapes thoughts however art, if it needs to be defined, needs to produce an emotion in the viewer I agree with you that art does not need to be unique or expensive to be art, but in the next sentence you say that you made a bigger contribution by selling a larger number and therefore producing more happy people ... or words to that effect. That may be so and good for you, but ... art is not defined by making people happy, and not by how many people it makes happy. A few different concepts there. Then we have the issue of selling your product, be it art or craft does not matter, there are reasons that make a person buy art, and different reasons that push someone to buy craft. Marketing has a lot to do with it too. I suppose that we could write pages on the topic, but let me tell you a personal experience. Across from my place used to live a lady painter. She lived in the area for 30 years, was known as the local artist, manned the local art gallery for decades and sold her paintings there for an average of $100 to $150 for medium size canvas. She started to get older and her kids that lived 400 km away, told her to move closer. She finally decided to go, moved her studio and kept on painting the same style and size of painting she sold before. With one difference ... because she is no longer young and energetic, she decided to price her paintings at $1000 to $1500. Take it or leave it she thought. Less work more pay. Last time I spoke to her she is selling a painting a week at $1000+ ... Typically this can not be reproduced with craft. As much as things can be a thing of beauty, and I have seen some of the knife photographs by some of the members here that I would put in a frame and certainly not use to cut stake, there is a limit for people to pay for a knife or a fire minding set, a gate or a bottle opener. Not because they are menial objects but because they are object and not "art" May be artistic, sure ... anyway, you can see the conundrum. As for the artist personality, needing to be weird ... I don't know that such can be a rule of thumb. More a pose, but ... generalisations are not usually very useful. Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable Another one ... Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one. Stella Adler Some more ... You can't teach the poetry but you can teach the craft. David Hockney And finally ... We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. Ernest Hemingway

My unceremonious reply is due to your unceremonious post above. Not only it is silly but it is also false. I can guarantee to break anyone's finger laying between two chairs with a 20 lb or a 100 lb anvil on my belly and a 16 oz hammer or if you prefer a 3 lb hammer. Like I said, if you think that you can increase the mass of your anvil by having a bigger stand, join the rest of the believers and be happy with that assumption. I am in no way going to add to that. The rest of your boring long post that claims all I say is false is very funny, but is devoid of any substance and so merits no reply. Better luck next time.

Wow ! Now I know who to ask to build me a flame thrower

Sorry Arf, been there done that, no idea what your are talking about, and the rest of your inertia claim ... well ... we covered it already to no avail. How about using the whole earth as stand? ... again ... been thee done that, too late. If you want to believe that the stand adds mass to the anvil, be my guest

That is cute Das.

It's only a matter of finding a good freight forwarder. LCL shipping is actually cheap. i had a quote from Refflinghaus to send me a 200K southern pattern and the fright was no big deal and I am way further than you guys are. I decided against it but not because of the cost of shipping. I remember asking Perun to quote plus shipping for a forge fire pot, but they declined stating that shipping was "too expensive". A lot of suppliers don't have the expertise or the manpower to deal with international transactions but all you need is to find a Freight Forwarder and they have agents in most countries, so the Polish agent will handle it and then the US agent will take over. Their fees are very reasonable so much so that it is not worth your while doing it yourself. I use IBC pacific. It is a mickey mouse operation in Sydney but works with all the big players in the most unlikely country on earth. I shipped from machinery and engines via sea, to flowers air freight. It is easier than you think.

I always liked the farrier anvils with their convoluted shapes. Not that I would have much use for them, they just look great ... certainly better than my battered PWs just a tad too light though. Poland and some of the other eastern Europe countries are the last stronghold of the european decorative blacksmith and anything currently produced for working blacksmith in the region can not be junk or it wouldn't sell. May not compare with a Reffi but they are also half the price or less. They also produce solid fuel forge parts at competitive prices. For most the shipping can be a killer unless you know your way around LCL shipping.

Most likely means done individually, one at the time.

4x4 for the legs, 3/16 plate for the feet. And you need to find a 1" plate or similar for the top. Make a tripod, legs at 12 degree or so, fill the legs with sand and oil, plenty of detailed designs to copy on this site.

I use plastic barrels under cover. Get a bit of condensation at first so let the lid open for a few weeks. Then shut the lid, no issues.

I like the torch marks on the sides. It looks like those rock cliff cut with drills and blasted out. Part of the anvil history. It is what it is, no point making it nicer. You will buy another one eventually and sooner than you think. Enjoy it as it is.

A "lifetime reputation" ruined by one misdeed and on social media of all places? Then it was a meaningless cardboard cutout of very little value. Hot air, nothing else. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/happiness-in-world/201004/the-value-good-reputation

Quoted so often that it seems to be true, yet it is not. However it is more interesting to consider why this quote repeated at nauseam appears to be true. Without getting too technical, the way we perceive others has more to do with what we want to perceive, than what the others really are. In other words, we build up other people's reputation with naivety and tear it down with schadenfreude. Studies show that stakeholders support the fallen and outsiders rejoice in his misdeeds. There is much more to talk about reputation building and destroying, but that popular say is clearly false or at least misleading.

Потрясающая работа. Это публичная скульптура? Hopefully I have written "Amazing work ... Is this a public sculpture? " Google is touch and go most of the time

Yes, the large industrial one are easy to find. Yet there are smaller ones for relatively cheap.

But plywood is made with trees ... And Maleic acid is made with Butane, and polyhydric alcohol is also a natural product all coming from nature itself. So unsaturated polyester resins are as natural as a tree ...

It always surprised me the reluctance of using fans to boost flue performance. Very comon in the UK If you add up the cost of 12" double wall flue, and compare with 6" or 8" fan forced flue, i think the fan will come for free. The fan you need to look for is called a centrifugal fan aka squirrel cage fan, very much like a forge blower. . The fan is inside a box and the motor is outside the box, so heat is a non issue. Axial fans like a bathroom fan would be of course out of the question. Check Cincinnati fans and Dayton fans. Plenty there to choose from. Someone posted a forge in an enclosed space some time ago ... believe it was Sweden (?) 6" pipe at 45 then horizontal and then upwards, would never work not even in a storm, yet worked a charm with a simple fan.

Yes, Kozzy, you are correct however I think it would be way too powerful. A vice is not a press and only needs to hold, not to crush. Your way is feasible of course and pressure can be limited in many different ways. I would give the air wrench a go for now. Cost is very low and reversing direction is a matter of getting to the little valve with a small lever attached to the pedal. Press to clamp, release to unclamp ... or ... press once to clamp and press again to release. If then you decide to go gargantuan, you can always make a monster vice and adapt a truck air brakes to action it or if you go lazy ... buy one readymade http://www.heinrichco.com/savise.htm

It's a good idea and easy enough to make. Only thing I would be concerned is the speed. Closing a vice with air pressure would make it rather snappy, with unintended consequences depending from the speed of the closing jaw. Further away, more speed. Kind of dangerous. I suppose you can tame the speed with a regulator ... not sure. One way to make it safer would be to use an air motor attached to the screw. So you wizz it in and out by air pressure but slow it down a lot. You can adapt an air ratchet wrench for that. I would prefer hydraulic any day with a foot pedal.

Vacuum cleaners that have a blow port are much better than hair dryers and usually able to work for hours non stop. Another thing to check is your clinker breaker or absence of it. Anthracite depending on provenience can get into a sticky mass and prevent air from getting through. Mixing it evenly with bituminous is one way to make it work better. Some tell me even mix with charcoal but I never tried that.

If you can lay your hands on a bit of fibrosteel, that is the stuff used to reinforce concrete to build dams, you may have a better result. I used to work for BHP a long time ago and we made the stuff. It looks a bit like this >-< , very small, some 15mm long. Russian invention I believe. Makes the concrete much stronger.

When you buy another anvil, you can stand that one on the broken side and use it as a cone mandrel

Well done, you can say that again! Don't forget to post pics of how you mount it. Thomas bracing is what I would follow.

I like Centaur Forge products although I agree they can be a cash dump