Marc1

You can make a bottom hinge on the same principle of tenon bottoming and shoulders free, by making a U with thick flat bar, drill the top side of the (horizontal) U and make the tenon bottom on the lower side of the horizontal U. The tenon will pivot against a small surface on the flat bar and the top side of the U will hold it in place. How you fix it to the post depends from materials used for the post. If it is above ground, no dirt issues and still work on the traditional principle of pivoting on the tenon. If you want the bottom hinge to be independent from the post, make a stirrup again using flat bar, this time an inverted U with a little saddle across the U, 1/2 inch below the top side and set the straight sides of your inverted U in concrete making sure you have a bit of clearance to avoid dirt build up

I wouldn't make a socket that low at ground level. Keep it well above ground. As for leveling, if that gate with those hinges sags, it is the post that is too weak or has no bracing to keep it vertical. If you adjust the gate to fit a crooked post, the question is how much do you adjust before you fix the post? But to your question, you are overthinking it. The tenon needs a healthy dose of play to allow for some misalignment. You don't need to think of it as a machinist would. 5 degrees angle in that short tenon means very little and you don't want a tight fit whatever you do. And I don't make the hinges that way. For a little gate like that I make the bottom hinge with a 5/8 flat bar, bent at 90 and riveted or bolted to the post. A sloppy fit for the tenon and you can wiggle the vertical as much as you want. However, don't forget that if your gate is not parallel to the post it will show. Even a small difference will be noticeable so you have to work on the post not the gate. To bolt against a hollow steel post, I like to use SS inserts if the wall of the post is thick enough.

Looks as if it was never used. I wonder who would need that size anvil today with power hammers and presses. A bit of a trophy it seems. I have my own "trophy" a PW at 480 lb. Looks pretty but hardly used.

Covering the anvil with some canvas at the end of the day stops rust on the face. At least it does so In the Sydney weather. Can't guarantee it will do so in Alaska. That anvil would be a perfect candidate for texturing your stock before working it. Having said that I am not sure I would be able to resist the temptation of sanding those weld blobs flat.

It is a rare virtue to take up suggestions and elaborate them that quick. I am sure your press will come up real schmick. Or like you say ... Bakgat !

Sure, nice large stump, properly cut flat and on a surface that doesn't bounce like dirt or gravel or sand, no worries. The best anvil stump is ... a real stump, that is a tree still in the ground and cut to size. Now Allen, don't get any ideas and stop eying those trees in the back ... Definitely a patented PW made in Pommy land

Maybe it is the angle you can rotate off from 90 ... (?)

My father that served in WW2 became famous for taking artillery to strategic positions on the back of mules at night. The americans called him "Il pazzo dei muli" that is the crazy mule driver. I never asked how come they use an italian nickname. When asked how he did it, he would say ... "Stay behind the artillery, in front of the mules and away from superior officers.

Stump ... mm ... sure it may work but you will get the wobbly all the time unless you bury your stump in the ground. Metal tripod for me anyday. Box with sand is also a good base. Anyway enjoy. Price ... Lots of people ask this question every day. How much is my anvil worth (after buying it mind you, not like you ha ha. ) I answer, it is worth what you paid for it. (Usually I get no answer. I wonder why ) In your case, you paid what the owner asked for it. It is called offer and demand. Nothing to be ashamed of. Anvils are overpriced by a factor of two or even three, so you got a flat rate. Good for you.

I remember once we were all trying to guess the weight of an anvil using a bucket as reference and we got pretty close In your case it was easy. It is written down in a very old weight system. So did you actually pay $200? Now get going with a nice steel stand, first project

Neat vice. It seems the idea is to be able to rotate it as you need to and the bolts that are missing a pin through the head are to tighten it and stop it from turning. I would make a heavy plate with a half moon cut to accommodate half of the vice's shaft and make two more substantial bolts with some chunky handles to tighten the nuts when required. That if you want to keep the rotating option. otherwise make a square fitting to hold the leg from further down.

I take any excuse to skip work let alone an anvil at auction ... hang on, I retired last year! ... Mm Seriously now, if you lose $300 from not showing at work just to go there and don't even know if a nutcase is there willing to spend $1000 ... do you know you can buy a new farrier's anvil for less then what you make at work in one day?

141 LB Peter Wright in good used condition. Has a lot of life in it if you can do a rebound test, even better. Worth what you are willing to pay for it. i hear there are lots of anvils in texas (no ida really) but since it is a smallish anvil even when very adequate, don't go overboard. Try $200 to start? PW are the most abundant anvil around and some rate them very high. I tend to think of them as working horses and not racing studs, so sort of middle range in quality. That anvil would be a God sent for most beginners. PS Don't get any ideas of "fixing it", take it or leave it ... I can't even make a joke about fixing anvils and my joke gets deleted

Blisters are a sign of doing something you are not used to ... or ... doing something the wrong way. I have hands the size of dinner plates and arms the size of some folks legs, yet when I occasionally use a scythe to clear the weeds in my veggie garden, i get a blister on my left thumb. Either I am doing something wrong, or the handle I made myself, is wrong, or I just don't have the thick skin required in the right places. Considering you are 14, I must assume your hands skin is still on the thin side. You will need to experiment with a different grip, a different handle, different hammer, and be patient for your body to adapt to the new activity without injury. I suggest (just a guess) that you find Hofi hammer technique and follow it. Don't use too heavy hammers. When I was your age I was a keen gymnast and we used hand protection that consisted in a narrow strip of leather on the palms fitted to the wrist and with two holes for the middle and ring finger. Just an example of how gloves can be different for different tasks. I love my fingerless gloves, but you will have to find the right protection for you, and may be eventually no protection? you will figure it out for sure

Against my best judgement, I decided to watch a bit of this program just out of curiosity. It was a contest to make a knife that would be typical of the country represented. They had 4 smith, A polish, an argentinian, an american and a french. They seem to get along well and helped each other. Skipping the details of each one's approach to the knife, I was very surprised to see the following. The argentinian smith, seemed to be the most experienced, fast and professional he was way ahead of the rest and finished a nice blade in time. When it came to fit the handle though he struck a problem that seemed futile yet cost him the competition. He drilled the first hole for the rivet near the guard, yet couldn't drill the second near the end of the tongue. He was saying the steel had some enclosure that prevented the drill to get through. What to me seemed an easy fix ... heat the point with the oxy and punch the hole with a punch and then finish with the drill ... or ... cut a groove with a grinder from the end of the tongue to the point where the rivet needs to be ... he decided to cut the tongue shorter, and fit a fake rivet that was only in the timber, so the knife had just the one rivet at the front. I was very surprised at such shortcut and as expected when they tested the knife by chopping a log, the handle split and the judge avoided injury because he was just lucky. Why would anyone do such a thing and why show it in a competition?

When profit margins are slim, and overall job cost are high, the risk factor becomes a real issue. Remind me never to do anything in a highly competitive market. It's not worth the hassle. Steve, I had similar stories of unpaid jobs, not a set up like yours though, took it on the chin and wrote it down on the experience ledger. A carpenter friend of mine had a different approach. He was called to install a large double front door for a new building belonging to a doctor who was building his new surgery. He installed the doors with the best hardware and two massive "parliament" hinges each side. The doctor told him he wouldn't pay him because the doors needed 3 hinges. (They didn't ) So he put the back of his truck against the door and smashed the lot in and went his merry way.

I assume you mean inside your gloves ... ouch! I use gloves whilst forging or doing anything in the workshop. I use fingerless gloves. Your non hammer hand will suffer from vibrations and burns. To prevent vibration I take a lose hold to the steel and use fingerless gloves. To prevent burns I don't grab anything that is hot. A full leather glove in your left hand is a double edged sword. You could of course buy yourself a long sleeve welders glove. I have one that goes all the way to my armpit that I use to weld heavy stuff with core wire that spatters a lot. Never for forging. You want to be able to take the glove off in a hurry. You will never need to take a fingerless glove off in a hurry because your fingers will tell you not to grab the stuff before you do. To find good leather fingerless gloves is a bit of a task. MMA gloves used to be the way to go, but most are now synthetic. Majority of ebay fingerless are just for show, full of holes, studs and paperthin. i found some meant for wheelchair use that are OK. Still hoping for MMA leather gloves to come back. Weight lifting gloves if full leather are also good because the padding is on the palm and not the knuckles

Sure ... basics are basics in forging, but if your thing is blades, the basics very quickly are totally different from the basics for blacksmithing, that is my point. The process of learning can take different routes. My point is that once you are past the very elementary skills, knife making is a skill in it's own.

I hear this argument a lot about knifemaking being a more advanced skill and that should be attempted after doing basic blacksmithing work. I think that bladesmithing is to blacksmithing like farrier work is to blacksmithing. Unrelated and specialised. Can someone learn to make knives without ever being able to make a scroll or a gate? I am sure. What percentage in the overall work in making a knife is forging? 20%? 30%? the rest seems to be grinding, shaping, making the handle, oops forgot heat treating, sharpening, engraving, and some other tasks I forgot. Bladesmith have an array of modern machinery from belt grinders to shapers, mills, lathes, heat treating oven, and many more sophisticated tools i couldn't even fit in my workshop. I have been blacksmithing from age 15 and 50 years later i have never attempted to make a knife. I am not interested in the end product and If I want a knife I buy myself one. On the other hand for various different reasons people are interested in bladesmithing. Good for them! others like to make horseshoes and deal with horses. Now that is a skill I admire since I like horses, but don't ask me to shoe a horse. Maybe I can make a shoe if someone gives me the criteria to use, but I can't say I will feel any sense of accomplishment. And the reverse reasoning, ... would a very skilled bladesmith an artist in making those beautiful damascus knives that would have a place in an art museum be automatically able to make a renaissance grill for a period house? or a chandelier? Not necessarily. Clearly he wouldn't need to know how, even when he would probably figure it out if he puts his mind to it. So to my point ... bladesmithing is bladesmithing. Farrier is farrier, blacksmithing ... used to be everything a long time ago, and even then I bet your bottom dollar that centuries ago they had blacksmith that made knives and swords and masters in that. others made garden tools others grills gates and chandeliers. And if someone in the 16 century wanted to be the apprentice, he would probably chose his master according to what he wanted to become. I doubt the apprentice that wanted to make blades would go fist to the master that made street lamps. Reminds me when I was 3 and I started to play piano. You had to learn to play classical music. Had to. Today I know that is a fallacy. You play what you love to play and hear. I love Jazz, classical music is a total bore. Just a thought

I agree ... HDG is the best but it shows and cleaning and filing all the bits would be an extra job. Perhaps hot metal spray galvanising will make a smoother finish and be hidden under the paint.

I hope Iron Dwarf chimes in, he made lots of press and knows all about them. Just for conversation sake, since I have never built a press, If I did, I would make a C shape and not a H shape. However in relation to your H shape design, if I understand your pictures, you don't have neither a top nor a bottom I beam across the head and bottom to take the force of the press. I see bolts at the top and a plate at the bottom. I think I beam the same as the sides should be all around and welded with gussets at every corner. Vertical I beam could have the outside flange longer and the web and inside flange shorter to join the horizontal beam ... anyway, just a thought. Bolts should all be high tensile 8.8 or similar and forget all thread. As for the slides if you wanted to have something that limits wear, that something would be soft and allow for lateral forces (I think) I rather have a bit of wear and keep the ram in place. Also welding a structure like that that takes that sort of force, needs special consideration. I would say stick welding with a powerful DC machine and the right choice of rod.

That's a thought! ... Just a couple of 20l buckets would do

Cute but not very practical. Standard double horn and side shelf with smooth transition (Southern German pattern) is the best anvil shape for general blacksmithing ... but I am sure someone may think of a side horn as the best ... I can only think of my private parts' integrity by looking at that contraption

Forged for sure. I have one like it bought at a flea market. Most of those are in peoples garden because folks don't know the difference from a hoe and pitted beyond recognition. Try making something with it. Work a log into a square beam and use it in your man cave You will have to sharpen it though and make sure you use strong leather boots.