Marc1

Texas? isn't Texas up near new york?

PA pa ... what is that pennsivania? That is up north right ... so north = yank, Tenesee = south ... uhuu but that was so long ago!! What's california? North or South? Behave like the north but are in the south? mm confusing

What's with all this "offense" thing? i actually looked it up because with 4 languages roaming around in my brain at random I thought I sort of made some literal translation, but no, it's there in the dictionary and surely it says Counterclockwise (US)

To me that little clank is reassuring. Nothing to worry about, I'm at work ... so to speak

With the exception of Texas of course ... wait ... may be Alaska?

I am irreparably offended ... what did you say again? Anticlockwise ... what's wrong with that? Counter is something you serve coffee or drinks on.

All very interesting mountings for a vice. To me it all depends what you do on your vice. In the shop I worked I had two post vice, one smaller attached to a massive steel bench that had an engineer vice at the other end, and the main post vice, a 6" one, was mounted on a steel post concreted in the ground. Smooth concrete all around, no shelves behind it, nothing. Main reason we did decorative work and the jigs for making scrolls all were made on a L angle to be clamped in the vice. So I needed something that can be pulled sideways pushed and shoved, hammered on and that I could walk all around without anything in the way, close to the anvil and the forge. Definitely not portable or movable or that could be tipped over.

Sure you can use it ... but that's worth $50 not $150 Offer $50. Not worth much more. Or keep looking. To check if the plate is still attached to the base, use a hammer and let it bounce all over the plate by dropping it from 4" or 6" . If it rings and bounces off, the plate is solid, if it knocks hollow, ( clonk ) give it a miss, not worth your trouble. It's a boat anchor. Check for manufacturer details, that may make a bit of a difference. (not much)

8? Mm ... reminds me when I tried to get my daughter to get woodcarving at that age ... no chance. But if dad or mum are in the room, nothing stopping her hammering hot iron on a very small anvil with a very small hammer. She could be making all sort of small things. I was a bit older (15) when I started and I remember my first private project (to be done after hours), was a miniature treasure chest. Took me a while but it turned out OK. I made it with the idea it would be a gift for my wife (I was a bit aloof back then). i did gift it to my wife 10 years later. PS The market? Are you in Ohio or Dubai?

Weird looking thing ... it's adjustable ... but what for?

Paper towels rip from the top ... toilet paper roll, sheet pulls down from the wall side ... water swirls anticlockwise in the sink at it's should ...

Nice curve on that knife. You could flatten a nut and make a guard for that knife ... (?)

Talking about masters, I was looking up Habermann to see if he ever did any blades and came up with some of his home videos that have now been claimed by Benedikt Kubi Filmproduktion and "no longer available"

Take it easy guys, it all depends from the perspective you look at things. There are many kinds of smithing, and because it is an old trade, the boundaries get blurred. In Australia if you say blacksmith, you are assumed to be a farrier. In Germany or Italy, if you are a blacksmith you make gates and balustrades. I worked as a blacksmith in my dad's shop for over a decade with blacksmith who came from Europe and did architectural and decorative work for 50 years yet they would never show any interest in making a blade, nor in silversmithing or gold smithing or shoeing a horse or gunsmithing for that matter. A bladesmith is a bladesmith. Can you start as a bladesmith? Sure if that is what you want to do. You don't need to forge a bed head or a window grill to then progress to bladesmithing or gunsmithing or horse shoeing. They are all different specialties. Some harder than others. I have seen farriers at work and I don't want that job for $500 an hour. Bladesmithing? I don't like it but most folks here love it and I concede that it must be hard. Lots of metal knowledge, expensive equipment for heat treating and grinding, and many years of practice to get good at it. A lot of art in it too. I don't think there is a progression from making hooks to making blades or from making a gate to making blades, but you must start somewhere, and usually beating up a bit of iron into some useful shape is the way to start. If you want to make blades, you are in the right place for good tips. Not from me though, never made a blade and probably never will. By the way, don't antagonise Thomas, he is a good source of knowledge and fun to talk to. Well ... you can antagonise him but only a little bit ...

Try this people, they may be able to put you in contact with mr Postman. matchless antiques mod note: Facebook link removed

I am sorry to disappoint JT ... so what is the weight of your anvil? Mm ... Archimedes hei? ha ha, not very practical but very precise. Of course the "formula" is not an exact measurement, it is like I said, a guesstimator. Multiplying height width and length gives the volume of an imaginary prism and includes all the open space under the anvil and the horn and heel. A reduction has to be used to cut away all that air. I came up with divide by 6 and it works for some anvils, Kohlswa, PW and a couple of no names I have. If it does not work for wider anvils, then we may be able to change the correction factor according to width. It seems to work for anvils that are under 5" wide. May be for 6" wide it must be divided by 6.5 ? It is a work in progress. and if we get more people posting dimensions and weight of their anvils, we may be able to find the proper anvil weight guesstimator.

Your daughter you say ... buy her "The Backyard Blacksmith" by Lorelei Sims, published by Crestline.

Back pain is surely very generic, and the causes can be many. However the description of sudden immobility and pain could be attributed to weak back muscles that have been overworked somehow. The body defends itself by locking the joint down to prevent any further injury. If that is the case and if the sciatic nerve is not compromised, the various popular remedy and multiple physio/chiro/ etc advise are all directed to increase blood circulation. A damaged muscle with poor circulation can only get worst. Cold prompts the body to increase circulation to compensate the loss of heat, heat on the other hand, dilates the blood vessels and facilitates circulation, so ... the current approach is to apply alternative cold and heat in whatever form practicable. Once the spasm passes and all is back to normal and if there is no joint or nerve damage, the next step is to gain strength in the back muscles. A strong back is good insurance against back damage within reason. Joints are aided by ligaments and muscles. Weak muscles force ligaments and joints to work harder and eventually there is disk and nerve damage. The older we get, the weaker our muscles become yet our brain does not know it and we keep on doing what we did with stronger muscles. A recipe for disaster. Strong muscles can be achieved safely without strain and using gravity. Exercise does not need to be a grueling 2 hours a day but as little as 15 minutes.

I always begrudged the bad joint on wood sanding belts that give when the temperature goes up on 40 or 60 grit. A diagonal overlapping just 1/2" glued and good luck to you. I suppose that making a good belt would mean to make the cloth belt strong first and add the abrasive layer over a properly joint belt, a much more expensive process.

Interesting Thomas. Are they made in one piece of cloth with no joint, or perhaps a very good joint? Steve ... I am no knife tragic, but sharpening experts I have seen, all sharpen with abrasive away from the edge. It makes sense to me. I imagine that the particles that meet the cutting edge will probably damage a very fine edge (?)

Ha ha, Steve, and you forgot to mention that you can not just reverse the belt, but must undo the belt and turn it around or the joint may fail. As far as wheels is concerned, there is no doubt in my mind that a dedicated sharpening wheel must run upwards at the operator side and that the knife or chisel would be placed at one or two o'clock ... so to speak. (Of course if you want to sharpen a knife in the morning then ... ) Can you sharpen a knife on a grinding wheel that turns downwards? Sure but it will be awkward if you agree that the abrasive material should run away from the cutting edge since you will have to hold the knife with the edge down and visibility will be scant. If you are sharpening an axe to split wood, then you may be less particular and a grinding wheel that turns down will do just as well and you can hold the axe with the edge up. The same goes for a belt I think ... I don't have nor need a belt grinder but I imagine I can sharpen an axe on the front of a downward running belt but would most probably refuse to do so with a knife I appreciate.

Surely not the worst anvil I have seen. Probably not worth $160 though. Since you have been hunting anvils for a while, don't say no, just make an offer ... a low offer. Try $40 and see what they say. And then just use it as it is. You can always go to one of those anvil repair meeting and be the star of the day

If you want to go through the roof ... you have to solve two problems. One is sealing around the pipe for rainwater and two, shielding the heat from burning your roof structure. For sealing around the flue, you can buy purposely made flashing for the profile of your roof. Since you need a minimum of 8", your last section of flue through the roof needs to be double and the external section 10" so the flashing has to be for 10". Make sure your flue goes through the roof in the center between the rafters without touching any. Make a bracket to hold up both the external and internal pipe out of L section and screw to the rafters. The cowl for your flue needs to be 10" and the internal 8" will have to end at the same level. If you want to have a 10" flue then of course you need your heat shield to be 12"

Not that simple JHCC. if you are using the vertical face of the belt surely you want it down, no doubt. The question is when you use the top. When you sharpen a knife or chisel you want the wheel to turn away from the edge, so using the top of the wheel and having a collector at the back (unless it is a water wheel) would work best.

I have been trying different formulas to guesstimate the weight of an anvil. One that comes close is this: Height x lenght x width in inches. Add 2/3 to the result and move the decimal point to the left one place. That is the weight in lb In your case, 12x30x5= 1800. Add 2/3 (1200) = 3000. Take away one decimal point ... taraa ... 300 lb There may be a way to convert it to metric, but I couldn't be bothered. It works ok with inches and lb, happy with that. Tried with a few of my anvils from 42lb up to 230lb and it works to a t ... I started trying when I came across someone else's formula that was from memory, hight x length minus 105, but it only works for some sizes, and ignoring the width will inevitably produce large errors. You anvil at 300lb has the same height and length (12x30") than my PW at 240lb only mine is a bit skinnier at 4.3" so I tried to incorporate this value. if others can try this formula and report results, we may be onto something. If it produces consistent errors we can adjust the number added to it (2/3) to correct up or down. PS, all my anvils are London pattern. A german pattern with two horns and usually wider may need a different value added to it (or not)