George Geist

Great score!!!!!! George

My word this kid sounds like a real poster child for a prophylactic. Doubt if much can be done about it honestly. Because he obviously has no respect for parents, teachers, or any other kind of authority eventually the day will come when he'll deal with the ultimate authority meaning the police. Till that day comes everybody this spoiled brat gets around has to suffer. The good news though is that safety issues are things you can run with all day long. Put up a rope and keep everybody behind it. If they don't behave themselves stop and shut it down. Nowhere is it carved in stone you have to do anything for anybody. You're in control of your deal. If it doesn't operate as you want it to pack it up and go home. George

Well.... Maybe start out here: https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=jay+sharp+tools&ei=UTF-8&fr=chrf-yff17 When I first came around the man was already a legend. His tools were always highly sought after and always brought premium prices. You might find stuff of his on ebay but it will always be expensive especially since he's gone now. I read an article in an old American Farriers Journal back in the early '80s written about him where he said he was making his turning hammers out of Kenworth truck kingpins. The guy was definitely a helluva hand. George

Don't know about knives but when Jay Sharp was still alive and making tools he used them a lot to make turning hammers and such. Is great steel for toolmaking. George

You've already got a coal forge. I wouldn't have a gas forge as a high priority right now. When you do decide to buy one I'd recommend a Hypona or a Forgemaster Blacksmith model as I think those are best on the market right now as far as gas forges go. Is plenty of other stuff you should be investing in as Glenn says so I'd not be thinking about gas forges right yet. Get good with the coal you'll probably learn to like it better anyway. George

All this talk of cold weather what are you guys doing working outside? In an indoor shop it should be a non issue. If you are in fact working outside in temps like that (can't imagine why) yes it will pull heat from your work pretty fast but it shouldn't take long at all to warm up your anvil. Heat up a piece of scrap 2 or 3 times and let it sit on your cold anvil. That will bring up your temp good enough. If you're looking to do some welding that will be harder. You really want your anvil to be hot for that. George

Amen to that! Too many guys on here recommend railroad track, flat plate etc etc. BS! They don't want to buy a decent anvil they need to find another hobby. On this point I need to disagree. Older horseshoers anvils yes. Absolutely. Most of the contemporary ones wouldn't make a decent boat anchor. Keep away from any cold shoeing cowboy ASO's with turning cams, heel hooking holes and other such undesirable features that modern day horseshoers seem to demand of the manufacturers. George

Never heard that term but will try to find out. Any chance they might mean "Swede" steel? A very good grade of tool steel comes from Sweden and I have heard that term. In the meantime your plan sounds like a good one.

Is not a pritchel hole but a "heel hooking" hole. These things along with turning cams are common amongst cold shoeing cowboys who never learn how to use an anvil's horn properly. On this anvil it was added later on by some ham fisted individual but many low quality contemporary anvils and ASO's have this undesirable feature. Pass it by it's another mutilated abortion. George

Very good point Rockstar. Need to bear in mind professional Blacksmithing might be operating a giant steam hammer all day long in some factory somewhere. Yeah the guy is classified as a Blacksmith by his company's payroll department but aside from that big machine he may never have picked up a hand hammer or touched an anvil in his life. Is a guy like that a Blacksmith? Yeah I suppose so but I'd wager it's not what most guys have in mind when they want to get into the trade. Most guys that do some smithing, at least in this country tend to be sole proprietors and hobbyists who do something else for a living because in spite of everybody's wishful thinking and love for the craft, it's not something most people are likely to make a living from. The Bladesmith certification and anything like it are worth the time and effort to attain. If knives were where my interests laid I'd be there. If I could turn the clock back about 35 years I'd have gone to Europe and trained over there. Hindsight is always 20/20. Best of luck to you, George

Depends, There is another thread I started about this subject some time ago around here. For horseshoers yes. There is and it's recommended you pursue it if that's the way you want to go. If not, forget about that aspect of it, Railroad Blacksmiths, Shipyard Blacksmiths etc all have training and Apprenticeships approved by the DOL through the Boilermakers Union www.boilermakers.org The knifemakers guild has a certification. Also worth persuing. Artist Blacksmiths, like majority of guys on this forum and I guess most of the guys in the craft, have nothing. I understand ABANA was working on something but haven't really pushed it very hard so doubt if it will come to fruition. Other countries have more to offer in this area than USA does. What area does your interest lie in? George

They look like nice ones. No distributors outside that country? George

Guys, That's been said since long before the 1990's. I first came around the trade in the '70s and it was common belief then. Truth of the matter is it makes sense. Blacksmith shops were the industry. There were no factories. Shoeing horses was important yes but there was a lot more to it than that. Farm equipment, weapons, you name it the Blacksmith did it. When an enemy army shows up they're not there to have tea. The primary job of any army is to kill people and to wreck things. Why in the world wouldn't Blacksmith shops be a primary target of destruction to neutralize a town? Of course they would. I believe that stuff happened because it makes perfect sense and is logical. What I don't believe is that so many wrecked anvils we find are confederate because I think they'd have been scrapped long before any of us were born. As an interesting point that I'd hope Josh Kavett might comment on is after all this happened, the south needed anvils. Fisher Anvil Company for a time made anvils without their eagle logo on them just for the southern market.

Oral history passed down through the years tells us that during the civil war the union army went from town to town destroying any blacksmith shop they found. Before burning them down they would wreck the anvils with sledge hammers so they couldn't be used. Might this be a wrecked confederate anvil? Doubt it but might make for a good blarney tale. I'd be inclined to trust my own eyes which tell me it's just an old POS. Pass on it George

Exactly, well put. Hey, any of you guys remember this guy? http://www.biography.com/people/bhagwan-shree-rajneesh-20900613 I can remember an interview with this fellow when him and his brain dead cult followers were taking over an Oregon town where he was asked about all his Rolls Royces. Newsman asked didn't he think having 60 of them was a bit excessive? He said NO! Absolutely not! 600 of them would not be excessive! Same can be said for anvils. Greed is good. If you decide to pursue this craft, you'll keep acquiring more. Keep both anvils and be happy with them. When it's time to grow and expand your shop you'll be ready to go. Keep them all and look for more to buy. You'll be glad you did. George

Can you tell if it's forged or cast all steel? I'd figure with no raised relief writing is probably forged but looks like a real nice one whatever it is. Good score

Anything done to Jack's anvils would probably be an improvement. The mutilated one that was subject of this thread was a nice Swedish Centaur. Why in the world did you guys dig this thread out of the trash? You all trying to give me a heart condition?????

Very cool film. Last company to be hand making axes to supply the lumbermen in Maine. If I ever see one someplace I'll sure buy it.

Nice work Charles

Found this vid of some guy in Ukraine or Russia or someplace that made a forge in a teepee. Looks like it works for him. What a cool idea? It's cheap and portable. I like it.

Hay Budden made anvils for many other companies. Sears and Roebuck (Acme) Montgomery Ward, and many other hardware chains. Oftentimes they printed those other firms names on them but not necessarily always. Is a pretty safe bet that anything that looks like a HB probably is. Manufacturing process was forging. Most of which was done by hand. 5 or 6 guys swinging sledge hammers. Good at it as they were it was impossible to get them all the same as in machine tooling thus most of them will have imperfections and not be perfect matches. George

In railroad work, at least here in the 21st century US, it's pretty easy to find out. All railroad work is Union. The various crafts are all under national contracts. Blacksmiths are represented by the Boilermakers Union www.boilermakers.org I believe most Boilermakers for class 1 railroads right now are at about $30 hr plus good benefits including railroad retirement. Electricians are at about the same scale and are both deservedly about the highest paid people on the railroad. I can't speak for what they were paid in GB all those years ago but I'd imagine comparable for the time and place? I'm sure some of our British friends know more about it than I do. Yeah very British of him of course but I think in those days there was a very clearly defined line between labor and management and the social status of both.

Some really neat stuff here: Might we have any railroad men on the site? Looks like a satisfying job

https://hoofcare.blogspot.com/2016/06/pennsylvania-court-racetrack-farrier-license-test.html#more Just FYI. Until further notice I'll not be discussing it though. George

Try these guys: http://www.penncoal.com/default.php They'll ship anywhere