confederatemule

Thanks for the reply, Thomas.

If this is in the wrong place, please accept my apology and put it where it belongs. I am in the market for a vintage forge blower. I have 5 to choose from and I know nothin bout blowers. My choices are: Champion; no.40, no.400, and a Champion with no number but identical to the no.40 only smaller. Buffalo; List 1268, and no.200 Assuming they are each in excellent condition, which is the best choice or most popular, and why? If parts are needed, later on, which would be the easiest to get parts for? I don't want to have to wring my arm off in order to get a high heat and I don't want to have to strain to get it started turning. As far as the work I'll be doing, let's assume I will be doin all sorts of building, from ornamental trinkets to tools and accessories needed to keep a farm in tip top operation. Thanks for any opinions. Mule

Thanks y'all. Mule I'm wishing y'all a merry Christmas.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will, for sure, be adding oil in the future. Mule

Well now that I see that I need to start adding oil to sand, is there a standard amount of oil per standard amount of sand?

I know this is an old thread, but maybe I can still get a response. Sand and oil in the stands. I've used sand for years. Why add the oil? Mule

Thanks Michael, for the response and the pictures. Mule

COL D&I CO., with a large number "4" centered above the letters. Is anyone familiar with this company? The name is cast into the bottom of the mounting base, below the wedge slot. This is the same vise I am looking for a wedge for. Course, after y'alls help I will be making wedge. Thanks for any information. Mule Your 2 threads have been merged, there is no need for a new thread about this

Mine had a "keyed wedge" and a "locking wedge". I still have the "keyed wedge". I'll bet the keyed wedge has a tapered edge. I'll have to check it out. If so, all I'll have to do is match the keyed wedge taper. :)

In case anyone lookig at this thread is iterested, I found a name and number on the bottom side of the mounting plate. It it: "COL D&I CO" with a large number "4" centered above the letters. Mule

Thanks, ThomasPowers, for your response. I thought that might be the case. So, I'll do as Glenn suggested. MULE

Thanks, Glenn. I'll do that. :) Mule

I bought a post vise on Ebay. It got to me yesterday, with the mounting plate disassembled. Every part was there. Just so everyone will know I am very pleased with the vise. The UPS man was concerned about the condition of the cardboard box it came in. Upon his request we unpackaged the vise right there in the driveway. It was complete and undamaged. Later that day I put the vise in the loader bucket on my tractor and moved it to where I wanted it. Today I was going to assemble the vise. :( I must have overlooked the wedge in the loader. Since I moved it I have used the tractor to till my garden. At any rate I can't find the wedge. My question is; Can any one give me the deminsions of a wedge? The size at both ends. I want the taper to be as near original as possible. Is the taper only on one edge? BTW ... I can find no manufacture name or mark on the vise. Thanks for any help. Mule

I know this is an old thread, but I had to comment. Your Forge is really nice. I like it very much. In post 19 didn't you say; "Photos of it in operation soon." ? That sure would be a treat for these old eyes. Mule

Thanks, the iron dwarf.

ThomasPowers, what does "Tif" stand for? Also, does "CWT system" mean Counter Weight system? I am not good with initials or what ever they are called. To anyone who might know: Speaking of numbers, what does the 924 stand for? Could there have been a "1" in front of the 9? Making it 1924. What is the meaning of the 11 in front of the weight? What are the numbers on the rear base flange about? I now know where it is from, now I am curious about other details. Thanks Mule

Thanks to y'all who helped me out with the anvil. Mule

In case any one is curious, I gave $350.00 and drove 175 miles, one way, to get the tools pictured. Mule

Thanks, Black Frog and Crazy Ivan. Using y'alls suggestions I got this information from the web site, Blacksmith's Gazette. Anvils in America by Richard Postman. Richard devotes almost three pages to the Paragon anvil, which was made by a Swedish company names Soderfors. The advertisements claim that they are solid forged steel, but Postman feels they are cast steel. He says that it really doesn’t make any difference, because they are excellent anvils. Soderfors has supposedly been making anvils since about 1200 AD; however, he could only find records of the Paragon anvil dating from around 1902 as the oldest and about 1934 as the newest. Soderfors Bruks Akkticbolag was located in Falun, Sweden and exported blacksmith’s , farrier’s, and sawmaker’s anvils to the United States. The number stamped on the anvil would be its actual weight, they didn’t use codes. Paragon Solid Steel Anvils were made in weights from 50 pounds to 450 pounds. They were marked in different ways, come having a crown, some having the image of a raxor, some having the name cast in and some having it stamped on.

DSW, thanks for the suggestion. I will try the chalk thing, today. I can make out some letters, but not enough to make words. Course, the words may not be any that I am familiar with, nor know how to pronounce, even if they were all clear. I am assuming it is cast steel. It had a nice ring to it. It difinately has not been taken taken care of. Mule

Dabbsterinn, thanks for your quck reply about the images.

Well I tried, but got an error note; "You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community.". I was trying to post a link to a Photobucket folder. Mule

I bought a small Anvil. It came with a home made anvil stand with foot vice, and 10 hand tools for shoeing etc. The anvil is 73lb. I can not make out the words. There are four lines of words above the lb line. I have 28 pictures of the anvil. I would like to show all of them because I do not know which one will be the best for someone to make out the words on. Can I post that many here? Thanks Mule

You folks have given me some mighty good things to consider. I think the major repairs will wait. I think I'll do exactly as Tom suggested. I am not a blacksmith and never have been. Although I do use one, on occasion [mostly the horn]. I do have the Multi-Products 85# shoeing anvil. I bought it new in 1975 to use in my part time shoeing job. The broken anvil was given to me in 1977, so it ain't like I must really need it in perfect condition. I have the time to play now [although, the health is gone] and just thought I'd like to have a whole heavy anvil. I can look around and maybe find a whole one. Now that I have moved into the computer world, things are easier to locate. When I was looking, earlier in life, I had no way of searching, other than locally. Thanks for all of the suggestions and options. Mule