midnightblue69

Kinda looking for some ideas. I'm working on a project and I want to make some crosses out of round 9/16" 1018 steel. When planning I was looking to drill a hole about 1/2" in diameter through the upright and draw it out to 9/16 with a drift then press my cross piece in, I was thinking much more artistically than practically. I neglected the dynamics of how little steel I'd have to draw. I then started thinking about making 2 cross pieces and turning the insides to a smaller diameter and pressing in. Anyone have any thoughts as to an apealing look or technique? would it be possible to draw the hole out that big starting with a smaller diameter? Any ideas? Thanks!

Well I went to the auction and long story short, the anvil turned out to be 325lbs and sold for $675. It was in decent usable shape, rang good, well used but not abused but definitely not pristine. The auction was in Shenandoah County Virginia which is still stuck many years in the past, good and bad. However it turns out that there are a number of prominent blacksmiths in Shen co(Makes sense now) When I saw several people standing around it discussing anvil manufacturers and history like their mothers could quote The Old Testament, my hopes started sinking. Everyone agreed that the anvil was not a 200 pounder' and they had several of the early flat feed scales being auctioned so they weighed it. Indeed it was 325 on two scales. I saw deal after deal after deal get sold between 8am and noon so I was still kind of hopeful but when the anvil was up I blinked and it was at $400 and settled on $675. I bought some things but still left bitter not only for the time spent driving an hour and waiting on that anvil in vain but for things I wish I snatched up but didn't waiting on that anvil. Those flat scales all sold for $50 or less and saw some incredible deals go by. What I did buy that was pretty cool was several lots of old wrenches and tools. I bought about 8 beer can flats full of old American wrenches with the intended purpose of forging them into cool things. When I got home I found about a half dozen old black wrenches with the Ford script on them and I started doing some research. The Ford script wrenches were from Model T era factory tool kits. As it turns out, about half of the wrenches were Ford factory tools of various old manufacturers from between the turn of the century and 1940. While they are not worth a fortune, I don't think I will be beating those into candle holders...

Hi everyone! There is a local auction tomorrow and they are listing an anvil, the listing says it weighs over 200lbs. I emailed the auction house and asked if there were any markings on it and they replied "There is an R on each side underneath the horn. No pound weights or any other markings." I searched some and found nothing. I am attaching a pic, I'm not sure if it's the picture or not but it kind of looks like the facemay be bowed some. Does anyone have any idea as to the brand? I don't believe I would pay a lot for it but I'd like to be armed with a little more info. Thanks!!