Jim Coke

Greetings Frosty, Your question.... I use Whittkers chart of 40 45 percent... Butttt a lot of SWAG... The drift after slitting is a staged so the metal moves slow. I upset it as I am going... Forge on Jim

Greetings again Fran, All blacksmiths in the US are true and fair people... You just had a bad experience with a want to be picker that haunts Ebay .. Keep the faith and I hope you stub your toe on a great anvil... If you were closer to me I would fix you up... Jim

Greetings again.

Greetings All, Yep its time for another ( why didn't I think of that ) The way I make fleur di leis is to taper the square bar to the shape you want .. Bulge or no bulge your option... Flatten the on diagonal in a square swedge block. Than I use donut anvil tools made from old railroad car springs... Just hammer form and the will turn in a nice scroll with practice.. I hope this stimulates your interest... works for me... Forge on and make beautiful things... Jim trouble posting 2 pictures will try again

Greetings Larry, What you have is a shoemakers tools to stretch a portion of a shoe for people with corns... I have a few and it always fools people... Have fun Jim

Greetings Bike, To answer your question on the candle holder... The impressions and the twist was done prior to splitting... Needless to say it was not split with a chisel . A close eye and a good portaban.. Try it Jim

Greetings Kurgan,, I guess it depends on the type of coke you have.. Nut? Most coke users have a hard time getting it going and have to add a lot of air to keep it that way.. I would suggest that you wet the coke in a pile off the fire and drag it to the outside as needed... Adding water to the fire can be dangerous . A few times I have had an explosion in the air tube. About that of a fire cracker.. Forge on Jim

Greetings Sam, Thoughts and prayers for Poppa John. He looks good ... Ya can't keep a good man down for long... Jim

Whoooo Tim.... Frosty made me the administrator of door stops... Yes this one does qualify LOL

Greetings Fit. Looks like a punch press to me... What makes you think its a trip hammer? Jim

Greetings JG, You might try welding a 3in flat bar square to the bottom tube legs to increase the floor surface area contact... Add a couple more bars and load it with bricks like Knots said.. You are going to need weight with that size vise... Forge on .. Jim

Greetings Yves, Fun to make... With your design you could not space for a 3/8 bar.. That's why I used all 1/8 spacers .. I'm glad you could use my idea.. I will post more in the future.. Forge on Jim Woops I looked again and you can.. sorry duuuuhhh 1/4 = 1/8 make 3/8 He being in Metric land, is not likely to get 3/8 inch stock anyway :)

Frosty. Yep a lot of slit and drift... Had a bunch of spindles in that job... One key to forming a 3/4 hole in a 5/8 round bar was to form the hole on 2 ball peen hammers to achieve he roundness... The one sitting on my little anvil was a reject... Your right its a 500 pound Trenton on the original cast stand.. Belt line weld with a tool steel top... I thought you would ask... Have a delightful day my frigid friend. Jim

Greetings Yves...last, This is the best I can do at this time... It has been 12 years and the bad news is my old laptop hard drive crashed and took most of my digital portfolio with it.. I will still try to find a hard copy but we just moved to our north house after closing my shop and selling our downstate house.. Lots of stuff still in boxes.. Jim

Greetings Bobwire, It's simple ..BAD IDEA... A picture where you want to mount your bracket would help.. You could drill and put flat bolts from the inside... Forge on, JIm

Greetings Biggun, Yep your right . Sign frames would make a better after dinner roll holder... LOL .. I have made that style paper towel holder for years .. I started that design by necessity because the ones I had would flap at night when the heat came on and set off the alarm... Everyone thinks there cool and I have made several.. The counter weight keeps things from flappin... Forge on Jim

Greetings Mark, Just do as I do . ( FILE THIS UNDER IT WAS A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME ) I have a bunch... I have to live about 3 lifetimes just to finish what I started.. Remember its the journey..... I learned to determine what you like in life you must establish what you don't... Keep knockin and keep the faith.. Jim

Greetings Francesco, See your problem is temporary solved... Good friends are all you need. I find anvils and I'm not even looking.. Got 20 or so.. The key to finding anvils is don't look so hard and they will find you. I have bought 2 in the last 8 months off CL and both bargains. Plus the people that sold them to me were just fine.. I wish you well Jim

Greetings CD and Sparky, To answer your questions... The 1/4 square nut is colored by using gun blue.... Final finish is clear enamel . The screws are black oxide number 10 11/2 long... Those I bought at a flea market but are commercially available.. Have a great day and keep a knockin Jim

Greetings Matei, You got yourself a fine looking Fisher 100 pounder... I have one just like it , I think mine is new old stock , never used.... Sometimes people use the anvil face to heat things up with a torch and damage the hardness... Are you sure the face is softer in spots? How did you test it? It will serve you well for many years... Jim

Greetings Big, I seen a Vulcan just like it at an auction last week go for 350.. Some people just don't know anvils and will buy anything... go figure.. JIM

Greetings all, Time for another one of my why didn't I think of that .... I made a towel rack for my basement bathroom and when I went to put it up it just did not look right with those ugly screws... Simple fix put the screw through a 1/4 square nut... Comments welcome.. Jim

Greetings Shon, That's a Trenton... It has what they call a belt line weld where you think it looks broke... The whole top half of the anvil is tool steel.. The edges have been welded... You can tell by there is no evidence of a top plate.... Still a great anvil Jim

Greetings Yves, I'll see what I can dig up . Might still have one left.... I'ts not all that hard... Jim

Greetings again Yves, I once made a complete railing to the second floor of an observatory with 5/8 round bar stock with 3/4 punched and drifted holes for insetting 3/4 bronze balls to look like planets leading up to a header with a bronze sphere. Yep I was punch drunk Jim