dablacksmith

from what the glass blowers at the oregon state fair told me you will have problems with attaching glass as the expantion contraction rates are too different .. if it was copper you might get away with it....good luck!

nice work! really clean and well built!

ya welcome to the fun world of double edge .... its hard to get a straight line down the middle...sometimes you grind to a certan point then hand finish...but i dont know any tricks...good luck!

ok a few questions are in order ,,, where do you live ? forge prices vary from place to place .. what is your fabrication skill level? and last but not least can you afford it? it does sound high to me but if you can afford it it is a Quick way to aquire a good forge ... can you make one ... sure! but how much is your time worth...

congrats! you got one of the good customers! they are better than gold! you might play around and make something unusual you know he would like and send him a picture of it .. might get a sale and some good practice out of it ... have you got donald streeters book ? (think its professional blacksmithing) he shows a bunch of colonial items ... good book might check it out (if you dont already have it)...

i might try a few for the ren fare... thanks for the idea!

the forge is different from the blower you could hook it up with whatever pipe you want to use . the blower is a good one ! oil it and the sound might go away mine can sound kinda gravely when it needs oil..as far as firepot this type of forge dosent use one you need a grate and thats it... go ahead and clean up the forge but if the blower works good after a good oiling i wouldnt sandblast... wouldnt want any sand getting in to the bearings or gears... you could clean the outside with a wire wheel tho...

this is hilarious!!! it is stupid but it shows more imagination than some comercials ....i think the one wit the red hot horseshoe is the best tho...absoluteley holywood!!!

The amount of damage is amazing. I have never seen anything like it before. I wonder if it might have been a bad casting to start? Looks like it will work just fine.

some of it but i dont think much ... it dosent show well in pictures but in person you can see the tips of picks in the damage (or you could before i welded it up) after talking to older people it was a common practice to test a picks hardness by driveing it into the side of a anvil ... if it didnt mush or break the hardness and temper were considered "good" according th the person i bought this from (many years ago)it was used by 3 generations .....and they worked a lot for the mines...

I saw the before pictures. Do you have any after pictures or did I miss them? Armand

first is before second one is after...

That looks like a cast iron anvil did you do any pre or post heating?

no i did not and ime not sure what the anvil is made of... it was pretty gnarley to start but it actually welded fairly nice ... figured there were enuf pockets to hold the weld to keep it in place ... it is all weld and ime quite pleased with how the welds look.shouldnt be a problem as there is not really any stress on it...

where are you at?if your close enuf i might be willing to trade a good anvil for yours... i am into history and its defenitely a historic anvil...

ide be tempted to reforge it back ... but it would take a lot of work to make that a good anvil ....considering its age i would NOT grind it back....if i could not reforge it properly ide leave it alone and use a newer anvil for forging on....

They must have tested A LOT of picks on that! How much wire you figure you went through welding it up?

figure about 5 lbs ... actually welded it up over a few days .... kinda pleased at how nice its lookin...

well ive had this anvil for years and its a good anvil reasonable bounce but the side just looked ugly! i was told that previous owners used the side to test picks after hardening .... anyway it needed fixing..so i decided to try welding it up ..i set my wirefeed welder up high and went at it ... the face never got to warm to touch so it didnt affect the hardness ...next step will be a sand blaster then away to work!

nice links i especially like the first one as it has real good pictures!

looking good! I like your leaves how did you get the edge shapes ?chizel or ?ime close to finishing mine will post when done .

meat turners, crosses, fireplace pokers the afore mentioned hooks of every size and shape, nails, fire strikers,a few bigger items like potracks,chandeliers, campfire tripod sets,my biggest sellers art dinner triangles tho...kinda boring to make but they sell.....

ya i have a extra champion 400 blower for just this reason... also have a spare firepot just in case ...and a friend with extras is a good thing!

ive noticed there are a lot of people who like real long pokers ... at the puyallup fair they are big sellers ....

well yesterday i decided to forge a bickern out of some 1 1/2 rnd shafting i had as a leftover ... i dont usually forge anything that big and it took some serious pounding ! I first squared it up and slightly upset it to fit hearty hole (1 1/4 hearty) then the fun part cutting it! with my hearty and a 12 lb sledge it took 3 heats to cut all the way thru (a lot of wasted time trying to control a too heavy piece one handed) then tapering (my power hammer does that job handily) next the bend.....that was a tough job even at yellow heat 1 1/2 shaft dosent like to bend ...finally got it bent ... i may try this challenge but ime not going to care how many heats it takes... the tool he made in the video i could use (even tho i have several swage blocks)

for strikers i like garage door springs (as mentioned above) and also potatoe digger rods . they are usually 3/8 or 1/2 in rnd and asking at the manafacture i learned they are currently using 5160 . forge to square and your set!just about any spring steel should work ...I oil harden mine so i dont get breaks . was water hardening but had breakage .

looks good ime also getting ready for a show (ren fare) .dont forget meat turners to go with your utensil sets! good luck!

ok here is a picture of the rr spike after forging out under power hammer heated to beyond magnetic (cherry red) then quenched in my beeswax and crisco mix . set over edge of anvil and hit with hammer as you can see this is hard. this spike is new and is not from the 60s i do not know when or why they made these but they are high carbon . a mild steel treated the same way will bend and not break.

might add some rose buds ... its lookin good tho...got sumthin similar goin as a pannel for the ren fair ....