Jump to content
I Forge Iron

Corsac

Members
  • Posts

    17
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Timmins, Ontario
  • Interests
    Smithing evidently, hunting, fishing, off-roading, firearms, the outdoors, politics, philosophy, history (particularly European and Middle-Eastern), films and music...
  1. I responded to an internet ad a guy put up to sell an anvil he was done with for $300, I went and checked it out, was in pretty decent shape and passed the ball bearing test and all, so I picked it up. Also ended up tempted and bought his old firewood processing saw, for the cool old wide blades, the honda engine and the fact that the frame of it will make a decent work bench, and the feed system could be jerry-rigged to lift logs onto my mill. And we got to talking about smithing and projects and such and before I left he told me he had something else for me and went back into his house and gave me this little jeweller's anvil of some kind, with a built in vice. The only marking I could find on it is on the end of the handle, (detail on one of the attached photos). A circle with a dent in the center. So anyone know anything about these little anvils? I'm curious to know about it's history, if it has any at all. Whatever the case, I think I'll put to use at some point.
  2. Noted. Nothing was particularly impressive about this one, I just figured it might be worth it at a pretty cheap price. It's got all manner of scratches and nicks. Didn't have much of a ring either, so I guess that explains it. Unless they offer a fairly aggressively low price, I guess I should pass this one up. (Already have a very good anvil anyway)
  3. Some people I've known for a while, who have vast troves of old stuff (the late estate owner having been a multimillionaire and all) have both an old Canadian Forge blower and anvil make anvil they're willing to part with, and I'm trying to come up with a reasonble price. It's not very big, and quite rusted and full of scratches and scars. I think maybe around 60 pounds or so, and requiring substantial work to the face. However I wouldn't mind a bit of a beater to practice on, and potentially give to a friend of mine. Anyone have an idea what these anvils are made of and what would be a reasonable offer? I certainly don't want to overspend, but these are people who have a lot of stuff that could be of use to me, so I don't want to undercut too much. That being said given the work I'd have to put into this anvil, I think something around the $50 CAD mark would be entirely reasonable. (and for the future, they also have a forge which is slowly rusting at their garage, which their mechanic would love to give to me, but they have a tendency to cling to things heh, so I'll wait to ask about that)
  4. That's what I started thinking near the end. Think I'll modify it a bit and do that, since part of the trouble I was having with it was that I just couldn't chisel a gap into the steel without it flying away on me. Guess my next project will be to make some other hardy tools as well. Yeah, I am intending to build a smithy of some kind around this soon, have a mill attachment for my chainsaw that I've been wanting to put to use. Luckily I think there's plenty more scrap around that I could use to extend the chimney to whatever length I need.
  5. Whatever works, he seemed like a pretty nice guy too, so I can imagine him being easily talked down. What's your current anvil?
  6. Yeah, I had to pounce on that when I got the chance. Paid the ask price, since I both wanted him to deliver somewhere and also had him paid with a cheque. It was a good deal already, you must have some decent bartering skills to talk him down that much. Did you see his other cool looking anvil set?
  7. Hmm, this is giving me some ideas. Nice forge!
  8. Well, my first forge was an old wheel from a chevy in the field at my neighbour's place with legs welded to it. It was oversized and awkward, and not particularly well made because I wanted to try building one sooner rather than later, but it was also mid winter and the cold pushed me to work fast and not well. I decided when I recently picked up my anvil (upgraded from an I-beam with a plate welded to it) that I should make something a bit nicer and more efficient. So in the last few days I've had off I gathered various bits of scrap from around the garage and property. After much collecting, the death of many valiant zip-cuts and a lot of flux core welding wire (it doesn't make very nice welds) I managed to build a new forge. I'm not sure what the tank I used was originally for, but it had been laying in the rubble of an old homestead that had once been the center of this property. Also nice to see that there's a decent amount of other scrap steel out in that field. Anyway, I tried it out today and found it works pretty well, though the chimney may need some modifications in order to draw better, since I got quite a bit of smoke coming out of the opening as well. I'm not totally if there's such a thing as oversized when it comes to chimneys and flues?. Other things i found were that I may need to replace or reinforce the 'firepot', which is just the bottom of the tank. The width varies in some places due to corrosion from having sat in a field for so many years. Luckily the top half is in much better shape, and more uniformly thick, so if it comes to that I'll just cut and swap. I'll probably cut another opening later on as well, so I can work on longer bits of steel, but I'm feeling pretty good today now that I've tried it and it works. I attempted a knife from a piece of rusted bar, and an axe head from a bolt that used to hold track pads to a D8 Cat. The knife turned out well, the axe head not so well, but it still felt great to look at it and realize I made this. Any comments or suggestions about the design?
  9. Well I know it's been a couple months since I last posted anything here, but I may as write an epilogue. I didn't end up buying this anvil, but I kept an eye out on kijiji and such province wide. For a while there was nothing particularly special or well priced. I wasn't in too much of a hurry anyway as I intend to work outside for now, and winter only just seems to have ended this past week. Anyway, then a guy who lived only a few minutes from my grandparents place (he's in Oakville, they're in Mississauga) posted a 75 kilo Peddinghaus with a mount for $575 and said he could deliver locally. Called him, had him deliver to my grandparents' place, and they were nice enough to spot me the money until I got down there to pay them back. And my last days off I made the trip down, picked up the anvil, visited the grandparents, had a couple pub nights with friends who live in the south, checked out 'Thak Ironworks' and bought some smithing coal, loaded my truck with stuff my grandpa didn't want anymore and headed for home. Unfortunately I had other appointments for my last two days off so I haven't got the chance to fire up the forge and really try it out. But four nightshifts and it's time to see what she can do. You can see the simple 'plate welded to I-beam' anvil I made underneath the saw. Never actually got around to using it though. I'm thinking I'll weld the two halves of that I-beam together and weld some legs on to make a sort of workbench/welding table. Now to improve my forge design for efficiency.
  10. Well, at this point yeah, I think I'm gonna let this one sit. I've got half the town on the look out for me, with a few more leads. Asked around the mine where I work, around people who work at the papermill in town (which apparently had a blacksmith at one point)...My shifter (basically my boss) said he might have one in his basement that he would just give to me.
  11. Yeah. The guy who has it seems to have a lot of listings on the local buy/sell/trade site I found it on. (Kinda like a North-Eastern Ontario only Kijiji), so I'm thinking he's a picker or some such, and this wasn't just laying around, hence the price. I may go check it out at some point, but I have no qualms with walking away, particularly given what I'm reading here. I discovered while shopping for a truck almost a year ago that good things come to those who wait. Maybe that'll work again.
  12. Thanks for the replies everyone. That was my counter offer. He originally wanted $600, so I opted to ignore him a while to show I wasn't in a hurry, and he emailed me again telling me he was open to offers. I offered him $400. He declined and told me $500 was his lowest. I'm letting him sit again for now. Problem is I don't think he's in a hurry to sell it either. I'm also thinking of trying to find a deal down in Southern Ontario, and picking it up on my next trip down to visit family, but then I don't have the luxury of time or the ability to ask around like I do here.
  13. This is my first post here. I've built myself a little forge and got a nice blower, but I lack an anvil. I've been looking around, posting ads, asking here and there, and the one lead I got was for this one, which is relatively near to me (about 100kms, I live in a very sparse region). Dimensions according to the seller are: 11"H x 24.5"L Top 4"W Base 11" x 9" Weight 175lb. I've been meaning to go check it out in person, test the ring and rebound, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Anyway, the guy is asking $500 as his lowest price for it, and he claims there are no markings on it but the weight. I'm not counting on finding too many anvils in this region, and cheaper deals will likely cost me as much in fuel anyway. I had a few leads that lead nowhere unfortunately. Anyway, can anyone tell anything about this anvil from the pictures? Words of sage advice? I'm not adverse to spending $500 CAD if I have to, I just want to make sure it's money well spent. Thanks, and I'm looking forward to getting into smithing!
×
×
  • Create New...