TreeHouse

Nah... the stands made from some 4x4's I had and some 4"x3" old oak beams taken out of a barn. I removed the nails and planed the oak down to make a solid cross-section then coutersunk and bolted that beast together... what you can't see in the picture is the old Pexto interchangable mount system attached to the other end of the stand for copper forming. ;)

Thanks for all the answers, I think your right I'll work with it the way it is for now. I've cleaned it some and both edges have been welded by a previous owner, that welding annealed a 3 inch section along each edge that penetrates about 1" into the face. Up close to the step there is still a good solid square working area with the original hardened edges intact. If I can sell enough work to pay for the materials to repair it I'll see about getting in touch with one of you North East blacksmiths and possibly ask for some help with it (I'd rather get help and do it right the first time) I'd also like to know more about this North East group... possibly check out a gathering so I'll be sure to check out the website. thanks again -Eric

Silver is very easy to work with, first remember to polish your hammers and working surfaces, clean tools make for clean work. Second get some pickle, a crock-pot or old coffee maker (either one can be used to keep your pickle warm) soap, water and a toothbrush for cleaning flux off the silver from casting or soldering. If you're looking to refine the silver melt it in a crusible with a pinch or two of borax for flux... if your worried about serious impurities: for example say you are using left over casting pieces and bench scraps mixed with filings... then stir the molten silver with a graphite rod and pour it in a steady stream into a steel pot filled with clean cold water, this will give you a fairly refined and workable casting grain, this can then be re-melted and cast as an ingit or into a lost wax mold. If the silver is fairly clean and pure to start then just pour into an ingit mold or lost wax mold. You can make a simple ingit mold by drilling a 1" thick leftover slab of gaphite three-quarters of the way through it's length with a 3/8" drill bit, (it's easier to pour your casting if you counter sink the top of the hole with a 1/2" bit) then cut the graphite slab lengthwise with a bandsaw splitting your drill hole into two equal channels that will create the 2 halves of your ingit mold. Make sure the mold fits together clean without gaps if it has some minor gaps you can carefully sand the pieces so they fit properly. Clamp the mold with C-clamps and pre-heat it with a torch to a few hundred degrees. Flux and melt your silver in a crucible (don't over-flux) then pour it into your mold. Let it cool, release the clamps and check out your ingit (should be a pretty sweet looking piece of silver now.) Pickle it in your crock pot for 10 or 15 minutes then rinse in cold water and clean with your soap and toothbrush, look for pitting or seams that indicate weak areas that may separate during forging. If there are small impurities don't worry you can begin hammering it out into sheet or wire. If it looks bad... or you want another try then re-melt and pour again. When you've got an ingit ready to hammer remember that silver work hardens quickly (much faster than copper) so anneal often, and play it safe to avoid cracking (don't over heat during annealing as it will cause fire-scale in your silver) To anneal silver keep the temperature low: in a perfectly dark room it should just barely glow dark-red at annealing temp, you can quench or air cool silver after reaching annealing temp, air cooling seems to give a little better anneal. Please note that you should never work silver hot unless you want it to crack. At annealing temp or higher silver becomes very brittle it is only soft and maliable when allowed to cool. Ok so that should cover some basics if you have questions send me a message and I'll see if I can help you out. Good luck... I think you should use that piece of silver to make something else... it'll be 100% better when you've made it yourself. -Eric

Sorry about the pictures... I missed that there was a specific format for posting pics. I'll fix that next time.

So it's wrought iron, thanks for the info I'll see if I can find some e7018 in mig wire, Do you know if I can I use that as a base layer and build up a final hard-facing layer on top? Massachusetts... lol... so it's at least worth half what I paid. I can sigh some relief, that was all the money I made after paying shop bills with the money from this new commision.

I'm a new to the forum so thanks for reading this and trying to help me out. I'm more a metal fabricator than a blacksmith, but for some of the work I'm doing I needed an anvil, I found a local guy with a beat up 200lb english made (looks to be peter wright) anvil. I picked it up this morning for $250 and I'm wondering if I wasted money. It seems to have a very small drop from the face to the step... is that normal? and it's got a crack on the near side toward the heal that rings at a higher pitch and has a little lest rebound. The far edge appears to have been welded at some point. Should I grind out the welded section and fill it in with a hard-face alloy? and should I do the same to the small crack? If so can I do it with a 250 amp mig without preheating? I've got a giant propane torch so I can do a preheat if necessary and I'm good with a welder and grinder... But what wire should I use? Before I consider doing this will it help the anvil or make things worse? Any thoughts, or Suggetions I just want to make this new tool worth while... I only know what I've read online, and so far this anvil has all the negatives going for it... it's been welded, it's got a small crack, and it's face is warped should I look for something else? I'll post some pictures this afternoon. My camera died before I could photograph the crack... it's very small and I think I can grind out about a 1/2" cube and remove it... would that be a bad idea? I'm 90% sure it's made by peter wright, in good light I can read Wright England 1 3 5, Does anyone know what the base material of an anvil like this is? -Eric