SJS

I had a 145# Hay Budden that I made the mistake of letting a shop teacher repair for me when I didn't know better... If you don't do it right you loose your rebound and the face dents easily... The anvil worked better before it was welded up and surface ground, and I had to work harder (because I lost rebound), and the face dented easily... Not a fun lesson to learn the hard way, not that any of them are. The IDEAL anvil is HEAVY & HARD, it needs to be BOTH to be the most efficient tool. Too little mass and it bounces all around, too soft and it dents and absorbs some of the energy you were trying to use to shape the metal. Welding up the edges and loosing the temper on the face, messes with the hard, unless you use the right rods, with proper technique, and post welding peening. Crisp sharp edges on an anvil are WAY over rated;-) I think most anvils aren't radiused enough. That is a great beginner anvil, work on the flat spots, avoid the divots, and you don't need to worry about errant hammer blows damaging your Purdy anvil;-) Maybe in a few years and some research you could do the repairs that would have it be in like new condition, but right now just use it. You can make a hardie block with some sharper corners for when you need a smaller radiused edge to work against. The horn on that old girl is lovely... .36$ a pound is stealing even in that rough a shape;-)

That's a real nice looking treadle hammer;-) Good Job

The Habermann anvil is weird, south german pattern, pritchel holes out by the horn and the hardie toward the heel, and the shelf off the near side heel... was really turned off when I noticed all of that. Would rather have a Refflinghaus #9 or a Peddinghaus #12;-) Or a Tom Clark

If I were buying a double horn anvil I would want the hardie hole on the left by the horn, and a point on the horn for that matter. The other tools he sell look very nice, and I may get the whole set of hardie stakes he makes. The price on the Rhino is hard to beat... The Nimba's have a nice pointy horn, though it is a bit fat at the base for my taste, and they have the hardie hole out by the horn. Its actually a little too close to the horn for my taste. Since the cone of the horn butts up to the body, and there is a bit of a shoulder at the joint. There is no waist to the anvil at all, and I'm sure you couldn't break the heel off of it. The Rat Hole/Fontanini anvil is a nice design, but has a horn that looks more at home on an old Peter Wright than a European double horn anvil. I much prefer the conical horns like on the Refflinghaus, and the Peddinghaus, if I can sell a kidney on the black market I might be able to afford one someday??? ;-)

I know guys who are using 2-3HP 3phase motors with VFDs and they are tickled pink. I would rather have more than I need, than barely enough. Hopefully the treadmill has a nice 1.5 HP DC with a variable speed controller that you can salvage. The speed on the 5 HP makes it less attractive, but it is doable. Though to be honest you might spend enough on buying parts to jackshaft it, that you should have just coughed up a bit more and bought at 1.5 or 2 HP motor. If you go ahead and buy the 3 phase motor and VFD now, you won't have to upgrade later;-) You can rebuild the grinder around those components, as you learn what works and what you don't like about what ever design you start with... DC motors with speed controllers are great but tend to be pricey to buy new, even more than the 3 Phase VFD combos... First let me say I love my belt grinder, and I want several MORE, bigger, better, with more options... But I have to say a knife maker's belt grinder is a deathtrap under the best of circumstances, most of them can't be OSHA approved for lack of adequate safety guards. (Yes there are belt grinders with guards that are used in industry like the Baldor, BurrKing, Wilton Square Wheel Grinder, and others, but most people don't buy those for use in a blacksmiths shop they are too expensive for most people to buy new, unless they are lucky enough to find one used for cheap...) But all belt grinders evaporate flesh even faster than they powder steel. That being said, you need to build it as well as you can, and try to build in as many safety features as is practical for you. A belt grinder is more versatile the less guards that are in the way, and the belt changing goes a ton quicker. BUT having belts explode in your face isn't fun at all, and contacting the belt or sometimes worse the edge of the belt can be painful and debilitating. You may think you can be careful enough, but who else might be in the shop with you who might get hurt? Having to build a guard box that you can still open and change/replace belts on your jackshaft arrangement, makes getting a 3 phase motor and a VFD with a dust proof enclosure a LOT more attractive... (Go ahead and buy the dustproof enclosure if the VFD can be ordered without one, it is much easier on you and on the VFD...;-) Variable speed makes a HUGE difference in what you can do with a belt grinder, if you JUST want to hog steel with a 24-36grit belt, you don't need variable speed, hard and fast will work fine. If you want to be able to use the full range of grits including the super fine 2000grit filament belt and the linen polishing belts you want the variable speed. Or if you want to "grind" wood, horn, or plastic you want to be able to crank the speed way down to reduce the heat build up.

Kevin and Owen have a couple Nazel 3B's in the shop, and they aren't afraid to use it (at least the one that is working;-). Those double hooks would be no problem with a 3B and a little tooling... Changes is cross section are what a power hammer is for;-)

If your vision isn't as good as your hammer technique one of the important skills to develop is to trust that your technique is good, and do your best to stand up straight. Most of us given half a chance will lean over the anvil more than is comfortable for long stretches of time. If you learn to do this initially you are better off, if you have to retrain yourself (its hard...) but likely worth the effort. There are of course times when to get the angle with the hammer you need to lean over the anvil, but for general forging you should try to stand up. I find myself with my face right down practically on the piece sometimes doing fine finishing, and have to remind myself to observe from afar and trust that my technique is good and so the results will be good, and if I have to touch it up a bit, oh well. Having more than one anvil is a blessing. It is nice to have a Large and Low anvil for heavy work especially sledging, and using top tools. The main anvil for most work, and then a smaller anvil set up high with a nice thin horn and thin heel for lighter delicate work. In my copious free time I think I need to make a bickern...

Marius, my hat is off to you. Those are lovely... I love 2handers too;-)

I wouldn't worry too much about round punching into a swage. But I do remember punching into a V-block and it distorted the bar more than I liked... YMMV. I punch flat on the anvil and then move to the pritchel hole, I would expect to be able to do the same in a swage. If I was slitting and drifting to try and maintain the most mass around the hole, then I might worry about damaging the swage. Otto Schmirler, Werk und Werkzeug des Kunstschmieds, has TONS of cool took pics, and is one of George Dixon's favorite books, it also has pics of swage bolsters for punching round, and round on the diamond... Lots of tools that you can make to make this easier:-) If you had a handy dandy induction heater upsetting the middle of the bar in a very defined series of spots would be a piece of cake, I don't have one yet... (either;-) Instead I would play with it and slit it, and then open it, then upset it back open more, then drift to finial size, and see if that doesn't get you where you want to go with minimal thinning of the sides and distortion... Francis Whitaker used three tools to do his drifting. A slitting chisel that was 40% over sized for the hole, so for a 1/2" hole the diameter (pie r squared) is about 3/4", but Francis would jump that up to about 1" I guess. Then you need an opener, this is an undersized slitter that starts to round the hole a bit, just to begin to open it up. Then you take a heat and upset the hole so that it opens up nice. Then you can drift the hole to finished size. With minimal distortion, and thinning of the sides. It would likely look better if you upset the bar slightly before slitting, but you can probably get away without doing it using that technique... Check it and see if you like it... Like Alan said tons of ways to skin a cat... just depends on what you have, what you are willing to make, and how long you are willing to put into it.

If you leave square shoulders on your cut off, butcher, and 1/2 round fullering dies, then you can make a little set of kiss blocks that slide over your bottom die and would allow you to forge to 1/4" or 3/8" or whatever. Also been thinking about drilling and taping holes on the bottom die to take kiss blocks that are held by a set screw. Something of the things I have been plotting, still need to buy or make a smithing magician, so haven't done it yet..

You could tack weld a bar parallel with the axis of the wholes so that you can accurately see while you are punching. The same effect could be achieved by clamping a big pair of vicegrips on the end of the bar and it would always hang in the same way, so all you have to do is punch straight. You might want a stock rest out past the vicegrips, plus that will give you both hands free for punching. You could leave the stock long and cut to finished size after punching and drifting. I would use a round swage the same size, or a little larger, not a V block...

I would assume it is due to the induction hardening. Face was likely ground perfectly flat before hardening, then induction hardened, then very little clean up. But just like a katana is forged straight and takes a curve from the edge hardening, so will the thinner section of the square horn... If the whole heel had hardened it might have stayed straight, being in tension all the way through, but since it was just the top surface which took up more volume being martensitic... The Refflinghaus might be flatter, and the older Peddinghaus's, because the whole anvil was/is heat treated not just the face. It is probably within the "new" tolerances for the modern process, which isn't quite as nice as the old way, but there was more decarb, and more grinding to finish. With the induction I am betting that 90% plus of the grinding is done in a normalized state, and there is minimal clean up after hardening, much cheaper, and no decarb... If you know about the dip, you can compensate in the shop, make a little hat for the square horn to shim it to level over the whole length of the anvil, and with the gap it will be easier to straighten the hot bar.... It is a little disappointing but understandable. BUT hey they still have awesome rebound, and are very lively to forge on.

The price is high, but not by much. It is a smaller maker so it could be considered a "rare brand", and I wasn't able to find a new one for sale online, so he might be asking collector prices... He is definitely asking a NEW price! So you can get a brand new anvil from a farrier supply house that is a little heavier for that price, and more of a blacksmith's London pattern. If he were willing to come down a bit, and I had the money and was tired of waiting I might do it... I wouldn't discount it just because it is a farrier's pattern, the built in turning cams at the heel are pretty handy, the other idiosyncrasies could prove to be useful. I like the thinner heel on a farrier's pattern for some things. The wasp waist on a farrier pattern anvils and many Hay Budden's and Trenton's ring like a Bell, or a large tuning fork!!! Something to consider. I don't like and don't trust painted anvils in general, so if I did go to check it out I would hit every sq. inch of the face with a hammer to check the sound, rebound, and see if it dinged the face... Could have gone through a truck fire, or been filled in with a MIG and ground smooth, you never know, especially if it is painted... I prefer to see them wire brushed and linseed oiled...

Good design - not a lot of detail to catch and hold the water. Good Welds - not too porous, most things rust at the welds first. Good Prep... Good Paint... Good Job;-)

​It works fine, it does stay tacky for a LONG time, but some people cut it with Mineral Spirits so it goes on easy and dries faster. It looks real nice on an anvil or post vice that has been cleaned up a bit, but not wire brushed till it shines. It does dry out eventually and will leave a bit of shellac, so it can gum things up a bit, but most things it works fine on... It will stop or atleast slow down the rusting. Looks a ton better than paint on an anvil or a post vice... :-) The nice thing is that scale and bumps with the hammer, or a hot project doesn't chip the paint, and you rub it down occasionally with a little more oil and it stays looking well oiled;-)

I hate overly fat handles,stresses my tendons. Reforging cheap Chinese 2# hammers is a great way to try out other shapes and styles. I have a couple double diagonal peen hammers that I made that way. Also try different shapes on your handles and different lengths. Longer handle lighter head.

Charles it isn't in use that I find them objectionable, its just picking them up. Like I said I don't actually like most hammers I pick up, they don't feel right. I have a bunch of hammers on the rack that I never use, cause they don't feel right to me. I have used a FLAT faced hammer just fine, I had a Chip Hunt cross peen that was Flat, but felt fine... (I have NO IDEA what happened to that hammer, disappeared into the ether??? along with several pairs of tong...)

I like a fat head and a short handle, but you still have to swing it fast. I have watched some vids on Youtube where the boys swinging the hammers are moving too slowly, because they are swinging hammers just a little too heavy for them to swing effectively in my opinion... The timing looks off because they are struggling to get the hammers in play, I would bet if they all switched back to smaller hammers that they could swing a bit faster, they would get more work done... I like Inertia, and a heavier hammer blow will penetrate more deeply, but you still have to get it moving fast enough to do some good. There is a trade off with M x V2, if you can move a heavier hammer at 95% of the velocity of a hammer half that weight, you will certainly do more work, but if you can only swing it half as fast you gain nothing.

Rodded handle... Fuller a groove around the tool, and then wrap a 1/4 rod around it hot, twist it tight and then form a handle out of the rod. There was a thread were some Afghani smiths were making tongs, and they made a few pairs with no bits... Just a rivet out at the end of the reins, you squeezed the tool between the reins of the tong, and held it just back from the hinge. Looked like it worked great, its on my list...

Hammer and balance is very individualistic. I felt a French pattern up at DiverMike's hammer in, and I was surprised when I liked it. I haven't felt that many French pattern hammers that I actually liked... The shape of the handle, the length of the handle, the weight of the head, and the balance of the head all play a role in wither you will love or hate a particular hammer. I prefer fat heads, and short handles, with a deep flattened or flattened octagonal handle. I really need to start making my own handles from scratch;-) Most of my hammers have whatever handle that I had around that would fit... If you go to hammer-ins you should be able to try out some of the other hammer types. I use all kinds of hammers regularly: a 2# cross peen, a 4# straight peen, a 2# double diagonal peen, a 4# rounding hammer, an 800gram Czech style, a 1# ball pien, a 2# copper mallet, and a 4# brass hammer.... I do like the Hofi/Czech style, and the Brazeal style rounding hammers. A lot of rounding hammers feel awful to me, just depends. I probably dislike most of the hammers I pick up? Saves me money;-) A few feel right... You will know it when you feel it... Sometimes it is fun to get hammer heads cheap at a flea market, or garage sale, and then try to handle it up so you like it.

Oh, well my bad, I would have sworn they were rated in Kg. Glad that I was wrong though.

The Anyang 55 has more than twice the rated weight in its tup, than your 50... Worse come to worse get a smaller set of flat dies from John, hitting less area will make it seem more powerful...

I totally agree with Basher, I do ok with measurements and drawings, but I do so much better with something physical in my hands, a 3d reference as Basher coined it. I like how the efficiency creep, shows my progress and improvement... And I like the idea of switching to the new and improved version, assuming Its not at 850 out of 1000 pickets;-) HWoolridge's keeping a proper written log of products, process, lengths, and jigs is something to aspire to, I have had far too many marvelous projects that ended up in the journal of irreproducible results... Discipline is such a useful thing;-)

You get good at swing a hammer, and you get tired. I assume that was part of a government birth control program, cause after 12 hours of that it would have a profilactic effect I would guess;-)

Alan I think efficiency creep is an excellent description of the process.