David R.

Early forges used a side blast instead of bottom blast. Does anyone have experience with this type forge. How do they heat? Is it difficult to get and maintain welding heats with a forge of this design? I believe this is what they use at Colonial Williamsburg. Do you need a blast nozzle? Does the blast come in on the floor of the hearth or elevated some?

You should be able to get an analysis of the coal from the supplier as to it's make up, i.e. ash and sulfur content BTU rating, etc..,. Yesterday I helped a friend bag two and a half tons of coal he picked up from a mine. He had received the analysis and it showed very low sulfur and ash with high BTU. We took a bag into the shop and tried it out. We were not disappointed.

My little rivet forge and anvil sits outside near the door of my tiny shop. A walnut post sunk in the ground holds a vise. Washtubs and a bucket keeps the rain out. I depend on fair weather and usually wait till evening when the shade is over so I can see the heats better. My plan is eventually to build a new shop with a traditional brick forge and bellows set up. The little forge isn't big enough for large projects, but I'm very blessed to have access to a couple large well equipped shops occasionally. One is a traditional set up where we do historical interpretations and the other is a friends shop.

Wrought welds so much easier than steel. Working on forge welded gun barrel. Welded up four sections of old wrought buggy tire into a skelp. It will split some if you work it too cold but it will weld back up real easy. Learned to love it making axe heads. Weld steel bit in wrought iron wrapped head. Hard to get used to working higher heat. You can work it at heats that would burn steel.

You did good! I just bought a Hey Budden in almost as good condition. Liveliest anvil I've ever used. Nearly 100% rebound with the ball bearing. I paid $210 and my old ASO in trade. I love it. 101HB, how do you decipher HB serial numbers?

Really hard to tell from the picture but the step up from horn to face looks a little high. I am suspicious that some welding may have been done on it. I would want to tap around on it a little to make sure it's sound and I'd look it over real good. Looks almost too good if you know what I mean. The part of the anvil that normally sees the most wear looks almost new in the pictures which makes me think some type of repair or welding has been done. I have an old pre civil war Peter Wright that has some good honest wear but is still a fine anvil and a joy to forge on. Even if it has been repaired it may be ok but I would not give top dollar for it.

Frosty, what's a pineapple twist?

Probably 90% of my tools and almost all my favorite ones came from yard sales, flea markets, antique stores, etc.,. I almost always have to re-handle them. Evidently very few people now days know how to properly install a handle. Ash makes a pretty good second choice after hickory. Adz handles are more durable if made straight and then steamed and bent in a jig and left to dry. Less likely to split across grain lines at the bends. Most of the old tools were very well made and with a little TLC can still offer many years of service. I pass over the very worn or severely abused ones unless I think I can re-forge them or use them as raw materials. (If the price is right). Recently bought a nice corner mortising chisel with a few other odd items out of the "dollar" bucket at a shop. It just needs the nicks ground out. A lot of the joy in my hobby comes from finding and restoring old tools. My truck has developed a strange mechanical problem since I started doing this. It always quits right in front of the junk stores. After it sits for about an hour it starts up just fine! Amazing.

Thanks guys. Some good ideas. The little wire rope knives look neat. That would be good to do in the big shop I demo in sometimes, but would be hard to do in the little portable forge. I find the younger kids are easier to keep interested than the older ones. The teenagers are too interested in their electronics and don't even know where they are sometimes. I find a little borax sprinkled on the anvil face will get their attention when you hammer a hot piece of metal on it.

Really hard to tell a lot from the pictures but what I can see is it looks like a wrought anvil with welded steel face. If it has some rebound even with the apparent damage it would be much better than a cast aso in perfect shape. It looks like it still has a good bit of decent face for work surface and if the price was good I'd jump on it. Some day you will find a better one and that will be a good second anvil. If they want top dollar though I'd move on.

I thought perhaps some of you might have some good suggestions for mini projects to do for public demonstrations. With school classes you typically get about 20 minutes with each class so it needs to be something fairly simple but interesting enough to keep them watching. Leaves are good but you can only do so many leaves before you feel like leafing. S hooks are good but not too exciting. Any ideas?

The real problem I find in welding with poor quality coal is the amount of time you need to spend on the fire cleaning out clinkers and junk. At some point you have to tear the fire up pretty good and get the junk out and then it takes time to get welding heat up again. Recently got a chance to work in a friends shop with some really good met. coal. We were welding old wrought iron sections of wagon tire up to build a skelp up for a rifle barrel. Kept welding heat in forge nearly all day with very little need to pull junk out of the fire. The only problem with using the met coal is it spoils you when you have to use something else, sort of like forge welding with wrought iron. You don't want to forge with steel after you've used good wrought iron. My future son in law just took a job as an accountant for a local coal co.. He says they are mining met coal. I told him if he marries my daughter he's got to hook me up with some coal.

I'll see if I can find some chain lying round and try that. I've got a magnet or two around. I had some scrap pieces of 1/2" square stock that was dying to become tent stakes. I also made a new hold down out of some heavier stock to fit the larger pritchel hole on this anvil. I still like the old Peter Wright but this is such a great anvil I'm glad I didn't let it get away.

Here's a pretty simple chest I made out of old packing crate pine. I hand planed the rough lumber and made the moldings with old wooden hand planes. Hand cut dovetails in the corners. I made the hardware and some of the nails. Some of the nails were antique hand forged nails from an old cider press I repaired. Not very elaborate but some different skills involved for beginner like me.

Finally got a chance to get a fire in the forge and try out my new anvil a few days ago. Wow! I'd not really had any experience with a Hay Budden before. I think I'm in love! I've spent some time working on a cast ASO recently and it really makes you appreciate the rebound of a good anvil. I really will probably have to use ear protection though. My how this anvil rings! The rebound must be nearly 100%.

Did some work in a shop where the main anvil inside was a good anvil but had a lot of wear. Sitting outside the shop was a very large(guessing 350-400#) anvil in almost unused condition that someone had "unloaded" on the owner. The master smith doing demos in this shop showed the owner that he had a pristine Fisher and that it was an excellent anvil even though it didn't "ring". I heard he has now replaced the worn anvil in the shop with the big Fisher.

Well my old hardy tools won't fit my new anvil, too small. What's the best way to make new ones? Would wrought iron or mild steel be ok or should they be tool steel and heat treated for a hot cut?

Here is a fairly basic chest I made. It is made form old packing lumber I hand planed. Hand cut dovetails. I made the hardware and some of the nails, the rest were antique nails recycled from an old cider press. I didn't make the lock, someday? I use it for a shooting box for my flintlock rifles.

I've been fascinated with the process used in 18th century to produce rifle barrels. Have not got one completed yet but we have a skelp welded up out of old buggy tires ready to begin welding into a tube. Of course this is not a one man project. I'm fortunate to have a good friend with a well equipped shop who is willing to offer his shop and experience for this project. It sure has been fun so far. This to me seems quite a challenge.

I thought it might be interesting to hear some stories about where folks found their anvils. I was in the barber's chair getting a hair cut and saw mine sitting in the barber shop floor. This is a rather unique barber shop, the barber inherited an antique store that his grandfather started years ago and he turned part of it into a barber shop but still trades in old stuff. The anvil was a really nice Hay Budden 170# but I didn't have the cash at the time. I ended up selling and old rifle to get the cash and traded my AL0 on the Hay Budden. What's your anvil story?

My first anvil was an ALO. It was given to me. It was about 100 lbs. with a good surface but was dead as a doornail. I used it for some time and didn't know any better till I got invited to work in a shop with a different anvil. One of my friends heard me complain about my dead anvil and showed up at an event I was at with a beautiful old Peter Wright in his truck. I told him I probably couldn't afford it. He loaned it to me for as he said, "as long as you will use it"! It's a great old anvil and even with a good bit of wear is a lot better than my ALO was. I recently found a very nice Hay Budden 170# and traded my ALO towards it. The ALO had about zero rebound, the PW about 60-75%, I swear that HB has almost 100% ! What a difference it makes in effort required in forging!

Most of my hammers I buy used at flea markets etc..,. I am always amused at how few I find that are correctly handled. The handle should be filed to fit tightly into the eye after a saw kerf is sawn across the end of the handle along the long axis of the head. Use a wooden mallet to tap on the hand end of the handle while holding the handle inverted with the other hand (head toward floor). The inertia will draw the head up on the handle. If it is too tight and doesn't pull up easily,knock the head back off with alternating taps on each side of the head. Then you will see the marks on the handle where wood needs to be filed off. Keep checking as you go and make sure it's not going on twisted. It is fatiguing to use a hammer when the head doesn't line up with the handle. When the head is drawn up real tight, open up the saw kerf with a narrow chisel. I use an old screwdriver ground sharp. Now drive in a hardwood wedge. This wedge must be the same width as the saw kerf and tapered from about 3/8 to 0. Drive it in until it won't go any further and then saw off the handle flush with the hammer head. I then take my screwdriver/chisel and start the split for the iron wedge(s). These go in at right angle to the wood wedge. Now drive in one or two iron wedges. Now I clamp it straight up in the vise and pour a little linseed oil on the end grain of the handle and let it soak in. If it ever gets loose soak in a little more linseed oil, or add another iron wedge.

Here is a vise I found that had the bracket missing. I just forged a little u bracket and lag bolted it to a walnut post set in the ground. Do far it has worked.

Here are some pictures of my anvils. The one on the left is the old Peter Wright, the one on the right is the new Hey Budden. The old PW has a good bit of edge wear but very little settling or sway back. She is a good honest old anvil and a joy to forge on. I have not had a chance to try out the Hey Budden yet.

Thanks guys for the replies, the face on this anvil is very clean, the cutting shelf shows some use. the only real damage is some cut marks on the horn but these aren't serious. I could forge out an axe head easier than I can figure out how to get pictures on this thing but I'll keep trying. MAYBE GET ONE OF THE KIDS TO SHOW ME AGAIN.