David R.

Just purchased an anvil. Hay Budden. I can't read the middle number under the name but the first number is one and the last number is zero. The fellow I got it from says it weighs 168 lbs.. I'd looked at this anvil for a while, finally managed to work out a trade with my old cast anvil for it. The face is very clean with only small amount of wear on edges. It does have some cuts and nicks on the horn. Any reason not to grind them out and clean up the horn a little? I worked with the cast anvil (ALO) for a while and didn't realize how important a good rebounding anvil was until I worked some in another shop on a good anvil. A friend loaned me a beautiful old Peter Wright and even though it has a good bit of wear it is a joy to use compared to the cast one. I've never seen an anvil with more rebound than this Hay Budden. I dropped my ball bearing on it and it bounces back like 90%! It really rings like a bell. Have not gotten to forge on it yet. Any one using Hay Buddens? Did I get a good anvil?

I have one that I use. First empty the tank if it has anything in it and rinse it out well with a little gasoline. The pump on most of them can be removed with a wrench. Usually the leather seal on the pump is dried out. If it's not too bad you can soak it with a little light oil and it will swell up and work. If not you may have to make a new one. I took the valve and needle apart and cleaned them up on mine. They work just like an old Coleman camp stove. Fill the tank up about 2/3 full of unleaded gasoline and pressurize the tank with the hand pump. TAKE IT OUTSIDE BEFORE YOU TRY TO LIGHT IT! On mine there is a little trough under the burner/valve assembly. Open the valve and let a little gas drip into this reservoir and light it, carefully! The fuel burning in this trough helps preheat the burner to atomize the fuel. Slowly open the valve and let it burn in a safe direction as it heats up. As it heats up it will turn from a yellow to a blue flame as the preheat fuel burns up. They are kind of scary the first time you use them. I like to keep a fire extinguisher close by. You might have to add pressure to the tank after it burns a little while. They usually have a little bracket on top to support an old fashioned copper solder iron while it is heating. I used mine a while back to heat my irons while I soldered a gutter trough together on a job. You use two irons, keeping one heating on the torch while you use the other.