Bo T

Will. K. Thanks for the link-that was really interesting. Kozzy, A pretty good price for a new(essentially) anvil of that size. Let us know how things turn out.

For flatness you could make a lower hardie with a flat steel plate for that old anvil. That would give you a very flat surface to work your knives. A 348# Peter Wright just sold for $1250 US at a barn sale this weekend. It was in better shape than the anvil you have pictured.

You can avoid the shipping and check the product in person in you are able to pick up the anvil in person. You list your location as WA (Washington State?). You could get a brand new Nimba anvil in Port Townsend, WA. I think @‌ 200 kg. Or a 120 kg Rhino anvil in Airway Heights. I believe either of these anvils are a better deal, overall, than the one in Australia. You would have to pay state sales tax. Also, check CL for Seattle and Portland, there was a large anvil for sale last I checked.

I think the nut holding the fan on is RH. There isn't much of it showing so I'll get a magnifying lens and check tomorrow. The nut for tightening the front bearings might be LH. I'll check once I pull the cup protecting the bearings. I'm not sure how they held the shaft in the old days. I'm thinking there might have been a 1/2" ?tab? wrench that fit the slot?

Well this simple maintenance has turned into an undertaking. I've freed up all the dust cups, but the nut holding the fan will not come loose. I'm trying to figure a way to freeze the shaft. Tried to find a second nut to lock the rear one in place but the threads are a little different than the 20 TPI that are available for the 1/2" shaft. They are a little finer. I tried some medium locktite but wasn't strong enough. I am thinking about a self tapping sheared bolt remover. The shaft has a bore for the lathe chuck? I'm also thinking about epoxy (something that degrades at a lower temperature or in solvent). Any ideas or comments??

Brokkr, The rear cup over the blower shaft is threaded on mine. The shaft is keyed in the back but the nut isn't. When I tried to loosen the 1" fan nut the 3/4" nut in the back came loose instead. So it looks like I will need to get another nut for the back so I can keep the rear nut from turning and free the fan nut. HWooldridge, Yea, just found that my dust cap is threaded on. The rear bearings don't have any play in them and they look good. I think that I will need to get into the front bearings to smooth them up. I hope the front races are in good shape. I was just trying to avoid a trip to the hardware store as I don't have the correct threads on the nuts that I have. Do I just pull the dust caps off from either side of the upper and lower gear shafts adjust those bearings?

Never done maintenance on a blower. It turns with some vibration. It feels like the bearings are loose - sort of like loose bearings on the old Ashtabala bicycle cranks. No binding at all. The gears are in good shape. I've only taken the front blower cover and top off for a look. There is a little bit of play in the fan. I am having a little trouble loosening the nut holding the fan. How much force will that fan take? The fan blades are at right angle to the blower shaft and they appear to be undersized. They set about an inch from the top of the blades to the inside of the blower housing and about 1/4" from the sides. Is this normal? How many sets of bearings does this blower have? Thanks for any help on this.

Just got some blacksmithing tools from a seller. One item is a cast iron coal (fire) pan for a forge. I'll need to put in a tuyere and ash dump and the air inlet. There is a crack in the pan running about 2/3 of the way from the outside edge to the hole at the bottom (2 or 3 inches from the hole). I've never repaired cast iron. I'll put an inch or so of refractory in the pot before using. I've read that there is a nickel rod that will work with an arc welder on the cold iron. I've also read that brazing is pert near as strong. I've also read about something called castalloy that can be used at propane torch temperatures. The iron appears to be @‌ 1/8" thick. I did some oxyacetylene welding in my youth. I've never brazed or arc welded although I am thinking about learning some stick welding. Do you guys think brazing or castalloy will hold with the refractory protecting it from the heat? Would MAPP or propane get the thin iron hot enough for higher temperature brazing? I don't mind coming out a little upside down on this as I consider it a "learning experience". On the other hand, I still need to buy beans and potatoes. And I'd like it to work.

The few tongs, and non cutting tools that I have made were not quenched, just a stress relief. The cutting tools that I made were normalized, quenched and tempered at the forge. Give the tool a brushing right after quenching, then heat and watch the oxide colors. The most fascinating temper that I have done is an edge quench, brush, then let the heat from the unquenched part of the steel run to the edge for the temper. Lots of reading available on different techniques.

I was confused about this also-there were different specs listed for case hardening and carburizing. I am interested if someone can shed more light on this.

Light duty blacksmithing. Some knives, small ornamental pieces, assorted hardies and tongs, maybe a spring for a post vise and a small hatchet from a ball peen. I can handle a 3# hammer but I am on the far side of middle age so that might drop a bit. Also some demos down the line. I'm not to concerned about 'period correct' as I can always spray paint the base.

Lots of good ol' farrier anvils @‌ $300. There is a Delta Future anvil advertised and I am wondering about the longevity (durability). I talked with one smith and he said that there were problems with the base working loose? Now, he does have a couple of those $300 anvils for sale so I figured I'd check and see if anyone has had any problems. Also, any idea about how long they have been around? Thanks

I believe the coating will decrease the wear rate on your upper surface while it is in place. However, once the coating has worn through the wear rate will increase beyond that of the original rollers. It is impossible to say if it will balance out. You will need to run the coated components through a complete life cycle and then do a detailed analysis. One important question is can the rollers be recoated?

I'm kind of guessing, unless your substrate hardness is critical to the task, your wear resistance should increase as long as the coating is in place. As soon as the coating wears off the wear rate will become faster than the original uncoated piece.

Lots of material data sheets on the web. Seems that it will reduce the hardness by 2-3 HRc points. What hardness do you need? What is the hardness of the coating?

Check out Incandescent Iron Works (Rhino anvils). I haven't seen a chipped edge on one of Steves anvils. You might check out Nimba anvils. They are both cast steel anvils (USA) and I haven't got a clue about shipping.

Just a quick update - helped out at Ft. Okanogan for a day. A boy scout troop stopped by. A discussion on the difference between ferro rods and flint and steel and a demo on the use of flint and steel held their attention for a good 10 minutes. The curator was interested in the lightening awl as she had never heard of or seen one before. I guess I'll use the term offset awl (Russell) in the future. I think I'll focus on getting more equipment together this winter and maybe making some nails and trying my hand at that fancy fork that wolfshieldrx showed.

Went and bid on the anvils, but someone else wanted them more than me. At the preview, one of the old guys said it was all of 300#. A smith today, found the stamped weight said it was 132#. Another looked at it and said it was 192#. It looked like 182# to me. Anyway, the serial # looked like A10916.

The weld looks like a big ugly H with the bead sticking out about 1/4". The break can be seen front and back with @‌ 6" horizontal bead on each side with vertical beads on each side of the horizontal weld. Here is a link http://spokane.craigslist.org/gms/5100870070.html , the other side is similar.

Where is the rest of it? There might be other markings located on the other pieces.

Just previewed a couple of anvils that are up for auction. No pictures but, the Trenton is excellent across the top with negligible chipping and no delamination of the plate. It is busted at the waist and repaired with a weld on each side (Looks like a poor repair at that). Rebound in the middle is OK >50%. Towards the tail rebound falls off. It wasn't welded front or back so I guess this indicates give at the waist. Difficulty/cost of repairing the waist? The other is a little @‌30# Vulcan that has seen use but is in good shape.

Get a cheap oven thermometer and bury the blade in a pan of sand to help level out the temperature fluctuations.

What kind of equipment are you using? If you have a well calibrated temperature control for your forge or oven, and are going to make a bunch of knives (or just shooting for the best you can do) the added expense is justified if you believe it is. If you are judging the temperature by color and tempering the blade at the forge then the warm canola oil as suggested, is a good bet. I have even read posts from smiths that suggest quenching in warm water with some surfactant in it. Although the counterpoint to the warm water is that you might want to forge up a number of blades in the event of catastrophic failure on quench.

Good video. Just a quick question, watching the bearing drop I estimate the rebound to be @‌ 75% (first drop)? This seems comparable to several anvils that I tried last weekend.(estimated at 50% to 75%).

This is interesting as I would like to learn to do a little welding down the road. So from what I gather, to do it right, for any anvil not just Vitos) involves 5 steps; clean and prep the surface, butter areas of serious damage or in need of build up, put on the underlayers, put on the shock/impact resistant layer, and finish the surface so it is useable? So far I have (based on Frosty's suggestions 30# of rod and a lot of time) and some super CBN belts. I just saw a Hay Budden where the top plate was for all practical purposes, non existant.