arkie

Good that you pointed that out for our northern friends. :D

A leather wrap would probably work and give it an eclectic look (big word, huh?). Might gather up some old belts of your's and friends' and use them. :) A bit of leather lace like a steering wheel cover and you are good to go. Post pictures if you do that mod.

Nice looking anvil stand...unique to say the least, great imagination. I thought I posted a comment earlier today, but I guess I forgot to hit the "post" button and it got lost in the ether...anyway, moving on. David, if I might make a recommendation regarding the rails around your base. It appears they are made of rebar. I would strongly recommend cutting off the rebar and replacing them with round stock. The rebar has a very rough finish that is not friendly to wooden hammer handles. Tongs will survive just well most likely. On my anvil stand (wooden) I first made my handle holders from 1/4" x 1" flat bar. I quickly found out that the edges of the flat bar were chewing up my hammer handles. I removed them and ground down the edges, but they were still chewing up the handles. As a final resort, I replaced the flat bar with 3/8" round bar and the handles are not being chewed up any longer. UPDATE: I found the lost post...it was a reply to David's post about his anvil over on the weldingweb.

It's your tool, you can call it whatever you want. BTW, looks nice and simple, good work.

Been doing some reading on IFI about coatings (chrome in particular) and forging. I don't think I want to stick a piece of the weight lifting bar in the forge after all even if it is just a coating. My forge is outside and I usually have a fan blowing the smoke away until I can get my hood constructed, but I am reluctant to forge with the chrome plated bar even under those circumstances. Will try to find a chrome plating/deplating shop somewhere.

If the bar is a "higher" carbon steel (don't know how much carbon is in it), and it won't harden, then that must be attributable to the alloy composition?? Maybe tomorrow or the next day, I'll get to cut off a short piece and flatten it into a flat bar for hardening testing.

The bar is constant diameter the entire length. I hear what the other replies are saying....probably an alloy and who knows WHAT mix it might be. First off, need to get rid of the chrome finish, then do some testing for hardness, quenching, etc., etc. as zero_sum suggested. Sounds like the weight bars are the "railroad spikes and rebars" of the sports world. :wacko: And, matto, yes it is heavy. 45# sounds about right! Thanks to all who responded

Nice looking hammer!! That 4-pounder will surely build up your arm muscles. I like a 2 1/2 to 3 for general work, 4 to really move some metal (but not for long... :unsure: )

Lack of a serial # on the foot under the horn would probably rule out Hay-Budden. And their weight is in pounds.

A friend gave me an old weight lifting bar, thinking I might use it in blacksmithing. It's darn heavy, about 6 ft. long, chrome plated (UGH), and about 1 1/4" in diameter or so. I did a spark test with an angle grinder and it had few, short, short-lived sparks with many flares at the ends of the sparks like a high carbon steel. Any WAG's on the most common type of steel used in weight lifting bars? I'm sure there are several, but the most common would get me in the ball park.

matto, thanks for the idea. There are so many mfgs. out there, it was mind boggling to search all the images. I googled Buffalo forge blowers from your ID and many looked like my picture. Thanks again.

Does anyone know what make of hand-cranked blower this might be? It's the only photo I have. Thanks in advance. :)

Sounds like it should hold! Once adobe hardens over the years, it should be plenty strong along with the strap.

Fantastic job...work of art from all. Interesting that you stayed authentic and used clinched nails instead of screw or bolts. They should still be there when we are all departed from this planet :) You mentioned you drilled through the adobe for the gate hold-down. Wouldn't the buffeting from the high winds combined with the soft adobe tend to loosen and possibly pull the hold-downs out?

You need to find a way to control your air flow. If you are using a blower such as a fan (of many types) you need to regulate the flow with a blast gate (air gate), speed controller on the fan motor, an adjustable baffle or diverter, or any other means of flow control. Sounds like you are running the air flow full blast. If you are using a hand-cranked blower...quit cranking so fast!!! :-) I use a sliding blast gate (air gate) on my brake drum forge with 2" black pipe plumbing and only open it 1/4 to 1/2 to heat most things. Rarely do I open it all the way.

That is a beautiful piece of work!

There was not a lot of smithing involved in this flatter, except the bar split and pineapple twist on the handle. Made from 1/2" bar, 1 1/4" axle and 3/8" (or maybe 7/16") brush hog blade, all pre-heated and welded together....still gets the job done. I believe I had posted these pics on another thread, but don't remember which one. No problem here with striking hardened surfaces.

The bathroom fan on my brake drum forge.was from H. Depot. NuTone Model 696N. Output 50 CFM. Don't know what the HD part # is. They have fans with more CFM output. Their price was somewhere around $15-$16 a year ago. Fan still running, use it 2-6 hours, 3-5 days a week. The 50 CFM sounds low, but I only run it about 1/4 to 1/2 open on my 2" blast gate. Wide open, it's too much and burns too much coal.

Glad you and your's are all OK!

You're gonna love that Hay Budden...great anvils. Should be worth the wait. How long do think it will take to reach you?

Neat story, Frosty. I love the big old white mutts. There are a lot of goat farmers around here and they use the Great Pyrenees exclusively to watch their herds.

I like the side access door fab'd into the right side of the hood. Good for those long pieces, but keeps the hood side closed otherwise. That's a nice looking old forge.

You can always mod a set of tongs you like if they are missing some small feature. I ground a "v notch" in a set I bought once, really improved a nice tong even better.

Email sent, Thanks! BTW, no offense, but it's not a good idea to post your email on forums...invites all kinds of spam. Better to communicate via PM.

That's a great picture of the kids climbing on the Pyrenees.. :) They can be one very devoted, protective dog.