Sask Mark

Thanks Mitch. It is 1 1/4" wide x 2 7/8" high. The limiting step in completing it will be the hot bluing. I will have to have a gunsmith do it and I don't know how often they do bluing batches.

Sorry, the photo uploader wasn't working for me again so I added them to my original post from my photobucket account.

This weekend I tried pattern welding for the 1st time. I welded up a 12 layer billet (6 layers of 1/16" 15N20 alternating with 6 layers of 1/16" mild steel) and gave it a twist. I made this pendant with part of the billet. This is just polished to 200 grit and etched with vinegar to see the pattern. I don't think it turned out too bad. My next step is to polish it more then get it hot blued.

I really like those Beth. MacBruce is right on the money. Nature is inconsistent and doesn't care. If it looks too 'perfect' it doesn't look natural to me.

Ciladog never made the age reference in his initial post but it has become a repeated theme through the thread.

Maybe I wasn't clear by what I meant by 'generational'. Part of the message I am getting from this thread is that young people are mainly to blame with expecting to have everything handed to them. Parasites were just as prevalent when you were young as they are on this forum. If the internet existed in the 70's the guys who weren't given the job would have done the same thing that precipitated ciladog to start this thread. It's not a 'young people of today' thing, it's a 'young people of all time thing'. What really is becoming prevalent in my eyes is middle aged people are now acting like young people (please see the examples in my previous post). Common courtesy is not that common anymore.

I really like the way you combine/mix different medias in your sculptures. The way you add wood to your pieces adds to the organic component nicely. Thank-you for posting pictures sir.

I really don't think that this is a generation-specific issue. Stewart, I remember reading about how you started you apprenticeship. They chose you because you had more respect for yourself and others than the other applicants (this, you claim was due to the fact that you showed up to the interview wearing a suit while the others didn't). Everyone else around you who wasn't accepted was guilty of disrespect in your eyes. This happened in the 70's? If you think that young people are learning this disrespect on their own, take a look around in public. I continually see middle-aged people on their cell phones at restaurants, in lineups at the grocery stores while the cashier is trying to talk to them, behind the wheel of their car etc. etc. etc. They are too 'entitled' to deal with the person 3 feet away from them. They don't feel their trivial phone conversations can be suspended for 30 seconds to say 'thank-you' to the cashier. The loss of common courtesy thing is as much a cultural/societal phenomenon as it is a generational one. Adults let their kids act like hooligans in public. Adults let their kids slam their car doors into adjacent cars in parking lots. This runs a whole lot deeper than a blacksmithing website. Young people are just as guilty as anyone else of committing this. I would believe that they are learning it from somewhere. The anonymity of the internet and the virtual world just makes it easier to commit.

The book 'Anvils In America' by Richard Postman is the most commonly used book for determining the age of some brands of anvils. It is a fascinating book that has oodles of information. For your Trenton, the '175' would be the weight in pounds and the serial number 18674 would indicate your anvil was manufactured in approximately 1900.

Is there a number stamped beside the handling hole of the front of the waist? This is a common feature on Hay Buddens which usually remained when the other common identifying marks are loong gone.

Looks good Julius. Nice work. You might want to consider taking classes from the WDM and joining the guild. Put that Trenton to work!

The early Trentons usually had the hourglass indents under the base while most others had the oval shaped indent.

I made my guess based on the flat ledges on the feet, the casting lines on the base, and the script that was used to stamp the weight. My Soderfors has all those characteristics. Mine also had the year it was made stamped on the front of the foot and on the side. You might be able to find a year of manufacture on yours too.

Your anvil is a farrier pattern and the small piece that you circled was used to form toe clips on horse shoes.

Nice Hay Budden!

Yes Julius, please keep us in the loop. It would be interesting to learn of a new trick for repairing anvils. Some of the modern adhesives are amazing. Some epoxies used for anchoring rebar into concrete will tear concrete apart before the epoxy lets go.

My guess is a Soderfors.

You would only need to preheat/post heat if you are welding around the face plate. The heating from the welding would heat up the higher carbon steel face plate, then it runs the risk of quenching quickly and becoming brittle and/or cracking around the weld (this is the heat affected zone). Thomas Powers has written a good description of this process before. If I can find it I will post a link. The rest of the anvil is constructed on low enough carbon steel and/or wrought iron that it doesn't run the risk of becoming hard/brittle due to heating. Junior Strasil (has successfully repaired many anvils in the past) recommended I use 7018 rods for the repair of the horn on one of my anvils. The repairs have held up well.

Sorry, I must have misunderstood you. Is it broken at the waist, or is the face plate broken off, or is it broken somewhere else? If it is broken at the waist I wouldn't be too worried about arc welding as there's still a lot of metal to heat by arc welding in the top half of the anvil before the temperature of the faceplate gets hot enough to compromise the temper. If it's broken at the faceplate, that's a whole different challenge...

I would personally arc weld them together. Quick, relatively easy and effective. That's how they used to build the later Trentons. There is a member of the blacksmith guild in Saskatoon that owns a tool-making business in Hague. He would probably be able to give you some good guidance.

The most I have paid for an anvil was $3.20/pound for my very nice 102 pound Trenton at an auction around 4 years ago. Most of them I have paid $0.50-1.50/pound (combination of auctions and garage sales and asking around). However, you won't find very many anvils larger than 150 pounds around here (if that's what you're looking for). I bought my 450 pound Peter Wright in Ontario.

Oooh, a Norrisez! I have one of those and I have seen 2 others. They are quite uncommon.

There's another thing to take into consideration here. A whole new language has developed in the last 5 years or so due to the increased use of smart phones and other hand-held devices that are much harder to type on. Rlonstein gave a couple of example of the 'new language'. People are now taking shortcuts with their electronic communications because it's easier than typing everything that you would verbally say. My wife is usually a stickler for grammar and sentence structure, but when she sends me an email from her Blackberry instead of typing 'are', she will just use 'r'. People will leave out entire parts of phrases out of convenience. I think that this new language is also misleading in that the shortcuts will give the impression that the other person is being rude (when they are actually just being 'lazy'). I don't agree with the shortcuts as I feel that a lot of the meaning and tone can be inferred from the wording and language you use, but I also understand that millions of people are changing the way they communicate. I'm not going to stop it so I might as well roll with it. I'm not going to join in though.

As long as you don't ask how much your anvil is worth, how to heat treat, or that you want to make a knife or sword with little/no experience.

I think a LOT can be achieved if the answer is not stated in a such condescending tone that implies the asker of the question has caused the would-be answerer insurmountable inconvenience. There's more than just content to the answer. The cynicsm that flies around on some of the veteran's answers probably send some newbies for the hills. Those same answers have also driven the comments of the perceived elitism existing on the site in the past. Many newbies just want to fit in. If they think that they can do that by starting what they think will be a stimulating conversation with the regulars then they will probably give that a whirl. Imagine their shock when they get told their question is lame and they should go read something before crossing that road. If everyone read and knew everything that has been posted, the number of new posts on this site would be a small fraction of what it is now. Just think of a site that only gets a post once brand new, novel information is available. It would be pretty boring to participate in a site that only sees 2 new posts/day... Woodyarmourer nailed it. Well said sir.