Sask Mark

163 pound Peter Wright. Good job.

Sweet anvils. I would be happy to pay $600 each for those.

D'oh...

Cool. Which machine shop?

Where in southern Saskatchewan did you find it?

I would probably learn more from you than you from me. No money expected...

I probably won't do it until next spring now. You are less than 3 hours away so it would just be a day trip. We can try to make you some billet for your awesome knives.

Yeah, my next billet will be 1084 and 15N20 for a more distinct etch.

Thanks Julius. If you are asking about the triangular pendant, I think it was about 2.75" high and about 1.25" wide. I gave it away so I can't measure it now...

Congrats! $450 is a small price to pay for something that will probably last you a lifetime if you look after it.

I have seen Buckworths and Soderfors with flats on the feet as well.

Another awesome knife. Do you have this one sold too?

Very nice story. Thank-you for sharing it. A couple of weeks ago a similar (although less dramatic) thing happened to me recently. Last year I bought an anvil that was advertised online locally. The owner was on older Austrian man who was an apprentice in Austria before he emmigrated to Canada in his teens. He bought the anvil when he moved here as he always anticipated getting back into the craft, but life got in the way. He had a heart attack a couple of years ago so he thought he should streamline his life (plus he couldn't move around the 160 pound anvil on his own). When I picked up the anvil, he asked me why I wanted it. I told him that I have a blacksmith shop and, although my skills are rudimentary at best, I liked to hammer on hot steel. He asked if he could see my shop sometime and I told him that I would like that. The last year seemed to fly by without me getting to the shop much at all (it is an hour drive to my shop). The gentleman sent an email earlier in the year asking to see the shop again. After a few missed connections, we finally were able to see the shop a couple of weekends ago. I picked him up at his house and gave him a ride to the shop. When we walked into the shop, his eyes lit up. He didn't want to 'inconvenience' me and told me to not bother lighting the forge. I lit it up anyways and handed him a hammer and some steel. He didn't spend too much time hammering, but he thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. The smile on his face was infectious. I took him home after that and he was very appreciative. I checked my emails on Saturday. In my inbox was an email from the gentleman, once again thanking me for showing him the shop and letting him 'play' for a little while. I offered the use of the shop any time he wanted to hit some metal. I have a feeling he might take me up on the offer. He also offered to keep an eye out for any blacksmith tools that he comes across.

Congrats! Definitely something to be proud of.

My large anvil was in a little worse shape than yours. I spent about 8 hours with a friend preheating, welding, grinding etc. to rebuild the face. You need to follow the correct methodology with the right rods to get acceptable results.

There's some big ones over there. Just ask Basher: http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/27093-i-think-i-have-finally-found-a-big-one/

I have made a few damascus rings on my lathe. The damascus was 15N20 and mild steel in a twist pattern, annealed. I am a rookie at both damascus and lathe operation and the rings turned out fine.

I cleaned up all the cuts and gouges on the horn of my anvil with a zip disc to open up the gouge and then arc welded them with 7018 rods. No preheating was required. IFI member Junior Strasil provided me his blueprint that he developed on anvil repair that outlined this method.

Very cool. I love the stampings on the chamfers. I have never seen that before.

Glad to hear Brian.

Sounds crappy Brian. It would be cool to team up with the structural steel neighbor and build your own building to suit both your needs... Best of luck.

That serial number was made in 1904. Good luck with your sale.

Yet I don't think there would be too many that wouldn't consider Samuel Yellin to be a master. The picture that macbruce posted show him using a thumbs down grip. Both Stewart's teacher and Yellin were masters yet seemed to advocate different grips. Who's correct? I think Beth is...

155 pound Hay Budden. Awesome...

Here's my take on it. I only get about 1-2 days per month for about 8 months (before the winter sets in) to do any forging. I don't want to spend that time looking for a tool or making a tool to forge something. My time is valuable enought that I want to forge what I want to forge. I told a guy I was looking for a cone mandrel and he said 'Why would you buy a cone mandrel? Just go to the junk pile and get what you need to substitute for a cone mandrel'. I replied that: a) I don't want to spend any time looking for a tool and; b I don't have a large junk pile to look through. If you can afford it, then I say buy it. That way you can focus on forging what you want to forge.