Sask Mark

Have you ever taught anyone before? Maybe if you had a chance to train a rookie, their enthusiasm and fresh point of view might be infectious and give you some renewed purpose.

I also had the opportunity to visit a local mill when I bidding on the construction of the foundations for their new turret ladle for one of the electric arc furnaces. They warned me when they were going to turn on the current to the carbon electrodes. I still jumped at the noise. They were running 600 volts at 30,000 amps through the electrodes. Then they charged the furnace with the alloy and the sparks started showering again. I watched as employees dressed in reflective 'space suits' took samples from the furnaces for lab analysis. I was over 100 feet away from the furnaces and sweating, I can just imagine what those guys up on the catwalks were experiencing.

Blacksmith Powertrip Hammer Hi All, Any smiths in Northern California or Southern Oregon looking for a project trip hammer?

I've been very lucky so far. I haven't paid a penny for my 2 forges with working blowers, and I have a total of $20 into my 2 replacement blowers (the one I just mentioned and a Champion No. 1). I also have $50 into my 4 leg vices. Almost every farm in the area where I grew up had a small blacksmith setup from their homestead days, and there are quite a few basic tools remaining.

I just picked up a large, seized hand cranked Canadian Blower and Forge blower for $20. 30 minutes later I had it torn apart and freed up. Now to clean all the parts and reassemble for (another) backup blower.

The composition of the anvil body also affects hammer rebound. The cast iron anvil bodies absorbed and dampened a lot of the energy due to the carbon structure (higher carbon content) than the very low carbon wrought iron bodies. Some of the IFI members better versed in metallurgy can explain this better than I can. Hay Buddens are considered a quality anvil as many of them (empirical evidence) seem to have stood up very well over many years of use. The later Hay Buddens had the entire top half made of steel (not wrought with a steel plate), so there wouldn't have been a risk of the plate delaminating from the body. If you want a good summary of the qualities of many different brands of anvils and why/how the author judges their quality, try to get your hands on a copy of Anvils in America by Richard Postman.

Element, no I never ordered from them, although I hear it is good coal. Did you price the coal through Home Hardware or directly from Thak?

Element, I priced Thak's coal from a local Home Hardware, and it was $50/bag in small quantities. They said it would be less if I purchased a pallet full.

Wow! I wonder if his shed foundation is rated for that kind of weight?

The serial number 225117 was made between March 1952 and June 1953. Actually, 225551 is the last serial number listed in Anvils of America, so yours might be one of the last Trentons ever produced.

Very nice work! That gives me something to aspire to.

Those look like numbers stamped on each side of the flowers. They appear to be the English weight system for the weight of your anvil. It looks like a 1,0, and 16 to me which would translate into a 128 pound anvil.

I have been told that the coke produced by a local oil refinery is shipped to the U.S. for briquette production. I have a pail of this coke that I am going to try in my forge this spring.

Just an update to anyone interested. I decided to forgo the JB Weld route and went with belargehair's suggestion. I used 1/4" rod and drilled and tapped a M4 X .5 hole in the centre. I then epoxied a short section of this rod into an oversized hole in the bridge in the form of a threaded insert. I did the same thing with a 3/16" rod for the M3 X .5 hole for the string lockdown block that was stripped. The repair seems quite solid. The threaded inserts will hold thread much better than the original casting did. The weak link will be the epoxy holding the insert in place. I can't see it causing any issues. I will work on the rest of the guitar (clean and oil the fretboard, polish the frets, set the truss rod...) then remount the bridge. Hopefully, all goes well!

My Google search turned up nothing as well. I have heard of 1 other Buckworth that went up for auction last fall about 5 hours away from me. I don't know who bought it, or what it sold for. The owner was an accomplished blacksmith that taught many others. He had some high quality equipment for sale at the auction. I might just have to make the drive to the auction with a ball bearing to give it a test. Jeremy, funnily enough, a Google search of Buckworth turned up many references to that exact joke.

I already have a Peter Wright, a Trenton and a Hay Budden so it is not a first anvil for me. Just an potential addition to a collection. The reason why I ask is there is one coming up for auction in a couple of months. It is an older anvil (I think it predates the Chinese ASO's, but it might be an older U.S. or English Cast iron. Or, it could be a high quality wrought or steel anvil). I was wondering if anyone has any experience that would save me the 2 hour drive to the auction.

According to Anvils in America, your anvil was made around 1917-1918. Please post some pictures!

Does anyone have any experience with Buckworth anvils? Are they cast steel, cast iron, wrought? Are they a good quality anvil?

It was seeing knives like this in magazines that led to my interest in blacksmithing. Beautiful!

I was also wondering if the 'L' might be something else. However, I don't think that either manufacturer used the number '6' at the beginning of their serial numbers. My wife bought me AIA for Christmas this year. Like you Thomas, I am still getting to know it, but so far it has been thoroughly entertaining. Sorry for getting off topic.

I see what you mean. Mine seems to fit within the Hay Budden serial number scheme. As you suggested earlier, is it possible that Finnr's Lakeside anvil is a Trenton? I have seen a picture of his anvil in the 'It Followed Me Home' thread and I agree that it does look like a Hay Budden. However, on page 339 of AIA Mr. Postman states that he has recorded a few Trentons with a letter preceeding the serial number. These letters varied (a theory is that the letter is the anvil maker's intial). He never mentioned the letter 'L' (as is on Finnr's anvil), but he also never stated that the letter was restricted to a few specific letters. The letter 'A' preceeded the serial number of later Hay Buddens (starting approx. 1918). But no other letters seem to have been used on Hay Buddens. If Finnr's anvil is a Trenton, it would be made in 1910 (boy do I love Anvils in America!). Regardless of what brand it is, it is a very nice anvil!

Wow! A very nice couple of additions to a collection. The fact that 'England' is stamped on the anvil indicates it was made after 1910 (according to Anvils In America). I also have a Canadian Giant (a 25 pounder), and haven't been able to find out much about them (other than they were probably Little Giant knock-offs). Next time I'm driving by to Calgary, I should stop in and 'borrow' your new tools. Congratulations!

I made the assumption that the Lakesides just fit into Hay Budden's serial number scheme, since I thought the anvil would be a routine Hay Budden production item, just stamped differently for a different customer. I used the Hay Budden serial number/date chart from Anvils In America to come up with this date. Perhaps I'm wrong with this assumption.

I have a 100 pound Lakeside made in 1907 (sn 146473).

Hey Merl, I used the most recent Anvils In America for the info. If I remember correctly (I don't have the book in front of me right now) they got up to around SN 16000 by the end of 1894. I can verify when I get home tonight. Edit - AIA claims HB produced the serial numbers approx. 9,001 to 16,000 in 1894 (these dates are approximated to within 2 years according to Mr. Postman).