Chestnut Forge

I found it on Amazon

Speedy Metals has A-2 and D-2 tool steel flats 1/2 x 4 x 12 inches for around $60. I'd weld up that big gouge and go with BIGGUN's idea.

If my math is right. It should hold about 298 pounds of dry sand.

I have a bunch of small stones. Fist sized sandstone and enough sand to do the job. I will post some pics when it is done. I just wish I had some heat in the garage. Wind chill tonight is supposed to be -30F

I was thinking of using 3/4 plywood cut to fit in the tank and some pieces glued/screwed to keep the anvil from walking around. I've seen anvils set on sand before. I'm just wondering if sand will absorb some of the force making hammer blows less effective.

I repaired one once that was like that, but not as bad. I bought a piece of armor plate steel (I can't remember the alloy). Drilled through the body in three places in a line down the center. Tack welded the new steel on the face and use a long punch to mark it. Then drill and tap the new steel. counter sink the holes in the anvil body at the under side. Use long bolts to hold it together and weld the new face on. The trick was heat treating it. Did all that make sense?

I need some opinions. I think I have a stand for my 100# HB sorted out. I have an old hot water tank that is 16 inches in diameter. If I cut it 24 inches tall, it will put the anvil face where I need it. The question is: should I fill it with plain sand of some sort of mix? I'm not going to use concrete. I thought about a clay/sand mix and ram it in damp.

A few years back, I has at the Highland Games in Ligonier, Pa. The was a smith set up doing a demo. I like to watch others work, learn some neat tricks that way. Anyway, The smith is whipping through making cup hooks and s hooks. He was using tongs for most of the work. This 20 something kids says loud enough for everyone to hear " He's not a real blacksmith! A real blacksmith only uses a hammer and shoes horses." I tried to explain to him how wrong he was but the smith just laughed and shrugged, said it happens all the time.

Just got this one yesterday.....for free! A hundred pound Hay-Budden. Any ideas on what it is worth?

I have used one of those. It is for pulling sucker rod out off the well.

I quenched so that I could flip them around to work the other end, or I would have just let the sit awhile.

Yellow

Is the extraction mounted in the flow of the smoke? I'm using charcoal in my forge and don't have a hood over it yet. The little bit of smoke that it makes just gets sucked out by an exhaust fan mounted at the peak of my garage roof. I do keep a fire extinguisher two step away, though. The only problem that I have is the ash, it is heavy enough that not all of it gets pulled out. If I understand this, you are using something like a shop-vac motor/blower?

I got the project done. Not my best work but, I think it turned out ok. I haven't really done and smithing for over ten years. The steel is some type of HC. I had to change the design when the hook snap off the bottom end of one bracket while I was setting a copper rivet at the other end. Shouldn't have quenched........

This morning I clamped one in the vice to see if I could bend it cold. It is tempered like a spring.

The first one was a rectangle that I made for my buddy. He used it for 12 years before he had to replace it. This one is being built from an old air compressor tank.

No doubt it was zinc. I'm thinking that the straps were some sort of supports. Had a 1/2 inch hole in one end and 9/16 in the other. I did a file test on a quenched piece. File slides across it like ice on glass. I'm going to make a blade out of some of it, see how it turns out.

I haven't beat iron in awhile and I'm kinda out of shape. But, I had fire in the old forge this evening. The Love of my life wants a pair of wall brackets to hang big candle lanterns on. I have four scrap 1 1/4 x 1/8 straps 28 inches long , perfect to forge the brackets. My FIL gave them to me. They were hanging on the back wall of his garage since he was a kid. Anyway, this stuff is red hard. I had to bring it to a bright yellow to move metal with a 2 pound hammer. I did a spark test and it is some sort of high carbon steel. The were galvanized when I got them. I stripped them with muriatic acid. Do you folks think that the acid could have effected the steel in some way? Kinda like nitrate hardening?

Here is mine. I have the original blower also.

A few years back, I stopped smithing because the shed I used for a shop was falling down. I moved the tools into the garage and cleaned up my "little" scrap pile. Got to the junk yard with 1747lbs of steel.

If there is a steel mill anywhere near you. Ask them if you can have some of the mill scale. A guy not far from me used some on his driveway. It fused into a solid surface. The gas company came through to replace a line and couldn't did through it with a backhoe.

It's not bad. Rebound is really good, but I need to harden the face. I think that the welding heat annealed it and my son/helper needs to learn some hammer control. Since it is welded to the I-beam base it had one heck of a ring. Fixed that by welding a couple of straps across the webs, took it down to a ping. I put magnets on the base and now it is just a thud. BTW, my son is like most guys getting started. Just wants to make knives.......sigh.

Thanks. It took awhile to make. The body is 10 inch diameter and 7 inches tall. I used a hunk of 60 lb rail for the face. Split the web off, cut two ten inch pieces and welded them together. The "horn" is 1 3/4 round. I put the body on the cross slide of my lathe and drilled a 9/16 hole two inches deep. Turned a shank on the end of the 1 3/4. I used the lathe to spin/press fit them together. The heel is one of the plates that goes between rails and ties.

This is my anvil for now. I made it from sCRAP that was in my garage/shop. It goes right around 250 lbs.