JME1149

You could always put a piece of pipe in the toaster oven and preheat that, then place the blade inside the pipe for the temper cycle.

Serial number on the right is common for Trenton, shapes looks right too. I'd guess the markings on the side were there, just covered by the paint/rust/patina.

From his obit

Larry Lee Langdon, passed away May 31, 2018 in Buhl, he was 47 years old.  
A memorial service to remember Larry's life is being planned for Friday, June 22, 2018 at 11:00 a.m.. The service will be held at the Flag Display at the West End Cemetery in Buhl.  
A full obituary will be added soon.

11 hours ago, Randwulf said:

I do have an angle grinder but that seems a tad dicey to dress with.

For the angle grinder, try a flap wheel. Something around an 80 or 100 grit should give a nice balance between metal removal and surface finish.

I thought this topic had been covered before, so I looked through the past couple pages of the bellows/blowers section and found this. Should solve your issue (along with a generous penetrating oil soak)

Don't worry about the pein ends for the most part, the radius looks pretty good but the corners could be rounded over a bit more.

On the flat face ends, you will want to round off the sharp corner edges to gradually transition from the face to the sides. Any sharp corners will leave marks in your work. Typically you don't want a perfectly flat face, a slight dome will do for most work.

Go slow with the grinding, don't overheat the faces or you will affect the hardness of the face.

Shape the handles to fit your preference. I like more of an elongated octagon shape. And I recommend burning off the varnish, leaving a light char on the wood with a coat of boiled linseed oil.

Never saw one that shape before, but the seam running nose to tail screams cast iron. 

I suggest you start here: https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/37409-fisher/

You already provided the obvious answers, it's a Fisher anvil, made in 1893, weighing 140 pounds. Looks to be in good condition from what we can see in the photo. What more do you want to know about it?

Welcome Josh, and thank you for your service. You'll find lots of great information here. Do your research and read the posted stickies, you'll be amazed at how much you'll learn here.

Congratz Aric, amazing how quickly your whole outlook on life changed in that moment, isn't it? Wishing nothing but the best for you and momma.

17 hours ago, Noob said:

If it was my group and I had say in what was done

As the person doing the teaching, it is your group. You are responsible for their learning and safety and as such need to be the one to tell them what is going to be done. I used to take my portable kit to summer camp and had the boys come thru for classes as their schedules permitted so I can speak from experience. Safety should be your #1 concern and you should have plenty of adult supervision to keep an eye out for potentially dangerous situations. Even better yet, have the adults do the project first under your supervision so they really understand what to look out for. 

From what you have described so far, you will not be teaching them the metalworking merit badge because there are set skills you need to work on and build upon. It sounds like you want to give them a taste of blacksmithing, and that is a great thing. Rather than having them jump right in and trying to hammer out a knife-shaped-object from a railroad spike, maybe scale it back a bit and make a simpler blacksmith knife/letter opener type project (simple blade, drawn out handle that is twisted and folded over to make a loop). They would have much more success hammering a piece of 3/8" round bar to get a desired shape than they would with a spike.

And if you poke some holes in the bottom of the can, you can use it to sprinkle the fire rather than pouring the water on. Get creative and only poke a couple holes off to one side and you can still use it as a pour or sprinkle.

Re-create your first complete project to compare how far you've come with your technique. See if you can make it better, faster, prettier than you did originally.

When it is at the correct temperature, titanium moves very easy. Problem is, it doesn't stay at the correct temperature for very long. 

I'm no expert on this style, but it looks to me that without the chain in place to drive the lower screw, turning the handle would cause a bind between the upper and lower screws. Trying to force it to turn would lock it up and could bend the screws or break some other component. Should be fairly easy to get a good guess on the needed chain size using the pin diameter and width off of the gears and measuring the distance between the upper and lower gear to calculate the length.

After taking an introductory blacksmithing class, I started asking around at work if anyone knew of an anvil for sale. The third person I asked said he had one in his garage that he'd been tripping over for too many years and said I could have it, but I would need to bring some help to load it. He told me he inherited the anvil from an uncle who had it sitting in the chicken coop for at least the past twenty years. I was figuring a beat up hundred pound or so anvil that would need a bunch of clean up to be usable. When I got to his house, he pointed me to a 200 lb Hay Budden in near perfect shape. Wouldn't accept any money for it, saying his wife was happy to see it gone and that was payment enough. TPAAAT in action for sure.

Just to clarify the question on to clay or not to clay, this is one of the older, cast iron pans which have embossed right in the pan to clay before use. Thermal cycling can cause the cast iron to crack, which isn't really a pleasant thing to deal with. The newer style sheet metal pans would not need the clay, although having the insulating layer wouldn't hurt, as long as the moisture isn't trapped causing the pan to rot.

Unless I'm mistaken, it's similar to a pineapple twist without scribing the lines down the center of the bar. Twist the bar clockwise, flatten back to square, then untwist half the number of turns.

6 hours ago, Stitch said:

miniature ladies razor set

Would that be a miniature razor for ladies, or a razor for miniature ladies? Judging by the pictures, it could work either way.

On 1/5/2018 at 9:14 PM, Marc1 said:

A 5 gallon bucket is 17" high give or take.

If this is true, the face of that anvil is around 53" above floor level. Must have been a very tall blacksmith.

Looks like a big one to me, 200+ lbs ??? Also looks to be in pretty decent condition.

I'm not sure what you are seeing that I am not, but that's not what I consider to be in bad shape. Looks like some pitting on the face.... no big deal, just start beating some hot metal on it will help polish the face. I do see some minor damage along one edge, but nothing that makes it unusable. To my eyes, it's a nice old Fisher in decent shape. with plenty of usable surface.

Wire wheel to clean it up, a coat of linseed oil to preserve the finish, and put it to work. 

The Hay Budden catalog shows 40 to 100 lb anvils with 3/4" hardie and 7/16" pritchel;  125 - 150 lb anvils with 7/8" hardie and 9/16" pritchel, but I would think it depends on the face width being able to support a larger hardie hole.

Since it appears you are using your weed burner forge indoors, make sure you have plenty of fresh air coming in to offset all the carbon monoxide that is pumping out and filling the house, or it may well be the last Christmas presents you ever have to worry about.

A proper burner can be built relatively inexpensive, depending on your tools and abilities, and used in you firebrick setup, but the fastest way to get where you want to be is as stated above, dig a hole, light the charcoal and induce some forced air to get the metal hot. Better get digging before the ground freezes too hard.

What's up with the double step? Looks like it might have been damaged on the front edge and had an inch or two of the top plate removed for some reason.