Avadon

Hmm.. I was under the impression that the more you kick the feet out the better the stability is. I think your right though, I think I will make a mockup out of 2x'4's and plywood and then I can get a good reference of what kind of angles and cuts i'm looking at.

Really? You think I should bolt it down with lags into the concrete? this is the first time anyone's ever reccomended that.

So you think it would be a better design to have the one leg right in front. That gives more clearance I presume? Do you think I should angle the rear piece of plate like that? I imagine he did that to give a wider base. Is this necessary?

Unfortunately I don't have access to that anvil in the picture. I thought someone said 33 1/3 degree's but I don't know if that's even right. I suck at math. I'm guessing I should resseruct pythagorus for some help here lol I know some triangle math is immenent.

So i'm ready to start cutting metal for an anvil stand but I need some help. This is essentially the stand I want to make as I have a gladiator anvil. Here are my questions.. What angle do I cut the legs at? Should I shim the feet with some kind of rubber or rubberized machine mount? What kind of material or adhesive should I use to set the anvil to avoid ring? Or should I just use some kind of thin/thick rubber mat? I'm a little worried about getting the angles cut perfectly on those feet. Is there any kind of measuring/angle tool like a protractor with a ruler attached to give me accurate lines before cutting? (I couldn't find one at lowes) I assume I will have to preheat this thick of material before welding, but will that weaken the steel? Will putting gussets in some of the corners add ring? I thought I might do this to help strengthen the joints. Thanks

Ahh okay, now I have a better idea of the process. They do take a long time to make. I've seen stuff from china that assuredly must be machine made from the texture on the metal. The rose/petals I did on Rosa Mortis candlesticks (in this thread) took weeks to do because I actually cut lines in every petal with a chisel. Because of they way they were attached around that wire coil I had to weld them on one by one so this meant forging each petal one by one. Seriously time consuming. Even if your exceptionally good and fast at hammering roses out I don't think it can be done in anything faster then a few hours as you have templating, cutting, forging, a stem, final assembly and scroll work to do. I think a successful Rose is a good indicator that your on the right track to being a successful blacksmith and metal artist.

Yah but how do I make them?

YouTube - The Forged Rose II What are the tools in this video, specifically the things that look like small circle/cups and the tool that looks like scissors but has pincers. How do I make these? :rolleyes:

HOLY MACROLE! I had to do a double take because I thought your pics were just renderings, and not actual work! Amazing!

so you actually pull them up and tweak them while all the discs are on the stem? See in the past I just drilled a hole through all my petal cut discs and then forged the shape of each one and welded them together through a hole in the middle. Then when I had all the petals forged to their basic shape and welded in I would go and tweak them a bit. Now i'm startinig to realize this may not be the best way. But I do like to be able to hammer the discs into their shape first and then put them on a stem. So I will probably try your idea and my idea in a combination. Sort of like take my discs hammer them into the basic shape and then work from the bottom (largest disc) to the smallest by trying them in place. Kinda of hard to explain I guess. But this way i'd be hammering each section and then putting it on the stem when it looks good, rather then trying to work flat discs and pull them up with pliers or tongs(which i'm guessing is what your describing you did?). Thanks for the help.

I like this advice. If you try to be overly broad you'll probably lose the focus of your reader. Why don't you pick out a few key moments in the history of metalworking that are icons of blacksmithing. For example early bronze age work of spears, swords, helmets, religious artifacts, etc. and then cite another reference or two of blacksmithing uses in the iron age and then cite some historic occurrences that blacksmiths did in the early 20'th century (Industrializing America), and then so on up until modern day. The best way to cover a really broad topic in my mind is to pick out some key snapshots that encompass the theme. This way your bringing together say 4-6 snapshots of history that will give the reader an understanding of a paradigm with a great longevity. *Plus it's easier to write 5-10 pages per snapshot of history then it is trying to chronicle all of blacksmithing by 50 year increments from Mesopotamia to present. lol

So it's not a medieval toilet seat?

Well magnet will help you differentiate some metals ferrous vs non-ferrous. But when it comes to various hardness of steels it would help if you could grind them a bit. If you could take a battery operated dremel with a small grinding wheel or cutting wheel you could probably make out the harder steels by examining which gave off greater crows feet.

I like how spiraling your rose pattern is. Will you do me a favor and give me an explanation or a walk through on the process you use or you've created?

Thanks guys. This will probably be the last pillar candle set I make because they can be so labor intensive, and because i've made numerous ones. I want to really stard using my talents to work on medieval weapons and armour. Wrapped Copper and brass can look really beautiful when you get a fair bit of it. I encourage people to try it more often. Just keep in mind to start with tons of wire as you need a lot more then you imagine. It helps to keep tension and slightly tap it down with a something blunt to make sure the coils align well.

Beautiful!! They are like sorta gothic / steampunk / post-modern industrial... no? I like how ribbony and fluid they are.

Here it is with a candle Detail of the engraved writing Water, Earth, Air, Fire Thanks for checking out my occult artwork.

Thought you guys might want to see the sculputre I just completed. After about a month I stopped counting how much time I put into this. Rosa Mortis : The Bloom of Death are a pair of pillar style candle holders. The house the 4 elements in oppositional expanding directions. Those famaliar with my work know that I often create or recreate occult sculpture and antiquities. These candle holders are for a large steel altar. They're comprised of steel and copper. The rest is airbrushed and weathered. In hindsight I suppose I could have actually done brass as opposed to painting them gold. But the steel is much stronger. There are countless coats of color and high gloss. All the detail work on the triangles took days on end with different dremel cutting bits. The rose petals are very thick, I started with 1/8'th plate and then consecutively used thinner metal. Each petal was actually forged and welded in place, piece by piece. I think they came out fairly well after such a long exhaustive process. photo 1,2,3 Here I welded pipe over the pipe then used lead to to contour the seams. photo 4 Wrapping the copper [url=""]photo 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

Einstein was referring to Spinozza's God. Not actually the deity yaweh. Einstein was an atheist.

Thanks for the ideas and techniques guys. Appreciate it.

How does one find a sleeve with 13/16 outsides and 3/4" insides? Does such a thing even exist?

What does one do if one has an anvil that had a hardy of 3/4 and is now worn out to 13/16+- I know MSC has 13/16 cold drawn bar but that would be expensive and defeating to start making specialty sized stakes that only work in one anvil. Do people normally bore it out to 7/8? Is that unheard of? :confused:

Yah in my experience the bi-metal blades where wood is specified as one of the things you can cut should almost solely be used for cutting wood, maybe some plastics. They are just not hard enough to do metal and then go back and give you that same crispness through wood. Now you can use a metal cutting blade to cut some wood in a pinch but the cut is usually fairly poor and then you get sawdust into your machine which is always fun to suck out when it mixes with the cutting lubricant present lol Here is a decent little bit on blades and trouble shooting http://www.sussexsawandtool.com/info.html

What is a reasonable soak time to remove soot, rust and millscale in straight distilled vinegar? (just looking for a benchmark from others) Can I also add.. how do I remove the left over grey aluminum oxide abrasive residue after i've media blasted the scale off of steel? I tried Alcohol, Mineral Spirits, Water, and it didn't come off. Is there some other cleaning product that will take it off or do I have to wire wheel it all off? If so that seems kinda silly.. like Ii used the aluminum oxide to get the soot/rust/scale off now do I need another media to get the alumium deposited residue off?

In my experience it is never worth it to try to resharpen them. Just use them with apropriate lubricant or wax to keep good life and when they are done they are done. Bandsaw blades are not that expensive. I have a 14" (800#) Metal Cutting Bandsaw from MSC and the blades are anywhere from 25$ to 100$ depending on TPI and material. Each blade will last a anywhere from 6 months to a year(s) depending on how much you use them. Better to take the spent bandsaw blades and forge a knife out of them. ;-) In fact I even looked up bandsaw blades on ebay and they go for sooo cheap that it's hardly worth selling good condition blades on there, let alone 2nd hand stuff. I bet you will probably pay as much to resharpen most bandsaw blades as you would for a brand new blade. *Perhaps the only exception would be specialty blades.