Jason McD

One of the guys I work with asked me if I wanted an old grinder mounted on a heavy metal table. Of course I said I did, he forgot about the vise that was mounted on it too. Even threw in the 1/3 hp motor. I love free stuff for my shop.

Welcome to IFI WyoSmith. I like the press. One of these days I've got to get/build one.

Welcome to IFI pigiron. The forums are full of tons of info. I use the search feature a lot to find specific info for projects I'm working on. Great resources here!

I got right to that Frosty, got my new forge put together and started working on a few projects that I have been putting off just to see what issues needed addressed with the new forge, that anvil makes pretty music :-)

Wow! That picnic is basically in my back yard. I pulled a 50# post vice out of that scrapyard's pile if your talking about Swarthout's. I just got around to getting a membership this morning after putting it off for the last six months. Im not sure what my work schedule is that week but I'll definitely show up for a bit. I'm excited now.

Thanks njanvilman, just having a little info helps me understand it a little better. Now I'm excited :-). Toothygrin free is always the best price, my wife's boss gave this to me for free because I help at the bar quite a bit mowing and hauling trash for him, just wish I would've spotted it sooner, been under my nose for six months since I started playing with fire and metal. He said it sat in the back room for 40 years.

Hey everybody. I was wondering if anybody could tell me about this anvil I picked up. I don't know much about it other than it was my wife's boss's grandfather's. Has no markings that I can make out other than hammer marks. It would appear that the front foot broke off at some point and was repaired, but again I don't know. The anvil weighs 126# and has no pritchel hole. I vaguely remember that no pritchel could mean that it could've been made before 1820 but I could, in most likelyhood, be wrong on that. After some work with a knotted cup brush on my angle grinder and some penetrating oil it looks a lot prettier than when I picked it up. Now its all mounted and seen a few uses I'm absolutely loving it and can't wait to use it more, much more useful than my RR track setup. Any ideas on history or age would be greatly appreciated. I'm just curious as I love the history behind tools.

Been looking for an anvil at least six months now. Found this little guy hiding right under my nose at the bar my wife works at. The owner told me that it was his grandfather's, and gave it to me for free as I help out over there every now and again. He just didn't want me selling it. No visible markings that I can see. It weighed in at 126.6 lbs before I cleaned it up. I can't wait to get it mounted up and put to use. Definitely an improvement over my railroad track

Happy Birthday Frosty!

Hey greenskpr, welcome from just south of the finger lakes in Corning.

Thanks you for the welcome guys. I appreciate all the advice.

Thanks, I kinda lucked into the workshop, came with the house I just bought in April. Actually think the previous owner, now deceased, may have done some smithing. Found a hot set in the shop

The vice I found while searching at the local scrapyard. Cost me 20 bucks at 40 cents a pound. Has a 4 on the underside of the mounting plate and 1 1/2 on the screw box. I wish I would've taken a pic before I got it cleaned up and greased

Hey everyone, Jason McDonald, 29, Corning, NY. After a month of reading the wealth of information here, I figured it was time to introduce myself. I'm just getting started in blacksmithing. What drew me to it was the passions for old tools, and working with my hands. I've spent my adult life working primarily in manufacturing (forming semi molten glass for a living for the last 3 years). After stumbling across this site and others, I started looking more deeply into blacksmithing and the only way I know to describe it was that a fire was sparked inside me that has started becoming a full blown obsession, sometimes to my fiance's dismay, :-). I built myself a charcoal forge out of firebrick and a cast iron cess pool grate. I found myself a chunk of rail road track that I bedded in a bucket of sand, probably will mount it in concrete at some point this weekend as I'm not how well the sand will work. I even stumbled across a completely intact, albeit rusty, 50# post vice at the local scrapyard! Thank you to all the experienced smiths on here for being willing to share your knowledge for betterment of the craft and so that others like myself may learn and perhaps someday pass the knowledge on in similar fashion. Jason

Thank you so much for this post, very helpful