metal99

If you look on the right side of the forge in the background that's my knife forge that I made its 18" long and 5-1/2" deep.

Jim, the one in the back is a Canadian forge co. It works on but we get a bigger fire from the little champoin. The fire pot and ash dump are extremely rotten and the blower sounds like a freight train running with square wheels. It's ready for retirement lol. I might be getting a champoin forge the same size as that Canadian and I found a nice 150 lb anvil that I might pick up. The old guy paid five bucks for the anvil and he's not sure if he wants to get rid of it or not but he said he only wants what he paid for it. Ill give him more if he does decide to sell it.

Here is a picture of the forge.

You just made me laugh man "crackpot forge" that's awesome. Me and dad really enjoy it and my 7 year old son is starting to show some interest.

Thanks for all the advice you guys. My dad fixed it up and did what Rich Hale suggested. It looks like a pretty strong repair so I think it will be good. I will make sure I build a small fire in it to pre heat everything first. Thanks again everyone!

It's definatly not a write off thats for sure.

No I didn't :( I feel so bad for this little forge.

Nice looking forge :) I sure wish I would have read this post about 7 hours ago... I went to my dads house today to test out our new champion forge. It's a nice small one, the basin is about 2 feet in diameter. We got a nice fire going in it and I started the heat treat on one of my knives. All of a sudden BANG!!! the basin cracked... And I mean it CRACKED. I was pretty upset when that happened....

A few days ago my dad called me and told me about a nice champion "rivet" style forge that he got from a friend if his. I went there today to check it out and wow! It was like new! The nice little blower was almost silent when cranked and other then a little surface rust in the basin it was in amazing shape.

I brought along two blades that I had to heat treat so we could test out the forge. After about half an hour we had a really nice fire going about 15" in diameter. I stuck the first knife onto the "cave" and began turning the blower slowly. It was about a minute later and BANG!!! The basin violently cracked from the middle right to the edge... I was so upset when I heard that. When it cracked it even sheared the bolts off that held the duck/ash dump to the basin so that fell to the ground and hot coal went flying...

What would cause this to happen? Does it just happen or did I cause this by building such a big fire so soon?

No problem man :)

What's the deal on this epoxy? Is it available in the states?

Looks like you did a great job with the repair, and I'm confident that anvil will last you another few generations. Good job, hoss.

Put that anvil to good use so far it's standing up well :) burnt up 50 pounds of coal and I'm lovin it.

Nothing wrong with that one, I would own it :)

I totally agree with you. They are extremely similar in every way except the weight. I sure hope we can figure out who made them. Mine came from northern Saskatchewan and that's all my uncle knows about it. Lots of people migrated here from the states and over seas but like stated before, the weight being marked in pounds is a sure sign of a north American made anvil.

I've spent hours looking at pictures of anvils and non of the ones I have seen are like ours.

Your right man it does have a tall waiste and a fairly small base compared to the top. I never noticed that before.

How available we're large number stamps back then? I just can't see a normal blacksmith having number stamps that were almost 3/4" tall.

I wouldn't imagine forge welding 75 pounds of steel by hand lol. You would almost need a full heat suit for that. It is a crude build so you never know it just might be a blacksmith made unit.

Hmm that's cool. Defiantly an old one tho. I wish there were more markings on it.

Colonial era! Wow that would be cool. That could make it pretty darn old. It's defiantly a crude build compared to my Trenton.

Thanks Thomas, I take it he is probably not a member of the forum is he? Lol do you have an idea on how I could contact him?

Hey guys and gals, my uncle has this old anvil and he wants to get some info on it.

It's defiantly in rough shape but it works alright. I used it to start out with.

Just by looking at it, it seems like its actually made from 8 seperate pieces. It looks like the four feet are welded to
The base, the base is welded to the waist, the waist is welded to the top and then it's got the tool steel face.

The only numbers I can make out are a 74. Here are a few pictures.

Shelf life - 40 million years :rolleyes: - Should last forever is what I'm sayin .

The coal I get out here is all fines, I store it in a bucket of water and add it wet to the fire where it cokes up.

I had a local collector look at this blade. He collects stuff from the Hudson bay era. He figures it was for butchering bison.

Cant wait to find out what that coal is. I have a very similar coal to that shiny stuff you have. There is also a huge coal bin at the farm but it's not shiny and really dirty looking. If the farm wasn't so far away I would go get some to try it.