Henri De Vreese

Finally found some time this weekend to bring her to my studio. She's small but sings like no other. I wanted to give some extra perspectives that are not frequently used for an anvil, but do show the real beauty of one. Thank you for the great community here!

Thank you! I found the post, mine is indeed very close to the one on Anvilfire. Probably indeed made by B. Bissaud. Mine is a bit different, but certainly inspired/made by these. II'll take my anvil to my studio and also take some pictures for Anvilfire, seems like a great collection! PS: Why are links forbidden?

TPAAAT is indeed the best way to find an anvil! My uncle is a woodworker and thus knows plenty of people that 'might' have an anvil. I called him to ask if he could find one for me, exactly 5 hours later he is at my doorstep with my wonderful anvil. He said he got it for free and it took him less than 3 phone calls to obtain it! 35kg (77#), steel face (don't know about the rest of the anvil) and French by B. Bissaud (Thank you John McPherson for this wonderful information!).

Thank you John McPherson! The top image is indeed identical to my anvil! Do you happen to have a bit more info on this B. Broussard? Or the source where you found the name? I tried searches in both English and French, but there are thousands of B. Broussard's that are documented online. I tried all variations on 'B. Broussard anvil' and was unsuccesfull :(. Except for the weird hardy hole, I really like this anvil! Wonderfull horn and face, sharp corners and great rebound. I actually highly prefer it to the big anvils most smiths prefer. If you see one in good shape: Highly recomended! (I saw another 35kg one sell for over 150€!) The side hardy hole is sometimes handy: My hardy tool (only got one as of today) is very snug and thus gets stuck when worked with hot metal. Getting it out only requires a hit in the hole with my poking stick, getting it out if the hole would go through the bottom would be impossible. Many thanks to all of you for helping me out! Hopefully I'll find the location of this anvil maker, maybe it's a museum of some kind.

I'll try to turn it around this weekend to check the bottom for you. I'll upload a pic. Don't exactly know what you mean with cavity: do you mean that it's partly hollow or do you mean that you can see through the legs? If the second, then yes (but that was obvious from the photo's, so I think you mean the first). Does anyone have a clue were she is from or any info about the maker?

Caotropheus: It's much different to that as you see by the photo's. At also has a funny loop between the legs (also seen on the pictures) and the hardy hole is placed somewhere else. The face is also bit bigger than the base on mine, which I have never seen before (totally not an expert btw). Njanvilman: Thank you, but I find it very odd that I have some kind of logo/markings/name without finding any information about it. I have been using it for around 3 years without asking myself, but I decided to do a search on the internet and didn't find anything. Now I am really really curious!

Hello everyone! Can someone help me ID my anvil? She weighs 35kg, has markings ASBB on it (99% sure it's that, but it's possible that a letter is deformed). And it also mentions N°1 as seen in the pictures. Edges are very sharp, has an oddly shaped hardy hole (it doesn't go through, but goes through the side) and also has a round hole in the back. She also sings like a bell and bounces as good or better as the many 200-400kg anvils I tried at my local blacksmithshop (almost all made of steel). I still have to do the ball-bearing test. I got this one from my uncle who asked around and got this one from a retired blacksmith. It was/is located in Belgium, but like most anvils it can come from all over the world! Really interested in knowing more about my anvil or about the company who made it. Many searches in books and the internet were unsuccessful... Hopefully someone knows it's origin. If there is any more info I can give, please ask! PS: It's all dirty now because I covered it in old and hard oil to protect it against moisture and rust.

*UPDATE!* + crazy story So, the first big update, I finished installing the vise and put the anvil in place. Got some BIG problems with the vise installment! You probably read that I was going to put a tube in the ground and cement it in. Well, there was something nasty (literally) in the way (or do I have to say in the ground...). I started drilling with my 'hammerdrill' (drill that can screw and hit?), I was only about 10cm (4 inches) deep until all of a sudden my chisel flew down a hole! After panicking a bit, I called my grandpa to ask if I accidentally hit the waterpit, but he told me that was impossible. A cellar? No, that was on the other side of the old house. You probably guessed it right, it was a cesspit. A 3x3m (10x10 feet) and 2m (6 feet) deep pit with poop in it, just underneath my brand new smithy... And I still got to get my chisel out of there! Opened the thing from the outside, used leafblower to get al the nasty air out of there and went in. When going down the hole I found out it was not used for at least 10 years and the poop turned into sand. However, I wanted to keep safe and just caught the chisel with a magnet attached to a long stick. I got it back, made the hole a bit larger so it just kept the tube tight and I poured in the cement. I installed the workbench and then the vise. I put some threaded rod through the wall and secured it on the other side. On this side I welded a metal plate to attach to the vise. Well, I have to say, it's rock solid! I moved my little anvil in (35kg one on a heavy stump) and now I am ready to forge inside. My forge is still located outside, and I hope to change that in the next couple of weeks! I think I'll make a basic metal forge to start with out of a bit thicker material so it's made to last a lifetime. Still need to find a good blower, because my leafblower makes too much noise to keep it inside. Hopefully you like the pictures (don't mind the mess, it was 11pm and didn't want to clean up anymore). It was also very dark and pictures are just taken with my phone. You can also see my quenching bucket next to my table.

Thomas: Thanks for the help! Chinobi: I will probably make a wall-rack for my iron and tools. I didn't find a nice design for that, so I didn't include it in the sketchup design. I was still looking for a slack tub when I wrote the opening post, I found a nice metal bucket (but a large one). I could easily break through the wall, it has only got 2 layers of normal-sized bricks and the cement is very old (I can scratch it out very easily). The roof is made out of normal (orange) tiles with no isolation or plate (I can see the tiles from the inside). Nearest building is our house, which is 4 stories high (including pointy roof).

ThomasPowers: At the iron-seller (don't know the English term), they told me I would actually need a spring to start with. Will it still be a spring if I use normal mild steel (does mild steel spring without special heat treatment?)? I guess that normalizing a spring would take the spring out of it, or am I completely wrong here? I am trying to find the balance between a beautiful shop and functionality. I am not a professional blacksmith and don't need the best of the best, but I would like to make something I can still be proud off a few years down the road. I already know that I will NOT make the chimney out of bricks, it will be too hard to make and will cost more than it's worth. But I do think about having a brick base (with metal structure in the middle) as this is very pleasing to the eye and is not very expensive. The blacksmith shop down the road (where they teach for free btw), doesn't have a very good drawing chimney I noticed this morning (if you know what I mean). They use 3 HUGE chimneys that are more than 10 feet above the rooftop. The forge itself bigger than my shop and their hood is also very big (as big as the forge) and also pretty low. I guess the chimneys have to be cleaned (or is it because it was raining very hard?) I think I'll have to go with a chimney through the wall as it will be hard to make it through the roof. I'll see what's possible tomorrow or the day after. (like I said, I am an hour away from it during the week) I'll mainly make smaller items, if I do got a large project I want to do, I still have the shop down the road (and 8 experienced blacksmiths) at my disposal. I don't like the idea and usefulness of a closed hood as this limits the possibilities a lot (it would be impossible to make something fairly small like a 3-candle candlestick). I also saw the Hofi ones, but really don't like the aesthetics of it, it looks very industrial for a small shop like mine. MLMartin: You are right, I already thought of that. I will place the firepit itself far enough from the wall to make sure I can also heat larger object (but again, I can still go to the other shop if I would eventually want to make something bigger). Wouldn't a side-draft hood be very annoying when doing 3-foot bars? As heating the middle would also be obstructed by the hood itself? Thanks again for the great advice, I have learned more about shops here than all the books I read together.

Wow, thanks for the superfast responses! Glenn: Just added my location, I'm located in Belgium, near Ghent in fairly large village. I live in the centre of the village, with appartmentblocks across the street and lots of neighbors. I will be using coal (like I did for the last 3 years), I like it and don't think I'll need gas. njanvilman: 1) Oh, didn't know that! I'll look into getting a seperate stove then. 2) Probably not, there is a large blacksmith shop about 200 meters from my house. I do smell it when they are bussy, but they say then never got any problems with it (and didn't even knew you could smell it that far :D). I try to go there as much as possible, but they only forge on Wednesdays and Thursdays (and very late), I am almost always at the University when they are forging :(, so I need my own shop for in the weekends. 3) Thanks, I'll look into that. Do you have any pictures of your own to demonstrate how they are made? 4) My uncle is a (just) retired woodworker, a very good one, I guess he could help me out if he finds some time. MLMartin: I do indeed like brick forges, a metal one doesn't seem that attractive. And my welding skills are not very good to make my own (I do know some people that do have fantastic welding skills). Average temperatures are about 5°C in the winter and 12°C in the summer (sorry, really don't have a clue how that would translate into Fahrenheit). We almost never get snow, and only sometimes freezing temperatures (20 days/year or so), but I like to work at a bit more comfortable temperatures (mainly for when I am doing less intensive stuff). My workbench looks very solid and is sturdy, but it's pretty small and I can lift it by myself. The floor is also a bit uneven and thus I will bolt the vise and bench together to the wall (that's the steel bar). Charcoal is not an option, don't have access to large quantities of wood to make it myself and charcoal is at least 5x the price of normal coal. I also read that charcoal doesn't give a nice "coal oven" like real smithingcoals. My main concern now is the chimney and the side-draft forge. Does anyone have any (nice looking) ideas? (have checked the blueprints, but only found an ugly and very big one. I also don't find a spring for the vice (at least not under 100$), is it possible to make one myself? To all a big thank you for the idea's so far!

Hello everyone! I am fairly new to blacksmithing and decided that after 3 years of forging outside (and not being able to forge when the weather is bad) I decided to build my own shop. I am a student and thus I am only able to forge (and work on my shop) in the weekends, so expect a weekly update on this (hopefully amazing) buildlog. The space I'll be using is 2.80x3 meters (or 9'x10'). I guess it used to be the home to some pigs or rabits by the structuring of the place (metal rings in the walls, a gut for the water, no plate between roof and inside). I'll upload as many pictures as I can during the building of this place. I just finished cleaning it all out (took me more than 10 hours!) and don't want to show a before image ;). I just bought a leg vise (without spring unfortunatly), which will be one of the first things to be installed after I get my bench moved. (it's standing ready to be moved in as you see on the picture) I'll put a pipe in the ground so the vise sits secure and I'll also secure it through the wall with a large metal bar to give it extra stability (all attached to my wooden workbench). My avil will come in the middle of the room and I'll try to make a forge in the corner of the room. (check out this sketchup model I made) To give you guys some orientation: the forge is placed against the wall with the small window and where the lader is currently standing in the picture. I don't have a lot of tools as for now, so I'll just keep my hammers and tongs in a wooden box until I know how to make a decent roolrack. There are still a few things I need some help with and don't find any usefull/realistic solutions to. 1) I need a hood/sidedraft forge, but every book/website tells me I need a chimney that is 4 feet longer than the highest point of my roof. This is really hard to do for me as I have zero experience with building. It will also look rather nasty as I live in a dense populated area in the middle of a village. What materials would you use? I am very tempting to do a sidedraft one if possible, so please share the best sidedraft forges you have seen! 2) It's cold in there, I mean really cold. Does the forge heat a small room like that enough or do I need an extra stove for heating? I never forged inside, so don't know if the heat gets pulled out through the chimney or if it just stays in the room. 3) As you see in the pictures, I don't have a door yet. Any idea's on making one for this place? What wood to use? I could forge the hinges myself, but have little experience with woodworking. I was also thinking about making my own big nails to give the place an extra blacksmithing look. Any idea's on easy to make and strong doors? I really like this forum a lot and have been looking at all shop's of this forum, some are really inspiring! Already thank you for the great support!