Jonnytait

This thread may shed some light

8 hours ago, Dave51B said:

johnytait, very nice.....only thing that looks questionable to me is, your forge. Sitting in a corner like that, how long of a bar can you heat in the middle?  May not be an issue at all for the work you do. Over all I envy you.                 Dave 

That is correct, I did wonder about that when I was installing the forge, but I do also have a propane forge tucked away under the work bench which I could set up if I ever face that problem, which i dont think will be very often. Long work pieces can be passed through it, so that should solve the issue I hope!

5 hours ago, stockmaker said:

Hello Jonnytait, your big anvil and anvil stand looks impressive, wish I had one like it.  I love to watch the TV show "Shetland", it only comes on here for a short time each year, fantastic scenery.   Nice to hear from you.

Shetland is a good TV show although its a bit odd watching it when you know the place well

On 5/4/2018 at 5:45 PM, Stew1803 said:

Thought I'd show some of you my smiddy (smithy)

Nice smiddy, good to see others in scotland here.

This is my new place, still have stuff to move yet but its taking shape

Hi Rangie, welcome. Im in the north too

$800 is madness, where do people get these prices from? You could buy a brand new quality anvil in the same weight range for less.

I kind of like this hammer, have you tried forging with it yet?

On 10/4/2017 at 1:51 PM, Kevin Olson said:

Whats that outcroping in the center rear of the forge. I love the block walls in your shop. What kind of building is it. Garage, warehouse etc.

Thanks, if you look below the forge you can see that blocks stick out of the wall at that point, from the ground up to the hatch, so I had to build that stainless heat shield at the back of the forge around them. Im not really sure why the wall is designed like that , its not like that on the opposide side of the building. Must be something to do with the hatch. The man that built the shed put the hatch there as he used that part of the shed for storing peat. He would back a truck up to the hatch when the shed was getting full and start filling it from there instead.

More recently my sister used it as a stable for her horse as you can see by the stable door, up until a few years ago. Now I use it as my shop

Finished building my solid fuel forge afew weeks ago, thought I would show a photo of it. Using coke, works just fine so far

Forgot to say, the original fire pot I built for the forge was a little shallow, you can see it down to the left of the forge. Welded up a deeper one which works better

I got my hands on this heavy bit of stock afew weeks back, ended up rounding off the edge a little and putting together a stand for it. Works great as an anvil, better than i thought it would actually. Its EN8 stock, seems to be tougher than mild steel. Heres some photos, and a photo of the first thing I made with it - one half of a pair of tongs

On 05/09/2017 at 6:39 PM, Frosty said:

Well yeah it's heavy, I came to that evaluation by eyeballing in the pic. I just did a rough guesstimate based o the tape in the pics as 7" dia. x almost 8" and came up with about 86 lbs. 81 sounds right enough to me.

That's a nice weight for a portable or bench anvil. Save the swages for bottom tools and a portable hole. Make swages when you need them, no need for a block, especially a machined one. If you don't have your own machine shop you can buy one cheaper than having one machined. 

Heck use that block in a treadle hammer and you can make swages as you need them and that'd be a heavy  hitting treadle. All you need is 700-800 anvil for the treadle and you're golden.

Heavy steel is good stuff, handy on so many counts. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I like the treadle hammer idea. Although I think I am going to radius the edges and use it pretty much as is, make up a decent base for it. I had a play around with it tonight and it is quieter then the soderfors which has a ring that I am struggling to deaden. Thought maybe I could use this for smaller work, might do a better job of keeping the neighbours happy. Seems to have not too bad rebound too so thats nice. Nothing compared to that swedish anvils 150% though

Ah, my bad. good old dial up

Nice looking anvil!

Made a set of tongs. Not my first set, but I would say my first half decent set

sounds good, im sure it will do the job until you find an anvil at a sensible price. good luck with the tongs! I am still in the middle of making my first few pairs of decent tongs

Thanks for the ideas guys, they have given me something to think about

15 hours ago, Frosty said:

Too heavy for a hammer unless you've been trained in the dwarven caverns of Middle Earth. Anvil. 

Naw, trying to machine it into a swage block would cost more than just buying a new one which will be much  more useful than a "sort of swage block."

I'd just radius the edges to different radii. You have two ends so be creative.  If you make the stand so it's stable on it's side you'll have full benefit of it's shape and size.

Frosty The Lucky.

You are right it is heavy weighing in at  37 Kg or 81 lbs

looking good, have you put it to use yet? are you happy with how it works?

So I picked up this large bit of EN8 bar today, and I was looking for ideas. I already have an anvil but thought I could either use in as a smaller anvil or maybe have some grooves machined into it sort of like a swage block idea, what do you guys think? Also, I was wondering about hardening it possibly, it is pretty large so im not totally sure about how to go about that, any adice would be great.

Photos to come

Hi there, where are you located? Looks like a good anvil, people here might know of a manufacturer. All I know is that google says GARANTIE means GUARANTEE in french, so possibly a french make of anvil? just a guess though. Very hard to make out the letters above that

9 hours ago, Zeroclick said:

Already done

Well that was one concern but there is about a meter gap, and I have no power hammer Also the ground is quite soft so shouldn't carry the vibration to much.

you should take some photos of what it looks like all set up

Looks like a good space! will look even better full of tools

Hi there, sounds like a nice new shop you will be using. I wont comment on the coal forge set up since I have never used one.

I'm sure loads of people here will help you with that though! What type of roof is on the building? Think modifying the roof to suit should be easy enough?

Finally got around to creating a dedicated forging area in the workshop. I still have afew things to sort out but getting there  

In the last photo is a heavy crane pin which I took home from a job at work, which is now cut in two and machined flat. I thought they might make good dies for a treadle hammer?

If anyone has used pins similar to these as tools let me know how it worked out

Can't go wrong with 100 bucks looks like it is in good condition

I'm not a very experienced blacksmith at all, but I guess you would want a bigger anvil for certain jobs in the same way you would use a bigger hammer for certain jobs.

Although saying that plenty of people seem to get by with rail road track anvils or large bits of steel

I think it just depends on the kind of work you are planning to do

Also where are you located Zack Ross?

I agree 100%

2 hours ago, Anachronist58 said:

Irondragon - got photos of that?

Yep Frosty, also known as a "cherry picker" but in the case of that Soderfors, you could call it a LEMON picker. Really, these guys are just being nice, which I find admirable, but Soderfors is one of the WORST anvils ever foisted upon an unsuspecting public.

And to add insult to injury, the "steel" comes out of Dannemora . Indeed!!

Sad to hear jonnytait, that you are across the pond. Otherwise, I offer a service, wherein I pay shipping for any unfortunate Smith unlucky enough to have been duped into paying good money for "The LEMON of All Anvils"

My noble goal, of course, to save the world from the Scrapiron Scourge, piling these ASO's in some dusty corner where they may do no more harm

Looking for Soderfors #3,

Robert Taylor

And welcome to the forum.

Ah, finally the truth comes out! I will phone the scrap yard at the start of the week and see how much they will pay for the LEMON of all anvils