matei campan

the hammer it's Romanian and I'm talking about a rubber seal that I was told that it's inserted in the flange (not sure if the term it's right) which is closing the cylinder and surrounds the tup at it's exit from the cylinder. so, that seal makes the exit of the tup air-tight. I'm searching for alternative solutions to that of making a mold and vulcanize it.

it's possible that I'll buy a self contained air hammer (63kg ram weight), I don't know exactly it's condition. maybe there will be some parts to replace.
so, I start with the tup's seal (if i name it right), the rubber one. how could be replaced as there is no supplier anymore for replacements?
I think it could be (i don't know how's the shape yet) water-jet cut from some rubber sheet. is that a solution, and what kind of rubber is appropriate for that use?

actually, blacksmithing with heavier hammers (within reasonable) helped me trough a period of TE caught when I worked on copper sheet with light hammers which did me very bad. hammering with light hammers could still affect my elbow and wrist, so even for sheet hammering i started to use heavier hammers. as said above, heavier hammers tend to work by themselves. your job is almost just to guide them.

thanks for the appreciations.
after welding the parts together, finishing the welds, forging the finished areas to have the same kind of surface, filing a bit to refine the shape, there will still be areas which will differ a bit as texture. by heating the piece in the forge at a high temp to create scale on the surface and quenching in water and repeating this several times, you'll get that uniform texture. when you quench the piece in water, some scale will fall out exposing new surface, that will scale, and so on. I forgot about the wire brush. in fact you use a wire brush, too, to help the scale go down. you can experiment this.

and I also forgot about heating the piece and rubbing it with oil and then with charcoal powder - that will give that black-grey color.

thanks!

yes, you're right and I was lucky my inspiration came right in time, other times I will search for it for weeks, you know, you can't force it...

I also used my anvils on stumps on uneven floors - you can always find a position where they will stay ok, just move them around a bit, you should find it within tenths of centimeters range. another trick is to to nail three pieces of wood on the stump's bottom, or maybe three flat steel cut-offs, so you'll have llike a 3 legged stump. I done it on one of my stumps to get it to the right height and at the same time to adapt at the uneven floor.

your anvil looks too well done and too big to be just an ASO. also the condition it seems to good for an ASO if it was already used.

I think i'll give it a try :)

btw, is a well fabricated anvil stand as good as a good hard wood (oak, for example) stump in terms of efficiency? It seems easier to build one than finding a good stump (for me, at least)

thanks guys!

about the pic, the problem was that I made it at 4'o clock in the morning, right on the kitchen table, under the light of the kitchen bulb. not that I have other professional lighting. yes, it's not so bad, but it could be better :)

the cross was made by forging the parts, then welded together,then prefinished, then reforged, final finished and burned repeatedly in the fire and quenched in water to get an uniform texture. finally it was looking like stolen from a museum :)
my ideal was to make it from one piece, but as it has to be finished in half a day, I didn't have the right material to start, nor the time to experiment till I'll get the shape right. so there came in the tricks.

OK, but what about the anvil question, what that anvil is? I could guess it has around 100kg, am I right?

the box trick, as I'll make it if I were you, on that very stand, could be simple and fast - I'd put some solid plywood or, cheaper, OSB faces on the inside of the frame, the faces would be supported by the angle iron. they could be fastened easily by some bolts, etc. and you don't need to make it at once, you could take your time, as you can already work on your anvil.

I even consider to make something similar if I don't find that oil drums I want, angle iron is an easy find.

awww, I still have to learn how to post the right size pics. problem is that I can't preview the pics or I don't know how.

let's have another try

here's a project commissioned by a wine producer to be offered to a royal family at the occasion when they received the title "official supplier to the royal house" (a rough translation). the key represents a so called "cellar key", decorative only, of course.
it combines a cross with a "M" monogram, the monogram of the king. it is 30cm tall.
this was a "ordered today to be finished yesterday" kind of commission, but I'm glad I succeeded to make it in time, even that it was half an hour before I had to send it. that's why the picture's not so gorgeous, made on a hurry.

very nice anvil, I envy you! the "mediteranian" style double horned anvils - french, italian, etc., are my prefered anvils. what's your anvil?

Why not "box" it up (easy to make now) and fill it with sand? this will stabilize it and maybe will deaden the sound some more. also bolt somehow the anvil to the stand, that will still cut the noise. the chain trick i think is not as good as fixing the anvil to the base (at least on a wooden stump as I installed my anvils). also you can put something between the anvil and the base before "bolting", some little wood, for example.

I have two baseless anvils and I'm considering to install them on some oil drum filled with sand until I'll get some hardwood stumps (if i feel it would be necessary).

that's the only I have from Above...

thanks!
I'll post more of my work, then :)

@pete46

you know, there's a saying around here: "those who know do, those who don't know teach the others". if I'll start to teach, I won't have time to do :)

really, as bladesmithing, maybe it's a little something, but for a blacksmith this should be quiet basic...

anyhow, I think you're joking :)

thank you for the appreciations. that's where forging shows itself to be over the stock removal :)

I hope that's it:

it seems I posted just the thumbnails of the pics.

another try:

hi guys

that's my first attempt to post pictures directly from my computer and not from photobucket.com, because last time I tryed to post this knife from there, it didn't work.
so, if the pics don't appear right, please excuse me!

about the knife itself - I tried to go further than the usual "viking" style blacksmith style design does in making the handle more ergonomic and with a better grip, and, not at least, to look different. It came out to offer a very nice grip and I'm very pleased by the result. the knife itself is bigger than the "normal" "viking" little knives, I could consider it an "outdoor" knife.

as material, it's made out of spring-steel

I'd put a radius on the dented area, a feature that could be useful .

if I see right, it has JEB stamped on the face. I own an identical (not same wheight, just 32kg) anvil, a tipe which is very popular in former Austro Hungarian empire I think. here in Transilvanya that's how "the anvil" looks and I've seen several JEB stamped anvils already. the anvil must be a good quality one, as you can see is still in a very good shape.

I still miss a beaten up anvil I was using time ago, which had some very useful depressions and other "interesting features" which made it more versatile than a perfect one. it just had a ~ 3-4" wide flat area. fortunately, I've recently got as gift a 85kg dished anvil (though not as interesting like the first mentioned) which will complement my "perfect" ones.

and, yes, a slight "dish" is very useful for straightening

that's nothing, a friend of mine told me that someone asked him something like ~20000$ equivalent for an ordinary anvil, not even in good condition just because it's "almost 100yrs old". I was also asked 1600 euros for another just ordinary 50kg beaten anvil...

or, what about this at the equivalent of ~1000$?
http://www.okazii.ro/antichitati-altele/vand-nicovala-101-kg-a60402443

for a bladesmith it's even better than a "good" one