ItsMillerTime

When I was in school during my apprenticeship, one of the other apprentices worked at a sawmill further up north. He said the hippies in the area had figured out "spiking" trees no longer worked due to the metal detectors in the mills, so instead they'd core a chunk out of a tree (effectively killing it anyways) and fill it with concrete. Quite the catastrophic results. Luckily my father, who's a "Saw Doctor" (love that term, and I'll have to pass it on to him this evening ) hasn't encountered that in all his years at various mills!

Thanks! The anvil is definitely the gem of the works. I just couldn't say no at his pricing to the rest!

It definitely does.. I guess I was looking for the characteristic curve on the underside behind the face and a longer "claw" to be for masonry/stonework.

I just had an incredible morning! Earlier this week I caught an ad on craigslist (thanks to the alerts function, I was the first to call within 15mins) about some smithing equipment for sale for incredibly reasonable prices. I made arrangements, then the guy backed out saying saturday morning would be best. He then changed this into a garage sale posting the address etc. In chatting with him further, he agreed to give me the address the night before and let me show up early etc. I bee-lined it straight to the stuff with cash in hand, and walked away happy! Forge, 7 pairs of tongs, 38kg anvil and 100lbs of coal. The small crosspein and odd knife file I picked up on the way home for $5

Hi Guys, My dad recently gave me this hammer after he realized the various items I've been collecting. Apparently it belonged to my grandpa, but he doesn't know anything further about it. He was about to turn it into a wedge, but thankfully just rehandled it and passed it along. The only other thing he mentioned was my grandpa had some cobbler tools around, so maybe it's related?

This one's been floating around my local CL for close to a month. He's definitely come down in price... At least he's only at $80 now!!

Black Frog, those look incredible! So tempting..

Thank you! Honestly VaughnT, it was pretty dang great! I kinda miss it, but I've still got a few good friends at the shop I can pass off a case of cold ones to to get some blasting and other stuff done if need be Thus far the new shop is turning out pretty great for scrounging. They're moving in August and need to cut down some serious equipment accumulation, so I'll be posting more projects over the next while..

Arftist, you've definitely given me some pause on this one.. ThomasPowers, I think that just may be the ticket to save it, if at all possible. I'll check with the local scrap guys for alloy testing, and as I mentioned, heat treating would be no problem afterwards. I've had the unfortunate experience of watching quite a number of new anvils pass through my hands during my indenture at the heat treating shop. These came through shortly before I left: Sigh... I should also mention that some of the stuff on the anvil is definitely previous attempts at welding. Again, I don't know what happened to cause the damage, but it certainly looks like it was used as a cutting torch table, which is what I was leaning towards rather than shrapnel. Cheers.

My thoughts: BIGGUNDOCTOR: Thanks! Exactly what I was going for! I'll be aiming for square face x square face with the outer two faces being my working surfaces (make sense?).. Basically super tight machining likely involving shoulder-bolts. No key etc, just very close tolerances. IronWolf, BlackFrog and John: My thoughts were Chinese or Indian casting, due to appearance after cleanup. Hardness tests proved overall it was the same hardness everywhere (portable rebound tester, didn't want to mar it further with the King Brinell). I can't completely clarify it being through-hard without some further destructive testing, but I'm not about to go that route. One thing I can say though, is look at the colour of the sparks in the milling pic! Those are carbide bits! Not soft by any means.. Dogsoldat: Honestly, that was 0.060" off the face, and nothing more. Despite seeing zero for evidence of a "laminated top plate" anywhere, I still wanted to remain on the safe side and remove as little as possible. My big fear of welding up a new edge as a replacement is that it would just shear off after some serious work time. I understand proper pre-heating etc can come very close to being the same as original, but with zero knowledge of the maker or materials used, this is the best I hoped for. Seriously at 50 cents a pound, I feel I really can't "screw it up" worse than it is..

Thanks! Can't wait to get it up and running along with the rest. The only other issue I may have to contend with is one portion of the thread is damaged. Hopefully I won't find it unable to clamp at the wrong moment

Hey everyone, So, I picked up this anvil a while back with some other stuff for a very reasonable price (due to damage etc). It's a 250+ pounder, no name and through hardened. Being that I only paid $125 for it, and there's some major destruction that happened through it's life, I've decided to change it up a bit. This project is on hold though, as I recently left my job at the machine shop to pursue other options. Here it is in the truck on the way home: On the shot blaster table at the shop: After blasting: You can definitely see the major damage, as well as the torch burns in various places. Up in the CNC Mill: Etc. The table was also machined flat after the last photo, as well as the bolt that was pounded through the pritchel hole was machined out. My eventual plan is to completely machine off the damaged side, then drill and tap it in three places and make replaceable die plates to fit. Hopefully, this should add a serious amount of versatility, due to the fact that I can make the top or side of the plates to any shape I'd like, whether basic flat, or curved/peaked etc, then drill and counterbore them and harden them before installing. The heat treating of the plates will be a virtual no-cost item, due to 6 years of my 9 at the machine shop as head of maintenance at their Heat Treating shop Let me know what you think!

Hey guys, So, a while ago I snagged an unnamed 250lb anvil, old cracked cast forge and a 5" post vise for a really decent price. I just kind of figured I'd show you what I did as a minor resto to get the vise back into decent form. I recently left my job of 9 years as a Millwright at a large gear manufacturer/machine shop, so I had access to all kinds of good stuff for my own projects. Here's the pile of stuff in my truck on the way home: They have a large shot blaster at work, so here's the works on the table ready to go: After blasting: Here you can see how worn out the eye was for the handle: More bits: To fix the handle, I bored and tapped the eye with a 1 1/4" tap, then threaded in, cut off and welded up/ground off a bolt. Then a re-bore of course: Finally, finished reassembled product painted in hi-temp Tremclad. Meant to take more photos.. I'll do better in the future

Not that I've had a chance to use them yet, but here's a couple of "Dog's Head" hammers my dad picked up for me from one of his co-workers when he retired. He and my dad are both Saw Filers. Can't wait to put them to use!!

Thanks for the welcomes and advice! I would've responded sooner, but the flea market took precedence this morning. And I'll still call it the Wet coast, no matter what anyone says I'll look into the associations for sure! I wouldn't mind the road trips, just need to clear the schedule a bit more..