Anthony San Miguel

@01tundra, you did a good job. I've made small bowls, rectangles and other bottom swage shapes on both sides of the stump but a good large, precise dish like the one you made has been the hardest to do. I'm going to give your method a shot.

I would try to harden a smaller piece of the same rasp before you do a lot more work on it.

Maybe you'll get lucky but many Bellota farrier's rasps are case hardened.

Thanks for the dish making suggestions. The stump I have is still kind of green, hasn't hardened yet so I wonder if one of these would work. I would have to make a bunch of plunge cuts and then chisel out the rest.

O1 Tundra, how did you make the bowl shape in the stump? I'm making a stump swage now with various shapes but I can't come up with a good way to make big dishes like that.

These look really nice! I like them both. My Bday just passed this last week and my wife and daughter asked what I wanted. I told them a nice forging hammer. Can you PM me price on the diagonal peen if it isn't sold yet?

16 hours ago, ianinsa said:

I refresh the page and it 'rights ' itself, try it, seems like 'someone in power' is 'helping' idiot powered services just like he's helping the rest of the world! Over the edge and into the darkness.

Same thing USUALLY works for me.

The last time I went to Fastenal, the drill rod they had in stock was O1.

Another vote for not "fixing" the edges.

Great score! I hope you do the poor old guy proud and use them for their intended purpose.

Based off of the shape of the horn and lack of dots between weight digits, I don't think it's a Mousehole. Some other English anvil.

Portable Hole?? I remember! It was invented by Calvin Q. Calculus and made famous by the Bugs Bunny episode called "The Hole Idea".

Couldn't resist.

What kind of hammer did you test rebound with? I bought my first two anvils from the same guy. A Hay Budden and a Mousehole Forge. He had a lot of hammers laying around that he had personally rehandled with deer antlers so when I used one of his hammers to test rebound it wasn't great. I grabbed another one of his deer antler hammers and same thing. So I came back with a small ball peen and rebound on both anvils was great. The deer antler handles were absorbing a lot of the energy and making it seem like the anvils weren't as lively as the really were. Also, some hammers have soft faces, either intentionally (lead, brass, copper, some sledges) or because of poor quality. Use a hammer or ball bearing that you trust to test rebound.

You did good. Mousehole's are an anvil to be proud of. They have a rich history and were around for centuries. That's assuming that yours still has good rebound and wasn't in a barn fire or anything that would have drawn down the hardness.

Cut it off. Banging steel on I beam is one of the loudest, most irritating sounds you can make. If it was attached vertically it might be a LITTLE more quiet. I have a short, (about 15") heavy piece that I use very often for all kinds of things but never for forging. I put the car audio sound deadener on it because I have a lot of it and it quieted it significantly but I wouldn't want to forge on it and the piece you have is taller.

I know the butyl based car audio sound deadening mat and magnet strips work, but that is TOO much I beam. I would cut it off as suggested.

Thanks for the response, Frosty. The teeth are single cut and of medium coarseness kind of like a mill file. I love files. I collect them so that my son will have good American files to use when he grows up and I have around 2000. Probably half are American made, still new in the box and wrapped in brown paper. I just haven't seen one like this so my question was "for curiosities sake". I'm going to use it for whatever I find it to be useful for.

I have a friend who owns a shop, not really a machine shop but does a lot of metal and  gunsmithing work. He also sells a lot of NOS American made tools. I have bought literally dozens of NOS American made Nicholson, Simonds and Heller files from him. 

I went by there today to see if he had anything left that I might want and I found this. I hadn't seen it until today. OAL is 9", it's some sort of 3 sq that is stamped IMP TAPER on one side, NICHOLSON on another and MADE IN USA on the last side. The shortness and stoutness of it made it unusual. Also, the fact that the tip tapers to an exact triangle. Does anybody know what kind of file this is?

Yes sir. I also have a 2" piece that's 30" long that I want to use first. That extra half inch is a real pain in the rear to forge without a power hammer or press.

I'll bet there are plenty of people on here who would be willing to pay a reasonable price for known S7 steel. Myself included. Scrapyard steel can be great and I use the heck out of it, but I'd pay you a fair price for your S7. I don't mind working hard at the forge and anvil because I also enjoy the learning experience while forging it.

I have some unused 1045 2 1/2" round, around 30" each, if you are interested in a trade.

Thanks, Frosty. Very helpful! Just printed it. I think you probably mistakenly posted it in the Anvils section, though.

Attach magnets to the I beam. Those $4.00 HF tool holding strips work well. Also, sound deadening mat for vehicles on the I beam will help. The asphalt based roofing peel and seal helps too, but not as much as the butyl based vehicle deadening. I wouldn't put it on the anvil though, just the I beam.

So then it is very likely that a lot of people are actually doing what you would call "hammer-fusion welds" and not a true forge weld?

This is an excellent question and brilliantly worded. I'm learning a lot right now. I've only ever forge welded cable to make a knife but I'm ready and eager to try it in other applications.

Also looks like a Peter Wright to me. If rebound is good and it really is over 100 lbs then $200 is a good price. I wouldn't let it get away!