Michael Spaulding

Alright, guys. I purchased a beat up 110# anvil Friday on an EBay live auction (happening in real time against people at the auction house) for $200 (closer to $300 after dealer fees and shipping) and the next day, a pristine looking anvil shows up on craigslist "probably 100-125#" for $250. Looks to my eye to be a bit heavier than that. Only markings he could make out were "made in sweden" Looks like he's selling his whole farm so I may be able to get some hammers and tongs out of the deal as well. The earliest he could meet was tomorrow at 6pm, so I'll be there at 5:45 with cash and ball bearing in hand. I'm really excited about this one! I plan to have a few friends around the forge on a regular basis, so the beat up anvil will still be good to have on hand. And if I find another nice one, I can sell it and get some return on it.

Alright, I've made a couple decisions on design. Instead of converting it from furnace to forge, I'm going to build two separate structures. This way I don't need to make so many compromises to make both, and fight to get it to work as either. I plan to buy a pallet or two of brick and just go have some fun building the bases. This will change my budget, but hey, that's what budgets are for.

Goodness, the arrogance in that is exchange is infuriating. The idea that a thing has more value specifically put to no good use, to appease one's sensibilities, as opposed to being USED to create THOUSANDS OF THINGS. If I ever hear someone spout something like that, I'll retort that I doubt his anvil is of more valuable use sitting in the garden, than the hundreds of decorations I'll make using mine!

my goodness !

As a beginner also on the hunt, I'd say that's exactly the sort of deal I'm looking for! It looks like it's got plenty of workable space, and should do you well!

And trip post.

Double post

WHEW! Big day for me! I reported to drill weekend for the US Reserves, and used this opportunity to anvil network. We've got people all around the state, after all. I literally asked 3 people, and had to stop. The first, his wife grew up on a farm in Nebraska. He texted her, she texted her parents. They have an anvil they'd be willing to sell and she's making a trip out there next month anyways. Waiting to hear weight and see pics. Second person I asked, his grandpa ran a blacksmith shop out in rural MN and had "Several Anvils, one of which was enormous" Third person, his father has an anvil sitting in his shed. I need to follow up, didn't get a lot of info before we had other stuff come up. I asked 3 people, and got 3 solid leads, and there's probably 20 other people who strike me as possible leads as well. Wish me luck!

WHEW! Big day for me! I reported to drill weekend for the US Reserves, and used this opportunity to anvil network. We've got people all around the state, after all. I literally asked 3 people, and had to stop. The first, his wife grew up on a farm in Nebraska. He texted her, she texted her parents. They have an anvil they'd be willing to sell and she's making a trip out there next month anyways. Waiting to hear weight and see pics. Second person I asked, his grandpa ran a blacksmith shop out in rural MN and had "Several Anvils, one of which was enormous" Third person, his father has an anvil sitting in his shed. I need to follow up, didn't get a lot of info before we had other stuff come up. I asked 3 people, and got 3 solid leads, and there's probably 20 other people who strike me as possible leads as well. Wish me luck!

Man! That is really miserable! I don't even know what I would do if they sold it out from under me (even to me!). I'm normally a calm and composed fellow, but that would really test my limits.

That's a fine idea. Should I have any worry about keeping it hot long enough? Most texts I've read on Wootz say it needs to be heated to 1260c and kept there for 60-90 minutes. Would that amount of charcoal not only get it to the correct temp, but keep it hot enough for an hour? Or should I compensate with more charcoal and less air flow?

I may have lowballed too far. No response. /sigh

I wasn't planning to add any charcoal in the middle of a run. I was mostly using Ric Furrer's sealed crucible furnace as a guide, from his famous video. The goal is to not need to touch the furnace, or its contents, while firing crucibles, and I was attempting to see it up to me cleaned easily between runs. Also, I plan to only heat the part I'm working on, but with this setup I can put the whole blade in, and move the coals to where I need them.

I was planning to grind down the corners and smooth out the chips (best I can, some are pretty deep) Hopefully we can get a deal worked out and I can get a little practice anvil.

everything will be added by removing the top center piece, ash cleaned out with a spade the size of the vent hole, scraped right out and into the awaiting bucket. Is there a metric or chart on determining how much charcoal I need to achieve a given temperature with a specific amount of airflow? Or a minimum amount of charcoal I should shoot for? I can easily add to the height of the thing until the necessary volume is achieved. (Taking into account the added volume of the crucibles) As for smelting, I would like to get to that point eventually, working with raw ores, so this is intended to be a smelter, but until I can reliably source raw iron in reasonable amounts (for a small forge) then I'm stuck melting Steel with known carbon levels (Among other things) and blending with sorel to achieve something like wootz

The number under the horn is a clear 7. So it was originally about 70lbs.

Crappy picture time! I did a quick MS Paint mockup of my foundry. I've decided to build it raised, about 3 feet off the ground, on a bed of bricks. This way it'll be about waist height and can be used more easily as a forge as well. Just remove the panel over the air vent, to give it a less direct air path, and to give me enough room to stick blades in to heat 'em up. I don't plan to smelt ingots and forge at the same time, as they require two very different temperatures, but is there any glaring issues with this plan? Anything you would change, or that jumps out at you as a significantly better idea? Thanks for the input!

I took some anvil clip art and took to MS Paint with a quick "Looking for anvils and blacksmithing tools -clip art of anvil- Please contact Michael spaulding at -phone number- Interested in anvils larger than 90 lbs" and went down to the local office depot. They gave me an email to send it to, printed off 10 sheets of 9 per sheet card stock, and even cut it up for me. Spent about 8 bucks and 25 minutes (including driving to office max). It worked out great, and people seem very responsive to the "Wallet flyers" I call 'em.

Alright, so I looked at some charts of general size/weights, and this is coming in at 50-60lbs, but it does have a thick waist so it's probably on the upper end of that. I offered him 50 cents a pound, at $30, and said if he's got a decent amount of blacksmithing tools, I'd be interested in buying the lot. Ultimately, $30 for an anvil, even a mostly unusable anvil, is a good deal for my first find. Give me a year, and I'd pass on this thing in a heartbeat, but everyone says that the anvils start pouring in once you find your first one, so I'm not going to be too picky on my first buy. And $30 is nothing in the long run. He hasn't gotten back to me in 30m, though. And he was talking up a storm in the beginning. It's entirely possible he's been looking at eBay and has an inflated sense of what his anvil is worth. I guess time will tell!

Alright, so I looked at some charts of general size/weights, and this is coming in at 50-60lbs, but it does have a thick waist so it's probably on the upper end of that. I offered him 50 cents a pound, at $30, and said if he's got a decent amount of blacksmithing tools, I'd be interested in buying the lot. Ultimately, $30 for an anvil, even a mostly unusable anvil, is a good deal for my first find. Give me a year, and I'd pass on this thing in a heartbeat, but everyone says that the anvils start pouring in once you find your first one, so I'm not going to be too picky on my first buy. And $30 is nothing in the long run. He hasn't gotten back to me in 30m, though. And he was talking up a storm in the beginning. It's entirely possible he's been looking at eBay and has an inflated sense of what his anvil is worth. I guess time will tell!

Does that mean the weight is 31Lbs? Or is that simply an arbitrary number? Could you guess a weight given the length? And if you were to just toss some cash at him for it, does $20 sound reasonable for such a rough piece?

Pretty darn beat up, as you can see. I'm planning on lowballing him, probably $20 or so. Says he has some other blacksmithing tools as well, once he can dig them up.

I've received my first inquiry! Someone has a little Fisher for sale, in great condition everywhere but the face, which is beat to hell. The edges are all torn up. Its 16 inches long and "xxxx heavy" markings include "Fisher" "1884" and "3 1" all clear as day. That doesn't seem very big to me, and the damaged face would mean restoration before it's useable. I haven't looked very hard at restoration, is it worth even attempting? I've got a local blacksmith group now, so I could probably get some help with that. Is 3 1 the weight in stone? What is that like 50lbs? And, what's a fair offer for something this torn up?

I do now, too! I wonder what the holdup was.

Stuart, your subway story disappeared again. I've got the email notices, and was able to read it, but it doesn't appear to be showing up in the thread.