BartW

Hello, While cleaning up an ancient (1950'ies) railway workshop near Brussels, I found this Beauty covered in hardened tar. The guys there thought it was useless cheap cast iron. I took her home and started cleaning.. And I found this anvil, German style, but the marks puzzle me. No indication of weight, I guess 200 pounds at least (100 kilo). One size has a mark that is an S with like a Z inside, the other has two marks besides each other one reads FO and the other reads AL. It is hardly used (still perfectly flat), and has what looks like an unusually thick faceplate (2 inch) which is really hard. Also extending in the round horn. Can anyone tell me something about her? Mvg Bart

Edit: it's called a compression wave in English.

I experimented with plates both vertically and horizontally. As far as I understand anvil theory; an anvil is not about being heavy; nor about being massive; but about reflecting the force of an impact back into the object on it. Let me explain. picture 2 biljart balls in space; same size; same mass. One has speed X; and hits the other ball straight on. Both balls will move in opposite directions with speed X/2. Now increase mass of the not-moving ball(A) by 10. Ball B hitting it will move away at 90 % speed X; while ball A will start to move away at 10 % speed X. An anvil doesn't move at all; and stays static. so the kinetic energy in it; will be dispersed to the object between hammer and anvil; but only for the very first few milliseconds; to maximalise the force reflected back in the object on the anvil; the "wave" needs to be back extremely fast, that is why the mass is that important; if hammer and anvil weigh the same; the force is release into the object "slower", and it will jump up too quick to deform fast. If you have a cast iron anvil (with a hardened steel face like industrial power hammers); the most efficient ratio is about 1/ 25. 1 /10 is still good. If your anvil is based out of horizontally stacked plates; the reflection is slowed down. A stack of cast iron disks weighing 300 kilo's isn't as efficient as vertically stacked plates of the same weight. I currently use an anvil of railroad track with their steel welding plates welded on on both sides. that makes 4 "legs"; each about 70 kilo. a 3 cm bottom plate, and a 3 cm top pate; works fairly good. mvg; Bart

Good points. I added my location; very good suggestion. Anyway; the discs are not cast iron. what you see is actually paint. I beat one of them up pretty bad, and they will bend rather then break. I think it has something to do with safety; they should survive a fall of several meters without shattering. Anyway; I am thinking of at least trying them; see what gives. I'm already saving up my heavy plates; so I can bolt/weld them together for an anvil. My hammer is done; I probably should have taken a picture of that too and put it in the post. In fact; the spring has been mounted once before; and I attached the hammer once before too. This evening; new picture session. stay tuned :-) greetings; Bart

Hello Guys; As this is my first post, let me introduce myself. I am bart; hobby knifemaker/blacksmith. Professionally I am a linux / unix system administrator. Because I cannot train my shoulder ( lack of time), and have the parts lying around anyway; I decided I needed mechanical help. i'm building something resembling a appalachian power hammer; with influences from Norm Tuckers machine and James Helms gunhilda. John Perks in the UK has something similar as wel on youtube. I have a anvil composed of discs that interlock to form one cylinder. I'll attach a foto; they are about 30 cm across; 5 cm high and 25 kilo each; I have 17 of them. they resonate as one solid block, so I figured it should work if I clamp/weld/tighten them down good enough. I can always replace it later with a bunch of stacked solid bars and invest the money in that. Anyway, this makes my anvil up/down gradeable in height.I plan to put it directly straight under the hammer; but for this I need to mount the hammer and the guide first. I have 3 questions: 1. Where - in height - do you position the guide ? my central colum is a heavy I-beam, 25cm x 12 cm standing about 2,5 meters high. Or is this "adjustable" by modifying the other parameters of the moving parts (drive shaft) ? The anvil is about 85 cm high without head, and it sits on 3 I beams 25 cm high. so the anvil with die will arrive somewhere 120 cm high. I'll attach an older foto when it was still under contsruction. The rubber pads go under the frame , I use the chain thing to be able to lift the frame ... one-man shop; lifting this is not possible otherwise. 2. I don't have a plate steel base; BUT i have a LOT of heavy I-beam; so I welded 3 of them together to create a 40 cm wide 2 meter long base with 2 legs about a meter sideways. all extremities have boltholes to attach to the floor. Under the I-beam; I have alternating plates of wood/rubber; 3 times. Is that enough ? 3. I have a choich of 2 leaf springs: one more curved with more leaves but each leaf is about 1 cm thick. Or one about 2cm thick and more straight, but also 5 cm shorter, with tapered ends. which would be best ? greetings, bart. P.S. great forums; great info can be found here.