JHCC

I have an old pair of gasfitter's pliers that are perfect for holding my touchmark. Put a ring on the reins, and it's like it's one solid tool.

Sic transit gloria mundi. http://gothamist.com/2017/08/22/tool_die_shop_dies.php

Comes so easily to me, really.

Well, you and I are the same age, so it'll be easy for us to bait each other.

Or as we say in my line of work, "Not asking is the same as a No."

My sophomore year in college, my roommate had a direct-dial connection to the computer at National Institute of Mental Health (where he'd worked the previous summer). That was cutting edge in those days!

Ryan, one little tip about quoting: if you click "Quote" at the bottom of a comment, it will quote the entire comment, as you see. However, if you're only replying to one little bit of the comment, you can highlight that bit and a little "Quote this" box will appear. If you click that, it will put a quote in the reply field of just that highlighted piece. Thus, for your last comment in reply to Daswulf's "do you have access to a welder?", you could highlight those words, click the box, and get this: This makes it a lot easier to see what you're replying to, and it also helps our members who are still using dial-up internet and can't wait around for big chunks of quote to load. (The same thing goes for photos, by the way: it's good to resize them so that they don't overwhelm a comment thread.) Thanks.

Okay, good. I missed that detail; thanks. Think seriously about replacing the blocks with either a wood or metal stand. Cinder blocks don't do well under repeated shocks, and you do NOT want your anvil to suddenly be dropping down on your toes!

If you can find a #2 hammer for a couple of bucks at a flea market, that's going to do just fine for now. Remember: accuracy first, power second! If you're watching Trenton Tye's YouTube channel, you've probably seen his recent videos about using chunks of junkyard steel as anvils. If not, definitely worth checking out; certainly better than cinder blocks (if only in terms of durability). One thing, though: here on IFI, when we say "ASO" or "Anvil-Shaped Object", we generally mean something that looks like an anvil, but doesn't work like one (for example, one of those cast iron monstrosities from Harbor Freight), but when Mr. Tye says "ASO", he means something that works like an anvil, but doesn't look like one. Here on IFI, we would usually call that an "improvised anvil" or a "block anvil".

In the third photo of your last post, I think I can make out " - - I T A G E", which would be the tail end of "ARMITAGE". That would be additional confirmation that this is a Mousehole anvil, and if you can puzzle out what initials come before "ARMITAGE", that can also help narrow the date range down further.

As @Everything Mac notes in his Beginner's Guide to buying anvils, there were literally hundreds of anvil manufacturers in England, so while this has the general overall lines of a Mousehole, it was probably made by someone else who trained there. You'll probably never be able to figure out exactly who, unless you discover some other markings that you overlooked earlier. If it doesn't actually say Mousehole, it probably isn't a Mousehole. That said, the presence of the pritchell hole indicates that it was probably made after about 1835.

We're certainly generating reams of speculations....

Hold down the Alt key and type "156" on your number pad, thus: £.

Might just be oiled, but if it is painted, check it over before you hand over your cash! A layer of paint could well be concealing hidden flaws, and frankly, it looks from the photos like there might be a crack in the face, running back from the saddle. If you haven't already, read @Everything Mac's Anvils: A beginner buyers guide; the section on testing is #3.

The hammer floated?

That strikes me as one of those things that's theoretically possible, but probably not very feasible. A forge is designed to generate very localized, very high heat, while an oven is designed to distribute a medium-high heat all around what you're cooking. Any sacrifices you make to one of those functions to accommodate the other is going to have a negative effect on what the original function is supposed to do. Better to make two separate constructions. There is one thing that springs to mind, however, and that is to design your pizza oven in such a way that there is storage space underneath for your forge.

Welcome to IFI, @Antoine M. Glad to have you. You might want to head over to the Introduce Yourself page and let us know who you are, but be sure to READ THIS FIRST! Regarding your question, I don't have any experience with this myself, but if you search the forum*, there are many good threads about power hammer foundations that should get you headed in the right direction. *Don't use the forum's own search feature, which isn't very good. If you do a web search (with Google or the like) and include "iforgeiron.com" as one of your search terms, you'll probably find what you're looking for.

Sell it, and buy steel and fuel.

Actually, there IS something to tear apart: How on earth did you fit one FOOT of firebrick cement inside a four INCH by eight INCH coffee can?!??! (M), look at the JABOD threads in the solid fuels section of the forum. @Charles R. Stevens started it with his "Just a box of dirt" thread, and I followed up with my own picture-heavy construction thread. There are a few others worth looking at, too.

True, but their autocorrect isn't!

A friend of mine made some amazing typo/autocorrect errors a couple of weeks ago that were (inadvertently, one hopes) extremely raunchy and thus cannot be repeated here. Suffice it to say that they were made even more amusing by the fact that he's a priest!

There aren't that many jigs in classic rock (unless you're talking about Styx's "Renegade", in which case the jig is up).

Excellent! Now to hook it up to your power hammer!

Yes, you do have ADD -- Anvil Deficit Disorder. Not to worry: this is easily treatable with large doses of iron. There are some really good threads in the anvil section of the forum about how to make an improvised anvil out of a big chunk of steel. Take a look at some of the things folks have done before, and be inspired!

Interesting anvil. Any maker's marks?