Kozzy

To elaborate a little bit, use a simple example of the mark being nothing but an "X". That's actually hard to make as a positive (to stamp a recessed X) by "carving" because the point where the lines cross is a devil to carve: The sharp inside corners in the "V"s are really hard to carve as a sharp meeting point and always end up rounded from the tooling. However, as a negative (recess), it's as easy as pie to make--just 2 crossing cuts. So, if my stamp was an X and I wanted the final parts I was stamping into to have the X image recessed (like your standard letter stamp), I'd make the punch by using the pattern method because cutting that X would be a 3 minute process...then stamp my hot punch into that pattern and clean it up. That'd keep all the lines and V areas as sharp as possible, with the rest being easy to clean up with a file. One other factor as these get more complex...you can make your pattern to stamp the hot punch into in multiple pieces rather than one single piece. You can't really do that if you are making the actual punch. By making the pattern in individual bits (and cleverly), you can tack weld the back side of the bits in place and use the most appropriate carving method for that individual segment. Takes planning though. And you can hybridize too...but this is already getting so convoluted and complex write that I have probably lost everyone already. Point is, use the method that makes each part as easy as possible to carve cleanly.

If you do a positive and make the negative from that, be sure and make the raised/depressed areas of the positive a bit taller/deeper than you need. There will always be a bit of a "blurry" edge (for want of a better word) on the negative you create from it so you can grind a fraction off and polish the end of the negative to get the crispness that looks good when stamped. Personally, I'd lean toward a professionally made stamp if I was marking a lot of stuff. Reproductions as well as scaled versions for other work would be a LOT easier..not to mention dumping the initial hassles on someone set up to do it daily. As to choice of methods...lots of factors including complexity of the image. Because of that, I'd lean toward the deciding factor being whether it's more easily "carved" on the stamp or the positive.

Just to add a side note here, the old Johnson forges and I assume their brethren have a gas solenoid tied to the blower power. No blower power, no gas. On a quick internet search, such a thing came up for as low as $ 16.50 USD (and some with high prices) so it might be a cheap safety feature which should be added to any "blown" burner. Perchance were you running the burner on the low end? The flow of air and fuel into a ribbon burner will provide some cooling effect so that it doesn't pre-ignite behind the baffle. Not saying that's what it is, just pondering possibilities.

Is this in the photos a likely sign of delamination starting or is it pretty normal for these anvils?

Assuming it's quite good, you certainly wouldn't be getting ripped off at that price for most of the country. It's not a bargain to brag about though. "Appears to be in good shape" means different things to different people though..and of course it all means little without an in-person inspection. And..being blacksmiths, if you ask 10 of us that question, you'll get 20 different "right" answers Your mileage may vary

oops..posted the above without going to the second page of replies and it's too late to edit. Take for what it's worth now that the context has changed.

I don't know if you mentioned the fuel you are using but charcoal typically likes to be a little deeper than coal...but the real answer is to try it now that you are settled and see if it gives you results you like. Since it's clay, if you decide to go bigger you should be able to easily shave it down after it is tried and tested. YOu may even find that you want more of an oblong shaped "nest". One other thing--from the image, it looks like you used pretty pure clay. Clay shrinks really badly and tends to crack. That's why normally one adds about 2 parts sand to 1 part clay. The sand helps prevent shrinkage and cracking by bulking things out with a stable material. Water under the bridge at this point but since claying doesn't last forever, you might consider it next time if I am correct in my visual assumptions.

That's quite an old school blade, not having the usual semicircular inserts for replaceable cutting teeth. I wouldn't use it for blades as it's value is really in being an "antique" decorator piece..or painted as someone mentioned. The price reflects that use and it would go for pretty close to that around here plus or minus. Much better value to buy known steel in a shape and size that's appropriate for the work and use that...or, if one really wants to "recycle", buy good scrap of a similar nature that doesn't have the premium cost adder of being a semi-antique. Your local pawn shop probably has a bunch of smaller blades at something like a buck or two each and you could harvest far more steel for the buck.

Closest I can find is called a "tandem pulley" but those are slightly different (greater gap) and usually intended for true pulley applications rather than guiding. Check them out in a google image search and you might find one that would serve your purpose.

There are some vids of old school chain making on that most common video site which show pretty much exactly what you are describing. Worked for them in a commercial operation so I suspect you could find a way to make it work for your use. My take though from seeing those vids is that the smith in charge must permanently walk funny. Doing that treadle thing more than here or there has gotta rip one's hip joint to bits over time..and since that's a joint which has a high failure rate in people anyway, it's definitely a process to take special care with. Don't go with super heavy just because it seems like the right thing to do--consider that sweet spot where it gets the job done but isn't like kicking a raging bull.

Claying: That's easy. Cast iron pan, it must be clayed. Pressed sheet steel pan, it isn't strictly required...but..in either case the claying is what gives you the proper shape for your fire pit area so that you aren't simply heating a mound of fuel in whatever way it wants to burn itself. It's not a camp fire--it's a controlled high temperature forge and having a shaped clay "pot" is part of that control system, directing the air flow through the fuel and the fuel mound in a shape which burns most efficiently. I missed the notion that this was the earlier mentioned forge rebuild also. Just a tip---you're lucky here if a reader remembers something 5 minutes ago let alone in another thread so it's worth clarifying, even if it feels a bit redundant. Should work fine without a grate.

Well obviously, if you have the wrong handed tongs, you just need to work from the other side of the anvil Seriously, I haven't seen any difference but I have been using commercially made tongs with the reins truly in line with the jaws. It might make a slight difference left over right if the handles were a bit offset to the jaw position as is common on some smith-made tongs..but it's probably so minor that it's not worth worrying about. I do have some similar tools where the handles overlap that way and one can feel a right hand/left hand difference but it has never been enough to bother with.

Just guessing at size, you have 18 holes about 3/16" dia. That's a total of about .49 square inches of open area or the equivalent of a single hole about 3/4" dia. Even a small 1" pipe feeding that thing has about .75 square inches of open area and people usually go bigger. It's definitely quite an air choke point. Add to that some pesky ash trying to clog your holes and yea, I think you need a bit more there to keep the forge happy. I'd lean toward 3/8" or possibly bigger holes but don't know the whole story so that's just a guess. Part of this is experimenting also..everyone's system and preferences are a bit different...maybe drill out the center holes a bit and give it a try. If that doesn't seem to be enough, drill out a few more or enlarge them a bit more. experiment. And...that galvanized corrugated material at the back is bad news. You've apparently already burned off some of the zinc which can cause extremely dangerous fumes. Zinc plating in a forge situation is a big no-no. Look up "fume fever" in this site and you might find some horror stories of people who got nailed with sickness and headaches. I'd pull that and either replace it with uncoated steel sheet or find a way to strip off the zinc coating.

A retired friend in town here always had far more work repairing small engines than he had time for. Had he wanted to, he could have made a pretty reasonable income from his shop. For him, it was just puttering to keep busy so he never pushed the work. He passed away about 2 years ago and people in town are still scrambling to find someone to do that work. Were there some youth in this small town with the skills and drive, I'd bet it'd be a pretty good side hustle for them.

Mikey, since you reminded me of a long forgotten question with this, I figured I better ask before I forget again. One of these days, I'm going to be modifying an old Johnson forge to blow a ribbon burner. These introduced the propane (or natural gas) into the radial fan's intake..same general area where it's sucking air. Usually when I see designs these days, the fuel is introduced into the air downstream stream after the blower. There is a gas solenoid so that if the fan's not powered, the gas is shut down..so no risk of just dumping fuel out of the system. Just curious if there is any good reason to do one over the other: Fuel at the air intake or further downstream? The Johnson method would sure mix the fuel and O2 well...which is likely good for combustion but does that increase any potential dangers? If you choke the air off too much (they have a gate at the radial intake, not in the output stream) is there a chance of the pressure/flow dropping to the point where you might get flashback? Hope all that made some sense...

Bimetal typically implies a spring steel back with a high speed steel section welded on for the teeth. Here's a bit of info on the process from one manufacturer that includes a hint that the HSS portion is M42/M51. https://www.pilanametal.com/band-saw-blades.html I didn't see a mention of what spring steel is used but I didn't dig. HSS tends to want a heat treat that is beyond what most people can do in their places so it might introduce some problems. I'm not sure there would actually be enough to complicate things but it's at least something to ponder. The biggest issue: do you have a way to get the blade pieces perfectly clean so they'll weld up? I'm assuming the shop saw in questions is likely a horizontal bandsaw and those see coolant and a lot of greasy surface gunk from the metals being cut. All that should come off if you don't want weld skips. It aint fun when there are lots of little pieces or the crap is hard to get off. Maybe plan to tumble them clean?

I'm one town north of you and have a hand crank forge for sale. It needs to be taken apart to get the blower going (blower is frozen) but might be a cheap and usable item for you. It actually belongs to the museum here but I'm in charge of selling it and some other farm items for them. Might have a second larger forge for sale but I have to check and see where it came from--it just appeared in that area one day and I didn't hear the source. Right now I don't know of anyone who wants to let an anvil go unfortunately. As to scrap yards...you'd be amazed what is in some of these farm scrap yards if you start talking to people and getting friendly. I know specifically in your rough area that there is some stuff that'd make a decent anvil. But the real thing you need to do is look up and follow the TPAAAT system I mentioned. It really works.

Do not use a cementitious product to "clay" the forge--use the KISS principal and the old clay/sand mixture that has been standard for a century plus. If you can get hold of Kroil, it seems to work better than PB blaster...and doesn't stink as horribly. It is a bit more expensive but worth it. As was said above, it'll take some photos before you can get good answers. There were a lot of variations and we can't see what you have to work with. Assuming that you have most of the goodies, getting things going shouldn't be hard. Some of these used a cast iron segment gear in the train and those tended to break and be discarded: If that's missing on yours, skip the restoration and head toward a modified rebuild for the blower (you'll NEVER find a replacement).

It's pretty easy to estimate proper RPM. For a 1" dia twist drill in most mild steel, you should normally be running between 250 and 350 RPM...so for convenience pick 300 and permanently park that in some dusty corner of your head. That means a 1/2" drill needs to run twice as fast (to achieve the required surface feet per minute at the edge of the cutting tips)..or 600 RPM; a quarter inch 4 times as fast, 1200 rpm etc. Harder steels: reduce the starting figure to 200 or so. Stuff you know is dead soft can be bumped toward 400 as the stating point. Most people's drill presses won't go high enough speed to actually meet the needs of small bits so you are stuck running under speed anyway. And a 1" bit at even 300 RPM feels like it is really flying...to the point of being too fast...so most people choose to run a little slower so their heart doesn't skip a beat or twelve. Nothing wrong with going a little slower RPM as long as you adjust your feed accordingly. Feed pressure is where most people go wrong. You need to keep a pretty good pressure on 100% of the time so the bit keeps cutting. It's generally way more pressure than you think. Rubbing instead of cutting will dull a bit faster than anything and in some steels, cause work hardening of the material so that continuing to drill will be nearly impossible.

Welcome. Eastern WA is a big place---can you narrow down the region? Spokane has a couple of places that run classes and a blacksmith's association of sorts which may be of some help to you but I don't know of any others this side of the mountains. Smithing stuff does come up once in a while but you have to keep a diligent watch. There is still a ton of stuff hiding in barns but you only hear about it if you ask around (Look up the subject of "TPAAAT". That stands for Thomas Powers Applied Anvil Acquisition Technique, a method of seeking out smithing tools (not just anvils) in areas like Eastern WA. The Walla Walla Farrier's school also does/teaches some general smithing. Let us know a bit more about yourself. Ya never know when someone might be able to toss out something helpful...the more we have to go on, the better the feedback you get. And update your profile to include your location because in 15 minutes, we'll all forget.

There might be some clues based on what is grown in that area of France. Similar tools are used to shake tree branches when gathering nuts or hard fruits for example. They don't have a hook to pull when shaking because that breaks branches: You shake by pushing upwards which is less likely to break branches. Some also have a knocker with no point (like the loop on this one) but to bump the stubborn fruit down without poking it and causing damage. Remember...120+ years ago, virtually ALL apple production was not eating apples. It was really hard cider apples about the size of a handball to be pressed and fermented into pretty yummy stuff. The cider apples are dry and insipid to eat fresh...and a pain to pick so are usually shaken off the trees. In England, until 1885 (iirc on the date...but that's close) you could pay your farmhands in cider rather than cash and many farmhands chose their employer by the quality of the cider. The practice was banned because too many people drank their wages instead of selling them for cash at the end of the season.

No great value. Because one can get the Chinese version of that cast anvil now for about a buck a pound new, most people just opt for that. The older taiwanese stuff *might* be a little better quality but not enough of a guarantee that it is better to raise the price much. One can also get something that is "better" as a smithing anvil (actual steel block, often already hardened) at most scrapyards for scrap steel pricing. Just use it for light smithing or pass it on to someone who will. They won't take power-hits without possible breakage but many beginners get some good use from them as a first anvil.

The pine fire thing sounds like someone trying to find something to complain about and justify their pre-conceived opinion. Obviously you wouldn't use pitch pine--it'd be a sticky mess. However, the usual pine boards, even with a little pitch, are not going to go up like a camp fire on you without plenty of warning for you to do something. One can also make a pretty cheap fire retardant for wood from borax in water sprayed on...so if there are worries, look it up.

Too much variation without seeing a photo. Some had a straight shank and a tapered dowel pin holding things in place so look for signs of that too. often the cross dowel pin was basically polished into the spindle so is hard to see. Existing morse will almost always have a slot for inserting a removal wedge. And then there is some weird taper stuff...odd jacobs tapers and others that have to be wedged out carefully..and usually with some wedges you make just for the job. But, variations are broad so photos photos photos...including close ups.

Question about the first video... And it's late so it might just be that my brain has shut off: At 11:15, the smith uses the flatter but has a small trickle of water on the part as he does so. Following that, he does similar with a hand hammer, dipping it in the slack bucket to slop a bit of water around but not for hammer cooling purposes. The only thing I can think of is that he is blowing scale off the part since it is close to being finished--that's the way it is done in the big steel mills but being an ignorant cuss, I've never seen it done that way in hand smithing. Or is it for other purposes?