Oberu

Greetings all, I inherited a large anvil and I'm trying to figure out what it is and some of it's history. I "believe" it's a Hay Budden but I can't be sure. I've attached a few pictures of the markings I have found. I'm sure you all get tired of these posts and I truly appreciate any help you can give me!

Fair enough Frosty. Southern vet so it just comes out without thinking. I’m going to give this laminate one more shot. I’ll do an edge quench on a mostly ground blade. Breaking down wrought iron in a propane forge is not as much fun as it should be but once more into the breach! Thanks for all the information and comments. p.s. Been watching the UK blade show guys as well.

Mr Frosty, WIll you by chance be attending the Northwest Blacksmithing Association Spring conference in Longview Wa? Its this next weekend. Would like to shake your hand and buy you a lager. Also, excellent advice on prepping welds. I'll steal this from you and try it. My issues weren't welds but the center steel being absolutely man handled by the cladding.. splits, cracks inside, questiong my life's choices. I appreciate the wisdom an be good Sir!

Hello Mr Frosty, good to see you still around. I'm using store bought borax and it's in a parmesan shaker. I use a brush to clear off the slag and sprinkle it on the edges before putting it back in the forge.

Greetings all, been gone a long time. So I'm having a reoccurring issue. I'm making a laminate blade using an edge steel of high carbon, clad in 15n20, and that is clad in wrought iron. I'm on episode 3 of explicatories and thought I'd ask some of you beautiful minds. First attempt was using an edge bar of 1095 and it went great until the temper where the edge bar split down the spine as shown here. Next attempt I used an edge bar of 1084 and everything looked really good. I started hollow grinding the edge and found this. I noticed it was only on one side of the blade so I began chasing the crack trying to get past them. So my question is.. what the heck am I doing wrong? I know my temps were good and the material was good. Quenched in the proper oil at the proper temps and tempered twice at a reasonable temperature. I'm about to run out of curse words here. Thanks for letting me rant and I appreciate any feedback.

I'm wondering if the shape of the blades might have been something simpler. If you hammer in a bevel on a piece of metal it thins on the cutting edge and the spine begins to curl. You straighten the blade and continue. When you are done straightening you'll end up with something resembles a seax. Could it be that simple? I don't know but I love them as well!

Very nice work!

Thanks fellows. I quenched vertically. After thinking on it a while I don't think it had a choice. The geometry in cross section was so aggressive that the edge must have contracted much faster. I'm a bit surprised there aren't any cracks seeing the warp. Much appreciation again!

Hey fellows, So I cycled three times and then quenched this 1084 blade in canola oil today and it bent.. not in the typical direction.. at least not for me. The blade is triangular in cross section and 20 1/4" overall. I expect some warping down the spine on occasion but I've never had one bend toward the cutting edge before. Can anyone give me some advice on what I did wrong.. or a way to avoid this?

One of the handles carved up. Slow but going!

Further along.. now to finish carving handles.

Plugging away

Vince Evans and Jake Powning.

Nice! I recently made one similar following information Wayne. Mine is a single burner and I used one of Frosty's 3/4" "T's" and so far it's working great! Lots of great minds here and years of experience to learn from. Can't wait to see it fired up!

I play a lot at renaissance festivals with half a dozen old friends and it's good stuff. Years ago I realized that none of us would ever be able to afford things to add to our outfits so I started making them. I've made boots and belts, bags and kilts. Wasn't long before the knife bug hit me. This is the blade I started today. Followed by one I started a few weeks back that's further along. Big one is 1080 and the cleaner is 5160.