Judson Yaggy

Forge weld first and foremost if the client understands or is educatable. If you must electric weld, I prefer the modular approach. Miller 304 power source, add on mig/tig/stick parts as needed. Job site portable, takes up minimal shop space, you can rent hi freq tig or wire feed units to plug into it as needed for odd jobs.

Lmao! Love the eggs! Sets the bar for controll of a hammer. I'll try and crack an egg with my mechanicals tomorrow, good thing my wife keeps so many chickens!

Anvil to hammer head ratio of 10:1 minimum, 25:1 optimum. If you get to 15:1 it'll be great. Solid steel or cast iron is a must, as few welds and horizontal joints as possible. There are quite a few designs for good built up power hammer anvils out there, start reading.

Spring size depends on a lot of variables, if you want specific answers buy a set of plans. Or do more googling.

A 50# hammer should run just fine on a 1.5 or 2 hp motor, on the lower end for a guided helve type.

I'm going to guess Badger. Hard to say for sure, I'm just going on gut feeling about the shape. Lower end of the "real" anvil spectrum but better than a rr rail or hunk of forklift tine. Most smiths thru history would have loved an anvil like that.

Glue it down. Use silicone or a construction adhesive like PL400 or Liquid Nails. I hate magnets in my shop, they quickly turn into mini porcupines.

Glue it down. Use silicone or a construction adhesive like PL400 or Liquid Nails. I hate magnets in my shop, they quickly turn into mini porcupines.

Location is another factor. Ohio probably has 10x the no. of hammers than LA, so that affects price. If all else were equal (and having owned and operated both LG's and DuPont/Fairbanks hammers) I'd pay at LEAST 1.5 times more for a Fairbanks than a LG. Again all else being equal. A not running but intact LG here in Vermont would fetch at least 1k, probably more.

Looks like an anvil to me, but what do I know, I'm just a blacksmith.

The Treemont Cut Nail Co. still makes cut nails, see the last question in their FAQs as to what type of steel go into what nails. http://www.tremontnail.com/faqs.htm I've used a selection of their nails on various projects and haven't found them to be any different in terms of hardness/toughness than medium C modern nails.

Given the age of the beam and your description, I would guess that they are low grade wrought iron nails. Very common for the time period.

A tip for anyone dealing with old cut nails in beams (from 10 years experience as a historic timber frame renovator)- If you need to pull a stubborn cut nail, give it one sharp blow deeper into the wood, and then go after it with your cat's paw/ nail puller. The blow will break free the rust and slightly expand the wood, and the nails will pull out much more easily.

Dead mice and disappointments. Oh, and my bar of soap. So THAT'S where I left it.....

wow, I don't even answer the phone for $5.50 per hour! I would imagine that some of his advice has been superseded by technological change, but three are most likely still some gems in there as well. Will have to keep a look out for this one.

I'm in search of sons and daughters of Hephaestus. There is a possibility that I may take a trip of a life time to Greece, and would love to meet and visit the shops of any smiths that you all could put me in contact with. Athens and perhaps the Peloponnese.

If anyone has some metalworking contacts in Greece please let me know. Thank you.

I've been using a Whisper Daddy for about 15 years. Every four years or so I notice mine getting cooler, I've found that if you pull the whole burner assembly out of the forge you can run a wire bottle brush up the venturi and clean out the rust that grows up in there. Seems to grow the thickest layers of crud right at the flame holder/bottom end of the burner. The burners operate much better after a cleaning. Don't let the debris plug the gas orifice. I run around 8 psi for regular work, 10 or 12 psi for welding. I have my insulation coated in ITC-100.

MLM- I do often use hardie tools. For the record, I've never used either a Nimba or a Fontanini. Just like the way the latter looks. I would imagine that the pritchell hole over the horn on the Nimba is on par with the hardie hole near the horn on the Fontanini. More than one way to skin a cat after all, you could simply turn the tool around or approach the anvil from a different direction. It seems more in keeping with the original question to point out the positive details of modern anvil design rather than detract from other folks observations. Both of the above anvils are made in the USA with top notch material and manufacturing technique. My understanding is that Jymm H. from the previous post also makes a darn good anvil, so let's hear from smiths that like his!

I've heard good things about this one, and it's hands down the most beautiful new anvil (IMHO) being made right now. http://www.fontaninianvilandtool.com

I had a Hill for a while. Wrought iron body, steel face plate. Not a bad anvil considering the age, they are old English style so a little more squat than the London patterns we are accustomed to. All the ones Ive seen have been slightly swaybacked, probably because of their older age. Hardie hole on mine (200#) was 31/32", old Bill Gitchner told me that it was the King's inch.

I've textured and chamfered a fair bit of stock cold under a power hammer. It's doable but harder on the body because of the extra shock and vibration. It's just not fun. For pattern embossing (sinking a punch into your stock?) I'd expect a fairly faint impression when compared to the same technique done hot.

Time for another book Frank!

4.16 in one try for me. That is a cool game. I'm going to show it to the all the carpenters I'm currently working with, those guys have good eyes.

I set a single shoulder into the workpiece with a butcher, then drew out the butchered area to 1/2 the thickness of the original stock. Think sideways L shape. I then placed a lower tool (piece of flat stock with a handle) of 1/2 the original stock thickness on the lower die. Placed the WP on the die with the lower tool supporting the thin section. Placed an upper tool on the thin section of the WP. Upper tool kicked out, too long, not square to upper die, not paying attention, etc. Should have held the lower tool in place with my clapper die clamp except that it was an odd thickness and I don't have one that fits the die holder. No big deal really, just thought folks could learn from my error.

Just goes to show that the easy way is almost never the correct way.

The book Pounding Out The Profits shows that machine with the inverted spring, IIRC it was just an early design of the Kerrihard.

Thanks guys, and yes, the ring comes off around any power tool. I felt fairly safe wearing it in my kitchen thou.

Had a reminder to always respect the hammer today. Was trying to hold two tools and the workpiece under flat dies, the top tool kicked out and pinched my fingers between the tool handles. Thank the gods those particular tools have light 3/16" dia. rod handles, they bent before breaking any bones. I won't be keeping the fingernail thou and I'll spare you all a look at the missing skin under the bandage. It was an atypical one-off set up and because I knew it was weird I was trying to be safe. None the less... be careful everyone. Please learn from my mistake.

I like dual shield 7100 Ultra mig wire for things like this, pre heat is a must and normalize the entire assembly in the forge after welding.

So hard to choose...

For "traditional" forge weld perhaps this test piece, 24 continuous inches of 1/8" x 1", forged to shape, bent in half, welded, partially twisted. Thanks to Chris Winterstein for the inspiration.


In the edge work/ pattern weld area, I was happiest with this one. I'm not a knife maker except for fun.


The most mathematically challenging fab weld (modern) job I've done is this stair rail, the rise AND run of the stair was inconsistent as well as going from a straight run (with a landing) at the top to a short elliptical section to an increasing curve at the bottom. Lots of integration with thick glass barriers at the top and fine woodwork at the bottom. Photo is before job was finished, they were moving in and the wood hand rail was yet to be installed.


For sheer number of (modern) welds this one is my tops, a 20' by 45' c channel pergola next to a 1/4" plate Corten clad retaining wall that wrapped up and over onto an exterior plaza guarded by a zig-zag steel/cable rail, curved of course, barrier rail.