Lou L

Having a project to work on has been my major challenge. What I learned was to just pick a project that was slightly complex and the work toward it. I had some structural bolts I wanted to turn into a hot cut hardy tool. I needed tongs to hold the bolt. So I focused on making the tongs. I ended up needing to dress my hammers, make a hot punch, make a coal rake and make a holdfast just to get through the tong making process. I had to learn heat treating, drawing, upsetting and hammer control just to get there. point being.....set a seemingly simple goal and you'll be amazed how complex it can become. When people ask me what I make when I blacksmith I tell them I make the tools I need in order to make the tools I need. The answer never pleases them but it's true.

I've recently learned the glory of having a sand base for an anvil. Do yourself a favor and create a steel box filled with sand as your base. It is easily adjustable for height and provides the perfect support. I'm already planning to scrap my tree stump and build one. concerning your hardy hole: Just make your own tools or adjust found tools to fit. The only people with perfect hardy holes are those who've purchased new anvils. Old anvils have "character" and require slightly customized hardy tools. I just made a hot cut that will likely only work as designed in my anvil. It is not symmetrical because my hardy hole is almost 200 years old. That's why I like it best! Everyone who has posted here prior to me knows more than I do so trust them, use the anvil and it will serve you well. It looks like the edges are rounded nicely so you may want to create a broad hardy tool with a very smooth surface and slightly more defined corners just to provide more options for you. Either way, adding through hardy too,a makes way more sense than taking away material through grinding. As to your anvil's origin...sorry, I don't have the knowledge to help. If you hit it on the side with the grinding wheel and then do a pencil etching you may find some markings.

Nah, by then you'll be a propane snob like Frosty and will be custom building your own burners from Ron Reil's designs. Or you'll be using an aspirated ribbon burner. Honestly, if I try out propane that's what I'm going to do. I can keep forging with coal for the months and months I spend learning the hard way....

Solid arguments Fiveohmike! Getting forging as quickly as possible is the highest priority. Once again, take my input about propane forges worth a grain of salt....but, when I researched them heavily before deciding to go with coal I learned a bit about burners and decided that having the flexibility to change burners would have been a must in a propane forge. I'm not certain if any of the makers you listed made forges with integral burners but, if they did, I would avoid them. Once again, I'm propane stupid...and integral burners could not even exist. It's just that some of the pictures I saw of forges online didn't look like changing a burner would be easy.

Great idea JHCC. I'd seriously round off a part of the middle section to act as a bottom fuller for drawing out. I think I'm going to go looking for a chunk of RR track like this just for the utility of it! It would be a fun project to make a hybrid swage.

I'd say that if you have the means to accurately harden and temper a chunk of steel that big then go for it. It will help you work a lot faster having a harder anvil. I'm not sure about tempering color, subsequent tempering caused by hot metal or work hardening. I do know that you could use it as is and still do great things. Also, I've seen some of the curmudgeons on here try to dissuade people from using a concrete post for supporting and anvil. It apparently degrades quickly with use. An upended I-beam would be perfect, though. You may even find a mild steel post at a scrap yard for cheap. I imagine that, if your 6x6 post is steel, it will be fine with the concrete inside. I just wasn't certain if that is what you meant. Either way, have fun building it. Nothing like your first whack at hot iron on the anvil and post you built. Way better than buying one someone else made.

Torbjorn Ahman recently built one in a video on YouTube recently. Personally, I don't think the benefits would outweigh the risks for me unless I had I constant, cheap supply of the necessary fuel that I just couldn't pass up.

Passing down information orally is always a risky proposition. Even the greatest authorities can fall prey to the classic game of telephone. I always tell people this anecdote to explain: A woman is having a dinner party and her guests can't get over how delicious the roast is. They are intrigued because she has cut a relatively large piece off of each end prior to cooking. So they ask, "Why do you cut the ends off your roast?" "It is a part of the recipe," she replies, "by cutting off the ends it allows the meat to cook more evenly and locks the juices in. This recipe has been in my family for generations and we've always done it this way." Later on, curious, the woman asks her mother, "We cut the ends off the roast to cook it evenly and keep the meat moist, right?" "I believe so, but I learned the recipe from your grandmother, let's ask her." So they call and the grandmother is equally unsure. They visit the great grandmother in the assisted living facility later and ask, "Grandma, why does your recipe for roast call for cutting the ends off of the meat?" "Oh, that, she says, well, the only pan I had was too small so I usually had to cut some off so it would fit!" Lesson: Beware anecdotal information.

I can't speak to propane forges at all but I can tell you to prepare for suggestions of building your own. I can vouch for the fact that building your own forge is much cheaper and, more importantly, allows for a more intimate understanding of the workings of the forge. You will likely understand your forge better, which will help you to adjust it and fine tune for forging and welding. once again, I don't know squat about propane forges....but the trend has been "build yer own" and for good reason. Best part is that the tools you have to buy to make the forge turn out to be tools you really needed anyway.

It's absolutely enviable. Your anvil is the dream anvil for almost everyone here. Congratulations on obtaining it!

You took all the makeup off of her and I'm still attracted. You may be able to grind a section of the working surface to try to get a normal forging area and keep the rest for texturing.

Hi Will and welcome. The curmudgeons, among others, are going to tell you, "If you add your location to your profile you would be surprised how many IFI members may be close to you and it may help us answer your questions more accurately..." I am apparently one of those others about whom I just typed.... Concerning the arrowheads: I have no specific knowledge of the making of one but I am shocked to think they would be forge welded. Given the history of arrow production during war time I would think that doing precarious forge welds on small pieces like that would create a bottleneck in the operation and reduce production. My uneducated guess would be that they would forge an offset near the center of the piece (triangular shaped) and then fold the two parts into each other. It it would look like a bow tie with a triangular knot prior to bending. Now that I've made myself wrong someone who knows far more should have wisdom to share soon enough! Good luck and please share some pictures of your bodkins and Tudors. Lou

Buy a bag of real lump charcoal, put it in a grill or fire pit, direct air through a pipe into the heat of the fire (hair dryer is more than good enough) and then put a piece of steel in until it gets glowing and whack it. When it changes shape you are hooked! I can't express in words how much you will love it.

Upon further investigation of the picture I'd have to agree. I can't see any sign of a pulley attached to the handle mechanism and the shadow on the questionable part appears to have three distinct coils separated by shadows.

The words I use for tools I need badly but don't have would get me banned...instantly. Just imagine repeatedly losing your heat on a think chunk of steel because you can't hold it steady with the ill matching tongs you have... Add to that a reluctance to make a pair of tongs for one ten minute forging session. well.....the word you just thought of is the word I use for those imaginary tools.

I'm a bit infatuated with the history of my Isaac Hill anvil but I'm much more joyous about using it to work hot steel. Enjoy being the latest in what is possibly a long line of users of that beautiful tool. But honestly...all those romantic notions fade away when you are shaping a piece of steel and just caught in the moment.

If I get there and find the Professor restoring anvils with bamboo and coconuts I'll be amazed. If I find Ginger and Maryanne helping him I'm staying...

In my limited experience I have learned that a blacksmith is defined by the way he/she holds their work. Planning projects so that tongs are unnecessary is better than using the right tongs for the job. Using the wrong tongs creates unnecessary limitations on a blacksmith's skill.

My God, I have to make that three hour drive soon!

I just had my post devoured by the board gremlin. Basically, I claimed no specific knowledge but I saw something similar on Njanvilman's recent post about the loot he grabbed at Quad State. He picked up a Fisher post vise that had a secondary lower screw attached to the handle mechanism by a chain and pulley. It is on page 9 of this thread...in case the link brings you to the start of the thread. http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/37409-fisher/?page=9#comment-504061 Lou

I absolutely love it and will steal your idea. I have some guitars that need these!

Seriously, I was talking about your methods of avoiding people who would pester you and beg desperately for you to sell one! I have a strong distaste for thieves...bu your collection could inspire me to change my mind on begging, pandering and any other pity inspiring behaviors!

Well, there is clearly a career in making blacksmithing equipment just waiting to be capitalized upon down under! You could seriously make much better equipment than that on your own. I would buy a block of mild steel and pound on it before I would pay that much for that anvil...and a similar forge could be made for a fraction of that price. I guess if steel is hard to come by where you are those prices would make sense.

Are you kidding? A couple days ago he was regaling us with his references to Goldilocks and the seven dwarves...

I could write a beautiful script to a soon to be classic B movie based solely on this thread. Trying to work out how a young blacksmith has to learn how to do a fluxless forge weld with between a piece of titanium and a nail extracted from a chunk of the true cross in order save the world from the anvilnado.