merl

If you're going to spend the money on a new anvil I would go with either the Hoffman or a Nimba in the same size. A 110lb anvil on a 100-200lb base would be a very serviceable unit and likely hold or increase its value as long as you take care of it.(that means NO GRINDING ON IT)

My question would be " If you can't drill the hole how do you expect to make the threads in it too?" Can you just weld a nut on the end and then grind the flats off to hide it? I have been a skilled machinist for nearly 30 years and if I needed a threaded hole in the end as you do but, didn't have the tools to do the job, I would find someone that could do it the right way or modify the design to eliminate the threaded hole if I could. Could it be cross pined?

I guess I'll throw my .02 cents in too on the HF stuff. I tried one of the "Ugly Ivan" 110lb anvils a few years ago and liked it quite a bit. I went right out and got one for myself and for the $90. I paid for it I should have got two more for my two boys to start on. I waited a few months and found they no longer carried them so I just got a couple of the 55lb ASO's (after all they are only 4 and 6 years old) The Russian pattern is good except for the obvious horn issues and I made a heavy wooden stand for it that lets me add 150lbs (two zink ingets) to the over all weight that helps keep it from jumping around too much. I put the two 55lb ASO's on stumps that are short enough for my two boys and got them a set of HF ball peen hammers. I keep a spool of soft 14 ga. steel wire in the shop that they can hammer on cold when they want to "help Dad blacksmith". By the way, they both wear child size wrap around safety glasses in the shop and have a corner away from my work space but wear I can watch them. I have since replaced my Russian with a fine old Hay-Bud but keep it for my number two anvil and also use it for my traveling anvil. Considering what a descent anvil costs I figure when the kids are old enough, and want to really work some hot metal, I'll put a slab of 1045 on their little ASO's and see if they are serious befor investing in a real anvil for them.

I thought that is why it is called a "cutting table"? Granted, you can't usualy use a hold down if you're on the cutting table but, I use it all the time. Now to be perfectly honest I don't cut on the Hay-Bud but I do on the Russian all the time. One thing my Hay-Bud is good for is teaching a painfull lesson to you if you miss the work and hit the face. Last week I was trying to make a slight tapper to the edge of a piece and had my face too close to the anvil face. I made a miss hit and was rewarded with a lite ding to my fore head. Fortunatly it was only a 20oz. ball peen but, you get the picture...

"Twine wrapt around the hammer handle" That is a very interesting idea Caleb, I may have to try that. Anyway, I use a lite weight leather glove, like you might use for TIG welding, on my holding hand most of the time. I never use or, I should say, carple tunnle prevents me from ever useing a glove on my hammer hand. My hammer handels are all taken on the belt sander to shape them down to fit my hand just right and prevent the pain and numbness of CT. A blacksmith mentor of mine showd me that when a hammer handle fits your hand correctly you should be able to wrap your second and third fingers around it and just be able to touch the base of your thumb without strain. If the handle feels too thick then I keep taking some off the sides untill it's right. No room for a glove in there I find too if I try to use a glove on my hammer hand I have to grip the hammer much tighter and my hand and arm get tired faster. I want to add that I always use a pair of clip on sunglasses of my safety glasses for looking into the fire, and just quickly flip them up out of the way when not needed.

Nick, consider that if you have a gas forge you likely won't have problems with smoke or odor like you would useing a solid fuel(coal, coke, or charcoal). I live a ways out in the counrty with my nearest neighbour about a 1/4 mile away. My smithy is in the back 1/3 of a former livestock barn that's probably around 200 yards from the house. This alows me to work very late at nite if I want to and keeps the smoke and dirt from the house. We have a set of two way radios if needed. I use hardwood charcoal to start my coal forge and sometimes the fire flees going up the flue make me nervous when it's dry in the summer. Frosty, I'm glad to see your avitar finely got up and did something. :rolleyes:

I don't know enough about anvils or blacksmithing to even speculate what makes one anvil more highly sought after at some time than another. I do know that of the handfull of anvils I have used, I like my H-B the best. It is probably nothing more than the mass it has (317# with the "inertia block" it has on it) I am also big into "the good old days" and, knowing this anvils age, working on it spaks the imagination and gives me a feeling of beeing conected with my family history. For me I don't think it is the Hay-Budden name that makes my anvil any better than any other. Three years ago I was just as happy with my "Russian" pattern from Harbor Frieght. However, as my skills developed, I quickly felt the need for a bigger anvil and this happens to be the one I found. I very foolishly passed on a much larger anvil that was going so cheap ($1.50/#) I was sure there was something wrong with it. Turns out the guy who sold it just wanted to get rid of his stall at the antique mall and didn't want to have to move it again... It is what ever YOU deside is the best anvil...

Yes Warren, I actualy use those in my fish farming operation. I generaly don't call them that because most people are not familier with that word.

There is "shop air " and then there is "plant air". Shop air seems to be what is usualy supplied by an under powerd piston compressor that is often purchased with the up front cost as the priority. It seems that no matter how big your piston compressor is, it will end up being too small at some point and that will keep happening more and more as your shop gets more ambitious. Plant air is something that is figured in to the cost of doing business, and should be part of your calculation for determining the shop rate ect... If you already have a compressed air system that has to run all the time anyway and, IF it has the capacity to run these additional air devices (what was said? 250-300 cu.ft./min. x up to 7 units) along with all the other air users in the plant. As Frosty suggests, the air indusers will do a good job in this situation and, depending on your shop layout, it may be the only safe alternitive to supplying air to all these forges, rather than individuale blowers. The shop were I work doesn't even allow radios and personal fans because of the inheirant danger of all the elctrical cords (electrical cords and sharp, black hot metal chips don't mix). Every machine has a line for an air blow gun and two more for air grinders ect... In a large plant, compressed air is the way to go. At home I use a Champ 400 on my coal forge. If I ever needed a compressor to run machines at home ie, an air powerd hammer, I would invest in a screw compressor and run a line to every building, as that would be the "tipping point" for me as far as effiecancy goes.

Jeff Bly, I'm pretty much a newbe to blacksmithing my self although I'm not new to making my liveing with high quality tools. I have Hey-Bud 11243, 134# and confirmed to be 115 years old according to the guys on this thread and Anvils in America. Knowing how old it is I can understand why the top plate is only about 3/8 thick but, is in very good shape with good edges for most of it. It has some nicks in it but they are very shallow and don't show up it the work. There is only a slight depresion in one area and it's kind of handy sometimes when I need to flaten a piece. The horn is somewhat dinged up but, that is understandable since it is solid wrought iron. The tip of the horn even has a little crook in it, probably from beeing struck repeatedly. How many thousands of blows would you think it would take to do that to an anvil horn and not break it off? My anvil is just a standard London/American pattern, nothing fancy but it sure does make me happy when I use it. I belong to an antique power club that has a large blacksmith shop with several anvils. When ever I use one of those I always wish for my H-B.

An easy way to get stop action photography is with an industrial strobe light. They are usualy veriable from 10 to several thousand flashes per second. We used one at a shop I worked at to observe chip loading and discharge on the planer tools. Pretty cool.

Finely ,here are the pictures I promised. The first two are my Hay-Bud with the 8x8x10 base block. The third is my "Ugly Ivan" Russian pattern anvil with the strap and turn buckle setup.

Mr. Hofi, that post was the best laugh I have had all day "moove a side please..." My wife even laughed at that one! Thanks

Frosty, I'm from N.E. Wisconsin. That line is from one of my favorite Nick Park claymation movies(Chicken Run) that my kids and I have seen many times. My family came over from Cornwall in the late 1800's so there was still some conection to the way that phrase sounded "ferrin". Go ahead, rib away... I'll try to post some pics tomorrow.

If the chips in the edge of your anvil face are a problem for you or interfear with the work you are trying to do, you might consider makeing a hardy tool that would amount to the equivelant of a new anvil face. I have a 100lb Peter Wright that I want to use for demos. It has seen very little use and the top plate edges are perfect. However, the face of the top plate is pitted from rust and has two quarter sized by 3/8 deep pock marks in it (probably from someone useing a torch on it) For general work and drawing out it will be fine but, when I need a smooth surface to work on I'll put on a 1" thick piece of 1018 that has a piece welded on to fit in the hardy and covers the rest of the top plate. As long as I don't do any cold work on it, this sub plate should do fine untill I come up with a piece of harder material. IMHO