Ranchmanben

Really great idea!

Wasn't complaining, just expressing a thought about this new anvil that I hadn't thought of. I've built nearly all my hardy tools for each anvil I've had thus far and suspect I'll continue to do so. Looks like I'm going to have to be on the look out for some more jackhammer bits and truck axles.

It dawned on me this afternoon that none of my bottom tools are going to fit this beast. I guess I'll make a sleeve to reduce the hardy hole to 1" till I can get some new 1.5" tools made.

Looks like you're in the same boat as me, time to start building new bottom tools for the hardy hole.

Man, I'd love to do that but I'm getting ready to be on a pretty short leash. Second kiddo is due next month. Might have to try this fall once it cools off.

The thin heel looks like Trenton to me. Since it's a good looking anvil and within driving distance from you I'd bid it up to your max budget and go for it!

Instagram. It's the only social media I've ever had, I don't consider forums social media. There are anvils that come up for sale regularly and often times they are decently priced, to me at least. This one was the best price I'd seen and happened to be within driving distance for me. There's a lot of really good smiths showing if their work, shops and wares on there.

I'm jealous of myself! That hammer is a 2.5lb Ballard forge hammer my wife picked out for me for my birthday. I've been tooling up , including a sweet set of hammer eye tongs, to start attempting to build hammers but haven't plunged into that yet.

Thanks fellas! That stump came with it and it'll do for now but once my wallet recovers I'm going to bite the bullet and build a nice tripod stand.

Under $2.50/lb. I'm in a terribly anvil poor area, I usually have to pay $4+ and know people who've paid around $6/lb for a good anvil. So when this one came up for sale I jumped on it like a duck on a beetle.

Made a little trip 3.5hrs away this morning to buy a 350lb Hay Budden. When I got there I couldn't find a manufacturer stamp anywhere on it but it was in pretty good shape and the price was right so we made a deal. Got home and started really going over it, if you haven't figured it out yet, it's not a Budden and it's not 350lbs. It's a Peter Wright and it's 406ish pounds! Ring is good and more importantly the rebound is between 80-85%. Now for a dose of the wire wheel

Other than HUGE reins, that last pair looks good! I know how it goes though, you put in a ton of work on the jaws and when you get to to point of drawing out the reins you just don't feel like it. Next time just quit for the day. I know you started them and want to get them finished but that pair would have looked 10times better with thinner handles and the wouldn't be near as heavy. It also looked like it tried to isolate the boss more on that's set, keep at it! As you said, every pair will get better. A lot of folks here say tongs aren't a first, second or even tenth project for a new smith. Although I agree a new guy should get a few projects under his belt before attempting them, there's a lot to be learned from forging tongs that transfer to other projects. Keep at it, it makes you a better smith and a better person.

You can always upset the end of that 5/8" first to gain some extra material.

Hawg, how many pairs of tongs have you built? If that's your first pair you're ahead of the curve. If it's not the first pair, you're dang sure getting there. Arkies advice is right on the money about getting the v-groove for that style of tong, also you can do the same thing perpiendicular to the first groove to hold a piece upright on your anvil. Another way, the way I end up using the most, is to use a slitting chisel first then spread the groove with a piece of 1/2" square ground to a 90* chisel. I use a vise to hold my tong half while I do this a have a piece of metal underneath the jaw to prevent it bending all over the place. To do it that way, you'd have to redesign your jaws a little to have more vertical mass. The bolster plate is and easy one if you've got a drill and a piece of plate. Since I use 3/8" round bar for my rivets I use a piece of 1/2" plate for my bolster block. The rule of thumb is if what ever size stock you're useing for a rivet you need 1.5 times the diameter on each end for the rivet head. One of the main things to work on is your boss and how your reins and jaws attach to it. The boss is the key pair of any pair of tongs, the better it's formed the better the tongs pivot. Try to keep your boss a uniform thickness, I shoot for 3/8" thick on most of my tongs. Where your reins and jaws meet the boss needs to be fairly robust as well since all the force is transferred at those points. In the beginning, I think it's better to over build, get your process down and end up with a useable tool than start with undersized stock and end with tongs that bend or break when you try to use them. You've made a useable set of tongs there and that's not an easy thing. Every pair you work on will teach you something even if they get chucked in the scrap pile. Every pair you finished will get better. Lots of fellas don't bother making their own tong because it's not worth their time, nothing wrong with that, but I respect you making your own tongs.

I'm honestly not very good at explaining thing like this but I'd be happy to post some more pictures for you with a tape measure for scale and answer any questions you got. I think they'd work better as a flat jaw or possible box jaw as a multi sized tong. There wouldn't be much of a range though since the reins end up so wide. You could probably do a 5/16-3/8" range. You picked out just one of the problems, how far you've got to open the reins to fit a larger piece. Although I think they look pretty neat and were fun to make, this pair is just about useless for actual work. At some point I'm going to make another pair with flat jaw and do some tweaks to the design to hopefully get more range of the jaws without having to spread the reins so much. Also, as they are now, there's not a tremendous amount of clamping power.

I took it a little different. I think it's about anvil stands and appearance, looking professional. Basically, there's no reason any smith should have a janky anvil stand that wobbles and looks like my two year assembled it. While I don't 100% agree I do think a smiths anvil stand should be a priority and you should build the best one you have the means to produce even if that's wood. David, The picture I posted above isn't my anvil, it's Robb Gunter's. I was just showing that a fella, who many would consider a master smith, has a wooden stump with screws and chains.

I like your style.

I suppose you're probably right, just didn't look welded to me.

I came across this picture on Instagram and can't figure out how you'd do it without a lot of welding and I don't think it's welded. Time to break out the modeling clay.

I'm generally in favor of the wire wheel treatment but that old gal needs a dose of hot steel and nothing else! That's great that your family hung on to it and obviously took good care. Get some metal hot and show it who's boss. Here's a question for those who know more than I, which is most everyone. If a man took some paint stripper to that anvil, to remove the obvious bits of paint, would that do anything to that beautiful thin layer of rust? Not that it's much or effects use, just curious.

If it was mine, I'd take the wire wheel to it and grind, yes I said grind, the portions of the edges where it's mushroomed out past the width of the body, most espessially the spots where it looks like there are jagged protrusions. Nothing drastic at all, more of a smoothing the places that are likely to chip off. You've got to take this all with a grain of salt though since you've got it and I'm looking at small pictures on my phone.

That's a nice stand, very nice. Mine is a mesquite stump, it too is very nice. Some people only have a stump, chain, some screws and have no access to a welder or cutting torch? I agree it's not the best but it's better than hot glueing their anvil to the garage floor. Work with what you've got until you can upgrade unless, like me, you like your wood stump with screwed on tool rack. Here's a picture I took a couple months ago of Robb Gunter's anvil stand that's wood, chains and screws. He's getting by alright.

Thanks Arkie, I seems to spend a lot of time trying to get good pictures and end up usually using the easiest one that's taken while sitting in the truck.

Weird set of parallel jaw tongs made from 5/8" coil spring.

Yep, more tongs.