P. Bedard

Hey Andy. I've never seen a Nash & sons anvil like this though. Brooks and Cooper made one, but mine definitely says "&sons" on it. Not that it matters much, I'm just curious. Thanks for the suggestion!

This one is definitely English. Made in Sheffield in 1830. Sadly the only part of the name that remains is " & sons". The step near the horn is almost an inch deep, while the rear step is shallower. Of all my anvils (I have three currently) this one is definitely my favorite.

Hey all! I bought this anvil about 2years ago from a friend in the UK. Loved it ever since. However, I'm still not sure why the second step is there. My friend and teacher, who has been a full time, professional Blacksmith for over 40 years, says he's never seen one like this either. Hopefully someone can shed a bit of light on it.

I have two years worth of this excellent magazine and would LOVE to get the rest of them. If anyone has some for sale, please let me know!

Nothing. Seriously, nothing. My kids come into the shop, grab an old pair of tongs and "go fishing" for whatever's in there. Keeps them happy AND keeps my slack tub free of junk.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I have a family member that raises bees and can give me his scrap wax whenever I need it. He says it still has some pollen and even honey in it, but once it's melted into a block, that will be easily separated.

Well after a good day's work, I have the following to show for it; Four spearheads; And three Angons; Now, let's hope the customers like them...

The Medieval ones were very often forge welded it's true. I'm making replicas of Anglo Saxon and Viking age spear heads though. Those were very rarely welded (only two examples I can think of offhand and those were VERY high quality. Literally, Ferrari's of the Spearhead world at the time). But yes, I should start cutting them, just to make em look better. Thanks!

Hey all. I had a few requests for spearheads, so it gave me the incentive I needed to finish a tool to help me form the sockets. However I cannot for the life of me, get the XXXXXX sockets to line up. They have that little gap at the bottom. And I can't seem to do anything to change that. Looking at period examples of spearheads, you do see this, however, you do see many of them that line up laser beam straight too! So, if anyone has any suggestions as to how I can get these things looking a bit neater, I'd love to hear them! Socket tool; Smaller spearhead (for a throwing spear); Two smaller ones and a longer one (Tall one is Viking era, the original is in the London museum) Thanks for looking!

Something along these lines? Let me know if that's what you had in mind.

I certainly will! And thanks everyone not only for the advice, but for the encouragement. I find that I sell myself short on many occasions. Maybe I should stop doing that. Again, thank you.

True enough. However when the potential customer can simply walk into walmart or costco and get something *vaguely similar* for less than a quarter of the price, many of them will do just that. It's an unfortunate reality of the times. I just have to make sure I find the right balance between what price the item will still sell at, and not be too low for me to cringe at. Always a balancing act.

Hey Peter, I get them at the local Dollarama store. They're $1.25 each. They have a sticker of some Catholic saint or another on them so I just peel those off and toss them.

Well that WOULD be nice, but I have to live in the real world. Here in Winnipeg, people are notoriously cheap (we're famous the world over for it). If something is too expensive, even if it's hand made, they'll simply find something vaguely similar at the wal-mart and call it a day. There is a very fine line here between getting paid an appropriate wage for handmade goods, and actually getting any money for it. The $30-40 range I cited is probably on the high side here and I'll most probably sit on them for quite a while at that price. However, I do want to get paid for my work, and $26.00 an hour here for hand labor is quite a high salary. So, I'll have to content myself with that. Thanks for the advice though.