Irondragon Forge ClayWorks

We have a lot of members in Ohio, some may be close enough to you to visit once this pandemic abates and we all get shot. We won't remember your location once leaving this post, hence the suggestion to edit your profile to show a general location ( no need to put in your exact address). That way every post will let us know where you are.

I've never seen rebar square & twisted like that.

Looks like a moderator has moved your post into this thread.

Have you looked around the forum at all? There is a thread in Tools dealing with touch marks. It would be helpful to know where in the world you are located. Ordering a Touchmark from the U.S. would be expensive if you are in Australia.

Looks like a widows walk would be great to add.

Came out OK is an understatement for sure. The Masters of Japan are in awe of your work.

I should have added to put the face on the anvil and hammer the ends down flat.

Another albeit harder way would be to remove the moveable leg, put it in the coal forge and bring it up to yellow heat and hammer it straight on the anvil, provided it doesn't have a steel face.

That's where the art of haggling comes into play.

I've made and used adobe bricks and they hold up just fine.

As far as the anvil it looks to be in good shape. I hope you have read about not doing any grinding, milling or welding on it's hardened steel face. Trying to make it look better will do more harm than good. About the only thing I would do is to wire wheel the base and apply some boiled linseed oil (BLO) then hammer hot steel on the face to shine it up.

Anytime one of my guy's would ask me how something worked, I would tell them RTFM (Read The Field Manual).usually worked.

If you take a small hammer and tap the steel hardened face all over to see it it rings clear, that will tell if the forge welded on steel face is intact. If the ring sound changes a lot from front to back or you hear any buzzing sound, that means the face has become de-laminated and the anvil is probably only worth scrap prices, not an anvil that will be good to forge on. The rebound is checked with a steel ball bearing about a half inch diameter. Drop it with a ruler to use as a gauge from the 10 inch mark and see how far the ball returns. that will give a percentage of rebound 8 inches will be excellent 80% anything below 6-7 inches will be poor and indicate the face plate has been heated and lost it's hardness most likely due to a fire. The anvil looks to be in very good condition and in your area good anvils go anywhere from $2.00 or $3.00 per pound maybe more.

I learned to drive at 14 in a '53 Plymouth and the first car I bought was a '36 Chevrolet Tudor for $25. It had a broken rear axle and a replacement cost $50. Wish I still had that car, sold it to a guy who chopped & channeled it into a street rod. It was replaced with a '57 Plymouth Fury X Florida State Police car, man was it fast.

Instead of such close up pictures a shot of the full anvil both sides, the full top and the underside of the base is what's needed. Also results of the ring & rebound test to tell if it's been in a shop fire and where in the world you are located, hence the suggestion to edit your profile to show general location.

More pictures will also be needed to try and determine condition. American wrought anvils were made by Hay Budden for Montgomery Ward. There may be a serial number on the front foot under the horn. The 137 should be the weight in US pounds, so there seems to be some discrepancy in the weight you stated.

It looks like the moveable jaw has been sprung some, usually because of clamping stock in the outer edges very tight. I would use a straight edge steel ruler and an angle grinder to take down the center high spot. Others may have better option though.

My wife has a nifty small acetylene/air torch set that she uses with jewelry work and soldering/brazing. It will get up to 4770°F. I've used it to set hot rivets when I didn't feel like firing up the A/O setup.

Actually I think his VA cardiologist did warn him about being around any equipment that emitted EMR energy but like me he's a stubborn old Vietnam era vet.

Yep, there are so many rabbit holes to explore, you will wonder which one should I dive into next.

Sorry, I forgot to answer earlier. It's a Hobart Handler 187 welder and most of his welding was in the 60-70 amp range. When we both volunteered at ESSA, if a welder or plasma cutter was being used he couldn't get within 100 feet of the machines and usually left the building. I don't know the make of pacemaker and haven't seen him since the pandemic began last march.

It's called a clip horn, used by some farriers for drawing out a clip on the horseshoe.

Funny I have used A/O for over 50 years with nary an issue. Of course one has to be cautious when using any flame producing equipment. Most accidents I have been aware of were due to carelessness.

The Read This First thread tells how to do the most effective search. I tried that and came up with a bunch of threads about the anchor logo. Here is but one. Shows the logo much better.

I would say it's better than good shape, especially if it passes the ring & rebound test. I hope you have read about not doing any grinding, milling or welding on the hardened face, which does more harm than good. I'm jealous with anvil envy.