Irondragon Forge ClayWorks

About the 88 pound Soderfors, it is a little light like others have said. However when I started out in the early '80s, I picked up a new anvil that was made in Russia (predates the HF ASO anvils), a cast iron base with a steel welded on face, that weighed 55 pounds. I mounted it on a piece of RR tie and over the next several years I made a lot of stuff on it like S hooks, leaves, tent stakes/pegs, dragons and bottle openers out of horse shoes and a lot of knife blanks. I still use it as a traveling anvil to go to club meetings and hammer in's. I eventually found a 110 pound Vulcan in good shape and since then a 106 pound Hay Budden. Here is a picture of that anvil. BTW: In all that time I used a 2 1/2 pound cross peen hammer I inherited from my grandfather (which has had several replacement handles) and a 24 ounce ball peen I picked up at a yard sale for $1.00 U.S. Since then my wife and I have added about 30 hammers to the collection and guess which ones I use the most. My wife likes the fancy French pattern hammers.

Depending on how many pegs you need. You could normalize say 5 and quench then draw out to blue another 5. That will tell you which work the best in the soil you usually camp on. My wife is the camper and I have made her about a dozen of each around 8 inches long and for her they both work well. She uses them for her 10X10 easy up canopies.

We call them Ozark lawnmowers. Buy them in the spring and BBQ in the fall.

I've made many tent pegs from garage door coil spring and just use them normalized. Never had a problem with them breaking or bending, unless I tried to drive them through solid rock.

I picked that one up to use mainly as a striking/upsetting anvil, if I can convince Debi to be my minion.

Putting an email address on the open forum is highly discouraged due to spammers. Attaching pictures is easy. If you look down in the edit window, you will see the paper clip with Drag files here to attach, or choose files... you go to where your pictures are stored and can upload them to attach to your post. The value of an anvil depends upon where in the world it's located, the physical condition (hence the need for good pictures), the results of a ring & rebound test along with the brand (maker if available). A Hay Budden is worth more than say a Vulcan.

That one the holes are round all the way through but it wasn't hard to make a bick for it though. I put several weld beads on the sucker rod and drove it in for a very tight fit which works very well for light work. Of course we have three London pattern anvils, so a full size horn and Hardy holes are no problem.

Here is a primer for improvised anvils. We paid $35 for it at a club meeting and it weighs 110 pounds. If you have a scrap yard or heavy equipment repair shop near you, bulldozers are made of anvils. I think this was a counter weight off of one. Like others have said you could use the horn and hardy hole from yours and cherish it as a family heirloom. BTW: Welcome to the insanity.

Shucks I just quoted this from the last page and see everyone has beaten me to it so Never mind. Haven't you heard about The Right to Arm Bears.

One thing we learned is to write the purchase date on canned foods with a magic marker that are in the survival pantry. It's easy to loose track of how long you have had it. Helps with first in first out. Every once in a while we will run across something with a use by date of 2009.

I'm willing to bet that after you finish reading all 180 pages in this section, you will be fully recovered and like me a cancer survivor.

I'm with anvil on drawing them down. or if you really want to weld them on, I would go with 1/2 in. and taper them some.

I don't recall the Cuban Navy term. When I was stationed at the Watch Hill RI Lighthouse in '65, there was a side wheeler tourist boat that plied the Block Island sound and the steam boilers were run on oil which could be seen billowing smoke from it's stack for a long way off.

Glad to hear you're doing alright. We lucked out as the power stayed on even in subzero temps and 8 inches of snow. The only problem we had was the furnace went out last Friday, on the coldest night. The thermal coupling had to be replaced (pilot light wouldn't stay lit) our HVAC guy came out Saturday morning and had it going in no time.

About as silly as the service. When I needed to have a light bulb replaced at Station New London, I had to wait all day to have an Electricians mate come and change it because I was an Engineman not rated for electrical work.

I didn't have to sneak a welder generator in after the ice storm of 2009 and without power to run the well for 9-10 days. As soon as we were able to get off the mountain, my wife said lets go and get a generator. A couple of years having to switch and alternate what received power during outages she said were getting a larger generator. Now we can run the whole house with it and I still have a portable welded/generator as back up.

I'm thinking Specify had crossed the line with his last post.

My wife calls that monkey blood, if you blow on it, helps with the sting. One of my slingshot ammo to run the squirrels out of the bird feeders is acorns (wouldn't want to hurt the little darlings).

Mike no problem, we all get edited now & then. The rules about posting links are funny, you can post the name of the company & item description, like XYZ Auction co item # 351 so folks who are interested can look them up. This kinda explains that.

Seeing as I was stationed on several lighthouses in the USCG, I have fond memories of polishing the brass on the main light's. Those lenses would amplify the light from a 100 wt incandescent bulb or Alladin lamp, so it could be seen from miles away. If one had to go up to the main light when it was running dark glasses were in order.

I bet who ever broke that horn off said, Oh shucky darn.

Did the ad say what the weight is? I probably would pass, unless the auction house was near me.

My mother used H2O2 regularly on my brother and I when we came home bleeding. Somewhere along the line I was advised not to use it as a disinfectant on skin.???? Don't remember who told me not to use it though. After watching Dr. Pol DVM and his regular use of liberal amounts of it on injured animals, I have once again started using it, best disinfectant I have ever used. If it's good enough for dogs and horses, it's good enough for me.

I have found the bands used when you have blood drawn to be excellent for slingshots. When I was having chemo, they would take blood once a week and the technician would save all the bands she used the previous week for me. I'm all set for the near future with blue bands.

My mother, bless her soul, would make a holiday bread called potica (from the Balkans) with finely ground black walnuts, pecans and a bunch of other ingredients. One bite and I thought I was in heaven.