MC Hammer

The edges, cut off and face look like they may have been milled??? Can you see evidence of that or welding on the edges? The rebound sounds pretty good.

Yup, just had a piece of scale jump off the piece I was forging yesterday and land on my cheek right below my safety glasses. Proof positive that you can get hot scale in the region of your eyes. My habit since starting forging is to put my safety glasses on when I start getting set up and take them off when the apron comes off and everything is put away. If it becomes part of your routine you won't forget them. I also got a neck lanyard that attaches to mine so if for some reason I have to remove them from my eyes while looking for something, they are hanging right there around my neck to remind me to put them back on. I generally don't even do that.

Nice knife Shawn!

Keep it simple to start. The tool doesn't make the blacksmith. With that said, buy good tools when you can. I see this a lot with people getting into this hobby. They want to buy a full tool set right away. It's better to build up a useful collection of tools that you will use a lot. Here's the thing too, if you get forging you will be able to make many tools that you need. Chisels, tongs, punches, hold fasts, hardy and pritchel tools can all be made for much cheaper than buying them. Yes, your next step should be a better anvil but your HF one will get you by until you can find one. Also, don't be willing to shell out top dollar. When people getting into this are willing to pay ridiculous prices for anvils, tongs, and hammers it drives up the price for the rest of us. That $5 hammer at the flea market all of the sudden becomes an antique work $40 and tongs become $40, etc. I try to pay only $5-$10 for a pair of old tongs and hammer heads less than that. Why spend $300 on new hammer when you are new to blacksmithing? You'll hammer as good with a $10 junk shop hammer as you will the $300 when you are starting out.

Great find Mr.B! I want my own copy so I don't have to keep checking out the ILL copy from my local library system. I keep hoping to find one at a flea market or antique store with lots of 2nd hand books. I always skim them hoping to get lucky.

Strike - be patient and stick with it here. We've all been moderated at one point or another, it happens. Try not to let it get to you. Most here want to see you succeed in your blacksmithing endeavor. When I search, I put "iforgeiron" and then the thing I want to search for in Google. This will solve your problem with the search engine. One thing to keep in mind is that this is a family friendly forum so they are rightfully tough on bad language. I got moderated for using a common word for your backside that starts with a "b" and ends with a "t" (I think that is really "G" rated I hope). I just let it roll off my back. I'm a guest here in the end and I have to abide by their wishes on keeping it as clean as we can. There's just so much information here it would be a shame for you to not tap into it over some moderation. Stick around Strike!

Thomas, I love make ground stone axes as well as chipping arrowheads. I made a 3 foot plus celt (think hatche) out of a piece of scrape granite counter top someone gave me. It's really popular at shows. I hear you Thomas, it's almost 5 months allowance for me. I only get $15 a month for personal spending. I'm not complaining though, I remember when it was $0 a month. It takes a loooooooong time to save. In fact, my favorite junk shop guy sees me coming and says "So, got your $15 this month I see. You know Mike, I have a $5 minimum in my shop." It's why I love the scrap yard so much. It seemed like the original OP didn't seem like he was willing to go to a scrap yard so that's why I suggested the HF anvil. Normally I wouldn't, especially if a person is willing to be a scrap yard rat like me.

Just say they are made with some recycles materials. That covers you either way and you can sell them with a clear conscience if it bothers you.

No offense taken Das. Here I thought $50 was cheap . Believe me, I never recommend ASO's, but this guy is trying to forge on a wooden stump I agree with Thomas, a chunk of steel from the scrap yard would be better than a HF anvil, but it didn't seem to me the OP was really willing to look that hard so that's why I suggested the HF anvil. Minimal effort there to get one and far better than a wooden stump. That's super awesome! I make stone axes and didn't realize they were given away. I'll have to stop in to a few around here and inquire about the scraps. Free is better, so if he can get a large piece of granite for nothing but his time maybe he should try that. I would just suggest he round all the corners to minimize chipping on the edges.

Go to Harbor Freight and get a cheap $50 anvil. They are junk, but much harder than wood. You'll at least move metal with it. Heck, even a piece of concrete would be better than wood. I wouldn't mess with stones. Yes, historically they were used, but you have many more options than they did back then. For what you'd pay for a granite scrap you could have an Anvil Shaped Object (ASO) of some kind or other. I commend your zeal to move metal, and the stump was all you could get, but there are better alternatives if you look around.

It was standard issue for the guys I used to train and lead. It even helps with hobbies like blacksmithing. When something you are doing feels dangerous, that little voice will say "Hey, you don't really have the right pair of tongs for this." Listening will save you a lot of grief.

I once spoke to a missionary who lived in Jerusalem and asked her how she kept safe there. She said she listens to that still small voice that tells her when something is wrong. She said that when she's home in America she's noticed we don't listen at all or very little to that voice because we live in such relative safety. She said often times our mind perceives things that are out of place or not right and will signal that fear or small voice that says something is off. I've always remembered that conversation when climbing around on ladders or handling things with gas hooked up to them, handling firearms, etc. There's a book out there entitled "The Gift of Fear" that's pretty insightful on listening to that little voice telling you to run or that something isn't right or safe.

I'll side-step the bigger is better issue I think the most reasonable answer has been given already by a few, but I'll say it again. A good shop sized anvil is usually in or over the 150 lb range. Anvils under that weight are not bad anvils and certainly can do lots of work, but if you are looking for a good all around anvil you'll want something at least 150 or more. Why? Well it can be moved around if needed (not easily but no special equipment needed usually) and the possibility of it rocking or moving around in use are slight at best. Remember, an anvil that is light will move around with heavy work so if the anvil is moving you are losing energy. So if all you are making is hooks, knives, and small stuff a 75 lb anvil secured to a decent base will do all that. Anything bigger and you might have issues with the anvil walking around as you are striking it. My anvil is 179 lbs and there's nothing I can't do on it except perhaps swinging a 12 lb sledge hammer trying to hammer some ridiculously thick piece of tool steel. Even then it'd probably be ok. I like my size because it can do anything I need it to. Small work, no problem. Medium work, no problem. Large work, no problem. I'll probably never need another anvil. On the flip side, I'd love to purchase a small anvil that's very portable in case I ever do demonstrations.

I have to agree with everyone after my post. Try to talk the seller down. Glen brings up an important point too.....that stand might not be the right height for you so it could be useless at worst or you'd have to cut some off if it's too high, but if it's too low that's worse because now you have to build it up. It's kinda like looking at a car for sale. The seller can go on an on about the $600 high performance white letter tires on it, but in essence you really only car about the car and how it runs because the tires won't be much use if the car has engine problems. Same with the anvil stand. Plus they are easy to make. Approach some tree cutting services and I bet they'd be happy to get you a stump, just try not to get pine. Elm is the best, but both of mine are ash and work fine if I band them up to prevent severe splitting.

It looks like a good anvil, but don't take the person's word on the rebound. Take a steel ball bearing and test it yourself before shelling out that much money. Drop it from 10 inches and see if it gets 9 inch returns around different spots on the face. At almost $7 per pound it should be dang near perfect as you can buy brand new anvils - really nice ones - for that kind of cash. Normally $3-$4 per pound is a good price for a great anvil. If it were me, I'd try to get him or her to come down on the price. The stand is a huge plus and it looks like a nicely made one. 111 lbs is a little on the light side, but you are new so it should serve you for many years if you decide to buy it. A good shop size starts at about 150 lbs. What is meant by that is that you can do small work on a heavy anvil but it's not always possible to do heavy work on a light anvil. All depends on what you plan to forge.

Good points Slag, I always use gloves and do the AF treatment outside. I've found rubber gloves are not needed and that regular first aid type latex gloves are enough protection for this type of work. I wouldn't recommend ever using it indoors without ventilation or the right kind of mask. Sure works really well though.

Yes, aqua fortis is the best to use on curly anything. When we burned wood for heat a few years back, I got a lot of curly ash mixed in. I saved as much as I could. When using regular stains, they settle into the grain and disrupt seeing the curly pattern but aqua fortis doesn't do that and it turns out fabulous. You sir made an excellent looking knife!

It looks like it was half buried in the pig pen out back He'll have to really clean that face up good before testing the rebound because in it's current condition I bet you get 4 and 5 inch rebounds from 10 inches because of all the rust and crud when in fact it might return 8 or 9 once all cleaned up. I wish you the best of luck, it looks like a great anvil.

Just go get some bags of play sand at the hardware store. It's all clean and ready to go. You could even spread it out in the sun to dry it a little more.

I've been using a Diamondback blacksmith gas forge. It was my first forge starting out. It heats well and has the added advantage of the side door that opens so you just aren't limited to the slots in the ends. It's not a perfect forge, but has worked great for me for several years now. I really like the whole side opening up. It takes away some of the space problems you have when you just have an opening at each end. My last project was two doll stands to hold up my little girls' porcelain dolls. That's an odd shape that I wouldn't have been able to finish if I'd just had slots in each end. I've even used the door to open so I could put multiple small things in at once. You really couldn't do that with just the end slots. But.........it's like asking a guy what the best kind of shaver is for his morning shave. Each guy is going to give you a different opinion, so this is mine. You no doubt will receive plenty of guys telling you that you can save money building your own forge. They are right, but be prepared for a long time of tweaking to get the thing running correctly. If you like that sort of thing, then hey different strokes for different folks, but I loved just unboxing mine and hooking up the gas to start forging the same day. Do yourself a favor too and buy a 100 pound tank. The little ones used for gas grills will freeze up on you in about 2 hours which will end your forging for that day. Sure, there are ways to keep the tank from freezing which you can read about, but that's just one more thing that distracts you from forging. You'll be thankful you got the larger tank as they are around $100 at your local hardware store. My propane company fills mine up when they do the house tank. It's about $55 which is half the price of a hardware store fill-up.

I've always wanted to forge a mini anvil to put on a mini stump just to have as a desk decoration. Anyone here forge one out of mild steel?

Wow, that's better than the first things I forged. Great job. Have fun with it and your skills will improve as you make more things, but that's pretty darn good and very clean for a first ever forging. Don't buy your steel from Home Depot or the likes. I was in there just the other day and looked at their steel, $10 for a 6 ft piece I was looking to get. At my local steel supplier the same size piece is $10 for 20 ft!! Just bring something to cut the 20 ft section in the parking lot if it won't fit in your vehicle. I know what you are thinking...."Well I don't need 20 feet" Trust me, you'll use it. Scrap yards are great too. My last visit found me coming home with 40 pounds of steel for $10. Coil springs, steel rod, jack hammer bits, and hay rake tines. Of course that's all high carbon steel, but if it's just mild steel there's tons of it for the picking if the yard allows it. Some don't. If they don't, find a U-Pull it auto junk yard that allows people to go and pull their own parts. Go looking around and find good steel. You'll pay a little more, but still way less than home center big box stores.

I like the dark look. Reminds me of those old stumps that were in a blacksmith shop for 50 years and the scale / coal dust turns them black almost.

I'm more thinking about a solid bock of steel cut to fit with counter sunk lags holding it in. The lags may not be necessary if the fit is tight enough and a router is used to sink it into the wood stand. For good measure some clear silicone could even be used to dampen the sound and keep it in place.

Start with simple things, but make sure they are simple things you are interested in making as that just adds to the enjoyment. Hooks and racks are fun. Make a rack to hold your hammers or tongs. Make an S hook or a J hook. All those projects will teach you some skills as you get used to things. It's also worth your time to research proper hammer holding and swing techniques. Gripping too hard is a habit that if you never start will help you later on. There are lots of threads on here about this that were really helpful to me. Have fun above all things and be safe. Wear safety glasses always. A hot piece of scale in your eye could ruin your year and is easily preventable. Operate your gas forge safely in an area with continuous fresh air so you don't have a problem with carbon monoxide poisoning. Did I mention have fun?