Brasilikilt

Ohh yes, the addiction has already taken root!
I might as well be injecting coal dust and wrought iron particles in my veins

I should clarify....the wood pile isn't NEXT to where my smithy will be, it's sitting right on top of where the forge, anvil and post vise will be.

I had an idea to expand my "10'x12' Tuff shed (the yellow wall in the background) out 8 feet into this area, but for now I will try to move the firewood into the yard trailer and perhaps scrounge up some lumber to make some type of roof and enclosure to see me through the winter.

I plan on mounting the post vise to an old railroad tie that's buried upright in the ground, or something different if anyone has a better suggestion

Ohhh I also don't have everything yet........I have hammers, a good anvil tongs.......What's missing?????

Thanks for looking

Iain out

Greetings and Salutations

I've written quite a few posts since this last Spring regarding my quest for an anvil, tools etc

I just recently mounted my 180 lb Trenton on a fir stump and gathered up from the shed and garage most of the odds and ends I've acquired.

I know that there's not much here, and still it has taken quite a bit of combing through the weeds in order to put this rust-covered assortment together, and none of it has been cheap!



You can see the large pile of firewood in the background that my Grandfather was nice enough to deliver.
It's unfortunate that the most convenient and least unsightly place in the whole yard to store this wood is the future site of my smithy

Anyways, thanks to all of you for giving me so much useful advice The purchase of just about everything here was influenced and/or inspired by this forum in one way or another.

Thanks for looking

Iain

Hey Samuel

PM sent

I first saw that forge design a couple years ago and have always admired the concept behind it.
I will most likely end up building one, and seeing yours is just motivating me to get it done sooner :-)

I know the design is intended mainly for blade smithing, but how do you think it would work for general black smithing?

Dang, I wish I had known about the Blacksmith's swap meet!

I was in Key Center, Wa buying my anvil on the 25th

Anyways, is it just a once a year thing?

Wow, good lookin' out.
I already have my post vise, so I'll leave it for someone who needs one.
I paid about the same amount for mine :-)

Hey, this guy is in Pennsylvania

ANVILSFORSALE - ANVILS FOR SALE

He always has all kinds of anvils for sale......don't know how close he is to you though

Happy hunting, and be prepared to troll Craigslist every chance you get, even in areas that may seem a little far out of the way.

Yep, I got it

It was quite a long haul to get there.
Portland Oregon up into the Puget Sound area of Washington near Gig Harbor......around 170 miles.
At least the weather was nice and it was at times a very scenic drive.

It's a 178# Trenton

My birthday is Friday, so maybe this one is meant to be mine....... The guy wants $400, but asked if $350 is acceptable to him, no answer yet.

What do you guys think about the crack in the weld between the top and bottom? Better than most I've seen around here, I really hope he goes down on the price a bit.

thanks for looking

Iain

Anvillian should be the Nostradamus of blacksmith tools

I just found a #178 Trenton that's kinda dinged-up on the edges, but still usable. The guy selling it was nice enough to tap it with a hammer so I could hear it ring over the phone....sounded like a bell.

My wife thought that the anvil search would be over after I got the little 70 lb Vulcan, so she *really* doesn't like the idea of me getting another.

She doesn't understand that the difference between the two is like the difference between a Vespa and a Harley Davidson.

The little Vulcan anvil DOES have a ring to it, and some rebound. It should make a nice travel anvil if I decide to keep it.

How close are you to Molalla or Forest Grove? There are cheap anvils listed on craigs list at both of those towns.

There is a 75# anvil in Lillian, AL, and a 90# hay Budden in Jasper, AL.
There is a 169# Hay Budden in Ashland Or.

Hey all

After seriously combing through the weeds for a good anvil to buy, I've gotten rather frustrated with the results.

Thanks to all of you who have helped with advice and/or offered to sell me their extra anvils, but shipping from back east is too expensive.

I've been going through past threads on here looking at cheap, and easy to build home made anvil designs and have come up with many ideas. I haven't decided exactly what style I want to make, but it will have to be unique if I am to spend so much time and energy putting it together.

A lot of this depends on the size/shape steel I can find for the body

I'm thinking that a piece of mild steel (which I have been told has similar qualities as wrought iron) with a tool steel face welded on as a striking surface should serve quite well.

I was thinking about using a section of forklift fork, but that might prove to be tricky to find around here.

The MetalSupermarkets around here has a wide selection of tool steel on their website

I was wondering as to what would be the best choice of steel to use as an anvil face

They have A2, A6, D2, H13, M2, NAK55, 01, P20, S5

I know that tool steel can be tough stuff to work with, so material that isn't crazy difficult to weld or grind on is preferred.

Any hints, tips, suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Iain

This thread is going to be helpful for me since I am thinking about shipping an anvil cross country.

I will look into UPS freight........all the FEDEX online quotes are looking to be more expensive than the anvil itself!

Hey All

I went to Metro Metals NW and was told by the gate attendant that people aren't allowed outside of their vehicles while in the yard, but if I saw something I liked that I could tell him and he would grab it.

That arrangement is hardly ideal for a scrounger, but could be considered an option if there's nothing else.

Are there any good scrap yards in Portland that let you stroll the grounds and dig around for the good stuff?

thanks

Iain

Darn, if you lived around here, I have more than a few brake drums laying around that I would donate to a new blacksmith acquaintance

Thingmaker

Are you talking about that rather large Viking fellow in Oak Grove?

The person wrote me back and they still have it.
They are moving and haven't had the time to take pictures........

I was hoping to possibly pick it up this weekend......

Here's who I think is the most adorable blacksmith ever

Unfortunately I had to bribe her with a Popsicle in order to pose for this picture, but I think it's well worth it.

If nothing else, I hope that the things I teach her will cause any potential boyfriends to think twice about being less than ungentlemanly towards her in the future :-)

Recently I visited the shop of a local blacksmith who's work I had been admiring for quite a while.
While he doesn't have enough work to keep an apprentice busy, He was generous enough to talk to me about where to go to get experience.

It turns out that the first place where I stopped coming back from his place, I spoke with the owner of a metal gate/railing fabricator and explained to him my difficulties getting my foot in the door.

Luckily he agreed to take me on a part-time basis, so for a week I have been cleaning his shop, doing some grinding and doing an occasional weld.

I initially offered to work for no pay, but be compensated with training, a good resume reference and a chance to use his equipment from time to time. He insisted that I accept "a couple hundred bucks a week" because he doesn't want anybody working for nothing.

I graciously accepted, and have been working my tail off trying to clean up his rather disorganized shop :-)

Take it from me, show a hungry enthusiasm, willingness to do the grunt work and show up when they ask you to, and you might find a business owner willing to take you on.

You can use a 15 lb section of RR track, a large sledge hammer head mounted in a stump, a 4"x4" block of mild steel etc etc

For blade smithing, you will do fine with something 10-20 lbs, mounted securely into a stump.
Saw maker's anvils are typically just a block of good steel, The Neo Tribal bladesmiths like a 4"x4" piece of mild plate secured in a bucket of concrete
Of course if you plan on forging swords or battle axes, something larger and wider will do better.

Lol @ phillip hehe

You know there is one silver lining in all this hard to find anvil business. It may make smiths turn to new Anvils, save up a summers or twos worth of cash before purchase. It may make new smiths more serious about the investment in anvils and it will help those who are working on making superior brand new anvils stay afloat in these hard times.

I look at it this way, if foundry's stop making new anvils (because of expense or lack of demand) and the old anvils (those in any kind of decent condition) start getting harder to find then the price of anvils are going to skyrocket out of rarity. Also the diversity of anvil manufacturers will narrow down to even fewer sources then there are today. Perhaps this is an indication that it's really time to start supporting these businesses who are desperately trying to keep the industry alive for the backyard/small shop blacksmith.

http://medford.craigslist.org/tls/1244042161.html

Is it this one?
Ashland is towards the bottom of Oregon and I am at the very top.
I punched it up on mapquest, and figured that it would be about 10 hrs driving time, and the fuel cost would be about $55

It is quite nice :-)

It is a bit far. There is a 140 pounder of unknown make that is about 2 hrs from me which I don't know if it has been sold yet, because they person hasn't written me back for a few days and hasn't sent any photos.

I might wait and see what becomes of that opportunity, but will write the Hay Budden guy to see what he says.

Thanks for the tip!

Thanks for all the input, some very good points have been made which have helped me put things into perspective.

While I am still basically in the beginning stages of blacksmithing, I had made up my mind a long time ago that I wanted a *real* anvil.
I already have a railroad track anvil, a 4"x4" chunk of mild steel, a 3" chunk of round stock/sledge hammer head set upright in a stump.

All of these things worked, and I will keep them for possible modification into specialty tools as the need arises, but I have money left over from an educational award which I am using to pay for this anvil and other tools, so why not buy an actual anvil?

I don't like this anvil because it's old. I've seen anvils from the 1500's and 1600's that I didn't like that much.
I like this anvil because it's thick in the waist and isn't too thin out into the hardy hole area (heel??)
It has a nice mass of metal under the striking area which I have heard helps to put a bit more resistance against your hammer blows AND it fits into my anvil budget.

The fact that it's almost 200 years old merely appeals to my historical interests, and if all of my tools are antique, used, rescued from the trash and refurbished or made by me.

I can't afford to buy a reproduction of an anvil from the 1700's, I don't have the equipment or gang or strikers you would need to make one.

After seeing how a guy on this forum did it, I've actually given serious consideration to the thought of using 4" mild steel plate, using a cutting torch to burn it into shape, and then using a wire welder to secure a length of fork from a lift-truck to the top as a striking face.
A lot of work, eh?
If I had the means to do it, I would.
That's why the thought of using hard-facing rod to lessen the sway in the face of this anvil doesn't seem that bad.

Does anyone live in the same area as him , and could set up an appointment to check everything out?

I think you guys need to spend less time complaining about anvil collectors, a little less time complaining on this forum, and a little more time looking for them and maybe then you will find one!
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In my search for anvils I have had encounters with ****,
I had some lady try to convince me that a 110 lb Vulcan was brought over on the Oregon trail.
I also had some guy in an antique store start yelling at me and almost chase me out of his store with a broom handle when I pointed out that his "really nice" anvil was a harbor freight aso that looked as though it had been dragged behind a truck for several hours.

I've put the word out there, asked everyone I know, cruised garage sales, ebay, craigslist.

I hear murmurings that there's a guy in the area with 7 anvils for sale....he still hasn't bothered to contact me.

There's a 140# for sale a few hours drive from me, but the guy still hasn't sent any pictures.

I will still keep looking.

I still want to kick this anvil-hoarding guy in the head