Dielonx5

Awesome information guys, yeah a friend is looking to buy and sent me this posting and it looked odd to be as well. Can't tell If its cast with a welded face or what haha. If interested I will.be going with him to check it for rebound, ring, and delamination. All the usuals. Thanks for the reply!

Attached is an image of an anvil for sale just above san diego county in my area. Its 117# and the seller is asking 350 for it. Seems like a good deal, but he gives no other information on the anvil. Is anyone familiar with this anvil or knows the maker/quality? Thank you in advance for your help!

Haha yeah and I haven't even thought of a dradt/hood design yet! Probably won't worry about that until I upgrade the forge lol. Definitely can get in your head designing something trying to over complicate it. Happens way too often lol

Haha yeah I can understand that! I'm stoked to have the basics set up to forge. Just the vise left to mount

Awesome yeah that makes sense for charcoal. Build a structure to fit the size of fire you are intending to use. The bottom of my bowl is a 4 inch square with the 1inch depth below the lowest point of the tuyere to catch the clinker and slag. The diagonal leading to the 8inch square top are pretty steep so hopefully that helps focus the fireball in the center of the pot. I'm stoked to get the forge fully fired up. The coal should be here by Thursday! Now to get some stock in the mean time!

I have some coal coming soon and will give the forge a proper firing once it arrives and we will see what happens haha. Fire extinguisher at the ready...just kidding I'm sure it will be okay I'm just a little paranoid. The highest heat point won't be at the bottom and once there is more ash and coal there will be better insulation. Was thinking of doing straight walls but the firepots I've worked with have been angled and I wanted the tuyere to blow air into the bottom center, it is still flush with clay but the layers above taper to an opening of about 2 inches wider than the depth of the tuyere

I'm guessing that the bottom layer of wood creating the box becoming warm/hot to the touch is normal? I just made a small fireto test out the completed forge and noticed the bottom board beneath the fore was barely noticeably warm, but I only had it to orange heat for maybe 20 minutes. I may add a 1/2" to the bottom of the pot because I am a little paranoid but the bottom should be 2" off the deck. Also, my fire pot edge extends about two inches at a diagonal over the tuyere, this should be okay right? I'm assuming the adobe mixture will insulate the pipe enough

Thanks for the input on the anvil MC Hammer! (I like the name haha!) Luckily the edges are pretty sharp, but radiused, for most of the anvil. There really is only like 2 or 3 dents on the anvil in one spot, and the face is quite flat actually. I was noticing that the pitch of the anvil was a little more dull on the step, but as I was reading another post another mentioned that this area isn't hardened - which makes sense! The horn sings like no other..and the heel..man its as loud as a church bell haha. I really like that flat surface anvil. Super practical and easy! Nice piece to use as a portable anvil as well!

oh yeah was planning on buying a 3/4" pipe, I was noting that a 2" thick bottom layer on the JABOD sounds good as far as insulation so the wood box doesn't burn and my fire drops out of the bottom haha! But yeah, a 2" tuyere would be awesome! Would definitely get a FD call to the house though because that fire would be raging hahaha. Word thanks frosty! Appreciate the note about it not being too bad to burn off. That was my concern haha..burning the plastic coating of the black pipe. But I suppose only a small amount will burn off anyway. Well I have the box built. Just need to raid a construction site or collect beach sand and buy some cat litter

Awesome! Thank you all for your replies. HD did have black piping I was just unsure about the coating on the outside of the pipe and it with with fire. Will pick some of that up! 2 inches thick sounds pretty solid! Just wasnt to be super safe is all (: Word. Keep it simple! After all, it's just a box of dirt. I think I will start with coal for now and look into making charcoal but you're right. The doom looking yellow smoke.and it's smell might cause more fright than the smell of a campfire haha

Charles, Thank you so much for your detailed reply! I appreciate it so much! Yes I figured as much as charcoal, not briquettes. Knowing that those were full of filler and how we want as little "Stuff" clogging up our airway which fuels the fire! I haven't looked everywhere yet, but I was surprised that my local Home Depot only seemed to have galv piping. Any suggestions on where to look for non-galv pipe? My next idea was just to check the steel shop that would sell stock I need to buy anyway. Definitely not planning on hitting metal much bigger than 1", if even that haha - especially getting into spring/tool steels. Only hand hammering over here! So, a massive fire is not needed as you have mentioned. I am actually super glad you mentioned the note about coal and clay. I was planning on building the firepot from clay and filling the rest of the box with a make-shift adobe fill (cat litter and sand or something) because I want to have a structure that will surely not burn through the box haha. On that note, what would be a solid amount of layer beneath the fire pot to insulate the frame? I was thinking about 1.5" of fill which would meet the bottom of the fire pot - and continue to shape from there. Could cat litter be used as a substitute for the 1/3 clay to 2/3 sand? On the topic of clinker, do you see any danger of coals/burning things to accidentally get into the tuyere when taking out clinker? (this would be in the event that there was enough build up in one day that clinker would need to be removed while the fire pot is hot?

Hahaha wouldn't that be amazing. I'll just have to bring my work into the kitchen then and yell "hot" every minute or so to not burn anyone. I suspect I would lots of working heat though. Sigh...just need to nab another!

That makes sense, would burn similarly to a coal fire? Would the process of making charcoal put off a decent amount of smoke? I've seen charcoal being made primitively using a method of creating a mud mound, and I have seen the method of basically "boiling" the wood lol - by that I mean the wood is cooked in a closed container with constant fire underneath. The latter method seemed to product a lot of smoke haha

lol yeah we cant really just have a a fire on the beach here and most of the pits are taken up that are at beaches that have them, which is few. Don;t know that the neighbors would appreciate my making charcoal in this suburban neighborhood either, unfortunately :/ never thought of buying clay bodies from a studio or seller! That is a good idea! thank you (:

Wow that is cool news! pre-WWII, that is fantastic! Haha yeah I dont think mounting the vise for kitchen use is part of the decor the wife would want lol!

Understood sorry for the language didn't realize newbies these days...sheesh!

California in general haha. And I'm not just talking about anvils anymore

Haha i read that more than a few times and seems so weird to use cat litter, but it is what it is. and what it is, is clay - and cheap!

I think I get the tone of the responses which is to just use the thing! HEARD! Oh and that trying to fix an anvil usually does more harm, and that I really had no intentions of doing any work to the face as I have no experience and wouldn't put my FIRST anvil through such a horrifying experience haha. I appreciate your input Mr. Powers! Thank you for your input Marc (: For now just learning the basics of blacksmithing and plan on honing those skill son simple projects like fire pokers, various tongs, light tooling, and maybe some ornamentals. It is hard for me to always attend the monthly courses offered through the CBA because of my work schedule, so having a set up at home will allow me to get more forging days in while learning to basic skills from solid teachers. Again, thank you!

Yeah it is defintely not a knotted brush. After watching Joey Van Der Steeg's review on wire brushes, I ordered a butchers block wire brush. I am looking to have a friend help me clean this vise up along with an anvil I just bought and he has a wire brush attachment for an angle grinder I think. Thank you for your input SLAG, I am really happy with this tool. It is in excellent shape and I like the character on the inside of the jaw! So amazing that these tools are in such quality shape so many years later. The history... P.S. when do you think this vise was made? No indication of a date being stamped on it. I read that columbian's with chamfered edges was a newer design as earlier forgings would have had sharp edges - if I am correct. But how long ago was "newer" haha I live coastal so it stays humid all year, of course the levels change throughout the year. Also, the salty air tends to do some work on metal here. Luckily we live a bit inland so it doesn't seem to do much damage. I don't have BLO, I usually just use plain. I realize this takes longer to dry, but I like having less chemicals around I suppose. Or something like that,,

I pretty much just fell in love with the JABOD design. Super low barrier to entry with this set up and works just fine hey? So my question is materials for fill. I live coastal and was wondering if beach sand mixture of some sort, to give it shaping ability, would suffice as fill for this type of forge design. My choice of fuel would probably be bituminous coal, pretty sure there is a place within a few hours drive to get 50# @ 35 which is cheap for my area. Not sure if charcoal would be cheaper? Not really in a location to make it myself. We do have tons of clay in the area, San Diego, but it is hard to find a place where it is legal to dig...

Yeah for sure looks that way! Any way to repair it, or better off just letting it be? Black Frog, I will definitely post pictures of it once I get it all cleaned up! Going to a friends soon, he has the tools to ease the process (:

Mr. Glenn, I am picking up what you are putting down. Probably a response I was least expecting, but the most fulfilling. I admire your thought process, critique, and wisdom!

So, I just picked up this anvil the other day, was able to score this piece and a vise in the same day, after I have been looking around for a while. Here in San Diego, blacksmithing equiptment can be few and far between, so I jumped on an opportunity when I could. After looking the piece over for quite a while, I was able to find out that this is a 75# Trenton anvil. Knowing this brand has a good reputation definitely piqued my interest in this anvil more. The edges on both sides are in really good shape (the one side has a few dents), the anvil has probably around an 85-90% rebound or more (I did some testing with a hammer so not quite as precise as a bearing), and it rings like all hell consistently across the face (which means, from what I have read, that there is no separation of the steel plate from the wrought body). The hardy and pritchel are both in solid condition, and, aside from a some denting on the face, the surface of the anvil is flat and smooth. (P.S. is the denting on the surface plate a concern? I would imagine it was caused by someone hitting the plate full force....) This anvil seems to have been seldom used, if at all. Looks more like someone just wanted to hit the anvil! I mean I can appreciate that, but leaving dents!!!! Upon a little more inspection, I noticed a but of unconsolidated forge welding at the base of the horn, will this pose an issue? Seems similar to the distinction between the tool steel plate and the wrought...so I am assuming (and hoping) that this is just cosmetic and shouldn't render an issue with use. I paid $350 for this anvil. I know that is a bit more than other parts of the country /# but when I add shipping to the anvils that are more readily available...it's kind of a wash anyway. Let me know what you guys think of the purchase! Thanks much, Dylan

Awesome! I think a friend of mine has that! I was asking if you think a hand butcher block wire brush would damage it. Seems like it might. Ah okay so just oil up the working gears rather than, or at least is not needed, on the rest of the vise? Thank you so much for your comments, I really am super new and don't know a whole lot. So, forgive me for all of my questions XD