Chelonian

I haven't had any issues, and I'm happy that I repaired it. The 4140-ish steel also has been plenty hard enough for my use.

Thanks! I used two pieces of tine. One is horizontal acting as the face of the heel, and the other is angled at around 30 degrees below the first. Looking back I'm not sure if that was the most efficient arrangement, but it ensured all the welds were full penetration.

Recently I designed and 3D printed an air gate and adapter for an electric blower. It has worked well so far.

That's a very nice anvil! My Wilkinson anvil has an upward-sloping horn, but to a lesser extent.

Thanks Frazer! Yes the tail does sit against the wall.

I gave it a go! I decided to try making a small hook rack for keys from a single piece of 1/2" round. It was pretty fiddly at times and there are definitely some things I would do differently if I made another one, but I wanted to try something totally new to me for the contest.

Here is a link to the method: https://www.anvilmag.com/smith/anvilres.htm I used this method when I repaired the heel of my anvil, and had good results (although I avoided welding on the face as much as possible): I don't think welding just around the perimeter will give you good results. There will always be a small air gap in between the plate and what's left of the anvil face. I think building up the face is a much better option, although it will be a lot of work and the rods are quite pricey.

Personally I prefer a crowned (convex) face over a dead flat one. They were very often were manufactured crowned since it has some advantages.

It's totally fine. Don't worry about the shiny spots.

Those don't look too bad to me! I always find it interesting to see the tongs I've made and how they've evolved. Here are pretty much all the ones I've made, more or less in chronological order from right to left. I still use some of the earlier ones occasionally.

I certainly plan to go to the Fitchburg Forge In! Will you be demonstrating there this year? I probably will not make it to the NEB meet since college classes will have started again. That older hammer also looks excellent!

Very nice looking hammer! I really like the pattern you chose.

I didn't want the mold to come back so I pretty much charred the whole handles, although not that deeply. All the non-charred handles that grew mold had linseed oil on them, so I don't think it does a very good job at protecting the wood, at least from this species of mold. The mold hasn't ever been a problem previous years though, and if your shop isn't in a cool and humid underside of a barn it probably isn't needed.

Nice tomahawks! When it comes to hammer handles, I char them mostly for mold protection. After this very cool and damp spring/summer, I noticed all the non-charred handles were growing mold, but none of the charred ones were. I ended up charring all my hammer handles after that.

It's almost definitely forged. The cast anvils made later by Brooks had letters cast protruding from the anvil and their pattern changed a little. (not my photo)

A hot forge does also emit UV. Since the coals are effectively black body radiators, a significant portion of the energy radiated from a white hot coal is in the UV range. The hotter the radiating object, the shorter wavelength light is emitted. Polycarbonate very effectively blocks UV, but does not significantly block most wavelengths in the IR range.

Two pairs of tongs I made recently:

Update: It's holding up fine so far. The heaviest work I've done on the heel is drifting a couple hammer eyes with a 6lb hammer in the hardy hole.

Very nice. I have a Wilkinson and I like it a lot.

It's certainly a great anvil no matter the exact weight.

I agree it looks like a Peter Wright. Looks like a good anvil to me.

That is one impressive repair job. Looks like a great anvil.

Can many people here forge ambidextrously? Whenever I've tried, it feels really clumsy for both my hammer hand and tong hand.

I like the idea of a wood handle as well. Check out this design by Phoenix Forge. It does require some splitting and drawing out, but because of the clever use of flat bar and twisting it 90 degrees, it looks like it could be made fairly efficiently.

Have you seen this design? (not my image): I don't know how ergonomic it would be, but it would not require any forge welding or splitting so it might be worth a try making one. I also saw an example where the end of the handle loop was forge welded back into itself to make a closed loop.