glilley

Scott - I have a PW slightly heavier than yours (1-1-17)but same design: "Peter Wright Patent" without the words "Solid Wrought" in a circle near the name, a distinct seam where the base was forge welded to the upper anvil body and a flat "lip" running width-wise across the top of the feet. The odds are that your anvil was made sometime between 1852 and 1860. You have a working heirloom now - Work only hot metal on it and take care of it like any good tool and your great-great-grandkids will be using it to the envy of many.

Thanks a ton. I would not have thought it was that old but the face has certainly seen some use! It certainly does not say "England" on it. Did the general shape and how the base/feet look pin it?

Of course! I should've known better - here are the pics of side stright-on, oblique from the front and overall view.

Additional to above - I dusted the side of the anvil with talc powder to try and reveal more detail and also put paper over it and rubbed with a pencil but still don't see any indication of any part of the words "Solid Wrought". Can anyone, perhaps those with AOA, tell me if this might be a later production Peter Wright? Thanks for any help!

Have a Peter Wright that says "Peter Wright Patent" very clearly stamped, along witht the weight, but try as I might, cannot find "Solid Wrought" stamped anywhere on the side of the anvil. I vaugely recall reading that after a certain date they stopped using a wrought iron body and started using more modern mild steel for the body. Can anyone confirm this? Thanks.

It's not bad for an amateur-level anvil or a carry around for pro. I've been using a Cliff Carroll 125 for 2 years now and find it a decent anvil for most light-moderate work. Its 4 3/4" face gives some extra room and the turning cams on the side are handy for bending stock or making consistently-sized S-hooks; plus the graduated radius on the tapered heel works well for starting scroll tips. The face is 48-50 Rockwell C - not as hard as I would like it but adequate - and the horn is not as conical as I would want, it being a farrier anvil and all. This is not the anvil I wanted to get starting out but was able to get it new for almost nothing, so the price did a lot of the selling initially.

...Farrier-type not farier. I can a be a non-spelling dude sometimes.

Paddy - Thanks for getting back - thought that top-down shot looked familiar! I have the same and have had it for about 1/1/2 years. It is an excellent anvil for the price and has a good size waist compared to other fairer-type anvils. I find the cams handy for S-hooks and making bends in smaller stock and the graduated radius on the heel is perfect for starting scrolled tips and other small bends. I have worked stock up to 1 1/2 inch with a striker with no adverse effects on the face. Only dings it has is from my 4lb hand sledge before I got my hammer control set! I will be moving to a bigger anvil down-the-road but this one will still be in the smithy.

Paddy - your anvil looks like a Cliff Carroll #125. Is that what it is?

Done!

Sorry - ...maintain the width and height of stock and plug in appropriate depth values.

Thomas and DonPowers - This looks like what I'm looking for. Looks like you determine cubic inches of desired result (.5 * .5 * 1.5) and reverse engineer where you maintain the width of the stock and plug in appropriate values for the other dimensions. Thanks!

Making a replacement mailbox stand with post being 1" square solid and the cross bar (what mailbox will sit on) 1" x 1/2", all A36 using mortise/tenon construction. I have already punched/drifted the post 1/2" square to form the mortise and I intend to upset the 1" X 1/2" cross bar where it will join the post to create a good shoulder and butcher/swage part of it down to a 1/2" square tenon. Now, I know the tenon needs to be 1.5 times the length of the mortise (1" post so 1.5" in this case) but how do I determine what the dimensions of my upset need to be in order to provide enough material to draw out a 1/2" square tenon 1.5" long and still leave enough of a shoulder to provide support against the post? I feel confident I can eyeball it or get some clay and work it out but is there a formula one can use to determine dimensions of upset for size/length of tenon needed? Thanks!

One of my instructors wore prescription lenses and used a flip-up type (like flip-up sun glasses) to shield his eyes from the fire when forge welding. Does anyone know where one can find these type of glasses?

Frosty - my wife is certified as an Athletic Trainer, Massage Therapist in addition to being certified in Cranialsacral therapy and other alternative treatment modalities. What she would say reading this is smithing is an EXCELLENT way to regain funtions and skills lost through TBI because the employment of hand/eye/body motions, including use of the brain to plan/control/anticipate the outcome will greatly aid repairing neural damage. The short version is that your brain will sense that you are trying to accomplish something through the use of your body and being the human animal that we are it will assume that what you are doing is essential to its survival and will begin to allocate resources to making you as efficient at the task as it possibly can, hence the neural repairing/rerouting to reestablish hand-eye coordinate and muscle memory. The key at the beginning with our skill set is to BE SAFE while starting back into it and you appear to understand that getting a local smith to overwatch. Smith as often as you safely can and it will start coming back. Oddly, I've been told, getting pissed-off from time-to-time seems to help.

I wear mine around my neck on an old dog tag chain. I take it off before I start forge work because, even though its on my tong-hand, with the force needed to work most items it ends up swelling up the finger and cutting into the flesh at times. Anyway, very uncomfortable and unsafe. Watch comes off too it it happens to be on. Fortunately wife understands and would rather I keep as many fingers as I can.

Excellent Glenn - thank you for the pics! When I've thought of nail making it always seemed like a very neccessary but also very utilitarian smith skill set, but these help remind me that you can make "nails" that do more than just hold two pieces of wood together or keep a shoe on a horse's hoof.

Thanks everyone for your responses. Measured the square on my header and although I drilled it 3/16" it is almost at 1/4" after squaring, so went up to 5/16" and my nails head fine as long as I remember the "1 1/2 times width" rule when cutting off. Frank/Glenn I do draw out my nails like you recommended after see a .pdf I printed "Nail Making the Peter Ross Way" where it discribes same process. I'm a happy nail-maker now!

I've seen a couple of nail-making videos in past couple months and now that you mention it, it really does appear that first blow is more of a tap. In my response above, I think that I had just squared out the hole too large so that even a seating tap would probably not work. But, a pound of application is worth a ton of theory so when I get home will try 1/4 stock but with a couple of light taps to start.

I thought about this but noticed everytime I draw-down 1/4" and put in header it stops at where my taper begins - however when I think about it, if in the squaring process I made the hole just a tad under 1/4" square, then a hot and maliable nail would push on through when headed even though it stops at the start of the taper when I fit it in the header. Well there it is - I'd better use at least 5/16 or >. Glad its not my hammer technique.

Made a nail header from RR spike by flattening-down the lip of the spike head, leaving a slightly elevated, roundish end. Drilled a 3/16 hole, squared hole at top and beveled-out hole underneath so nail would not stick. Using 1/4" round I draw and taper, fit in header, cut approx 1/4" above where hail stops, twist off and start to head nail striking straight down. With this stock the still hot nail always starts working down through header unless I angle my first few blows well off-center and end up with a nail with an L-shaped head: perfectly functional but not pretty. Now, if I draw down 3/8" stock it still wants to start down the header but then stops and I am able to make a decent nail head with the nail more or less centered under the head. So - with the header I made is 1/4" stock a tad too small to use or am I starting my heading blows incorrectly? Thanks in advance for any observations!

bsiler - what anvil is that you are using?

USMC 1975 - 1995. First 8 years made it to SSgt as 2549, Comm Center Chief. Went to OCS under ECP and changed MOS to 2602, Sigint/EW officer. Had a blast pretty much the whole time in! Retired out of Quantico in Nov 95 and settled in Mount Olive, NC. Did tours in: Okinawa (3rd FSR) Iwakuni (ist MAW) Rota,Spain (Co B, MarSptBn - flew with VQ-2) Camp Pendleton (5th Mar/11 Mar) Quantico (OCS, TBS, CommO School, MACOTEA) Kaneohe Bay (1ST Radio Bn) NavBase Norfolk (HQ, FMFLant G2) Little Creek (4th MEB) Did the first Gulf War thing (Desert Shield, Desert Storm).

I had been interested in learning blacksmithing before I got around to attending a weekend class at John Campbell, but before I ever attended a class or picked up a cross pein I ordered this book and read it cover-to-cover. When I finally made it up to the class and was able to consisantly start/bank my fire, draw out and upset, put a reverse twist on a hay hook I made and use the hot-cut hardy correctly, all in first morning, the instructor found it hard to beleive that I had never banged iron before. When I told him I had read her book before coming up, he smiled and nodded his head and said "Well, that 'splains it!".