picker77

Hmm.... a small thing, but pretty weird.

Not a bad idea, I'll keep that in mind. And I have a newbie curiosity question: Re all those zillions of what look like chisel marks all over the body of this anvil - easy to see in those last two photos above - what caused those? Are they from actual use/wear, or is that from the casting process? If the marks were concentrated in a few areas, I'd think it was from some repetitive process, but hard to understand why they are so evenly distributed. I thought maybe a power chipping hammer type tool to do stress relief after the casting cooled, but maybe that's a reach, ha.

Lol! That's definitely gonna happen soon as I get this little forge built! I'm trying to come up with (copy, steal,...) ideas from other folk's builds, it needs to be either sort of one-piece, or at least on wheels, to be able to move it around and in/out of the shop. I'm heading to junk dealers today to see if I can find a piece of light wall 10" tubing. Thinking 2 layers of wool, each rigidized, plus ITC coating, with a high alumina kiln shelf floor. Would also like to have a front door with access port and a port in the back wall for long stock. Still in the pencil stage. All I have so far is a bunch of ideas and a pair of Frosty's T-burners made by following his PDF.

Here's the "cleaned up and ready to work" version

I plan to do exactly that, soon as I get my home built 2-burner built. My two “Frosty model” T-burners are finished, starting on the shell & insulating next.

Thanks, Frosty, that makes me feel better about it, I hope you’re right. I was casting a skeptical eye on that one edge (the top view shows it best) with that thin sliver of metal several inches long that’s separated from the main face. I have to admit, though, that under very close inspection it doesn’t resemble a weld bead, so I’m going with it!

Well, Duh! Thanks Steve, that should have been more obvious if I'd thought about it a minute, ha.

Been looking around my neck of the woods for a while, enough to know there aren't going to be any real "bargain" buys on a good quality anvil, with prices pretty much through the roof, even on beat up junk. But today I ran across a 100 lb Kohlswa that some idiot in the distant past had tried to repair the left side's chipped edge. Other than that I really liked the looks of this anvil, but figured the face was probably ruined from the repair attempt. However, when I bounced a BB around on it many times in many places, darned if it didn't have approximately 80% rebound everywhere from just in front of the hardy hole the length of the face, even right alongside that ill-fated attempted "repair" that had been tried on left edge. Around the heel behind the hardy hole & pritchel rebound averaged about 70%. Light 16 oz hammer blows displayed very springy rebound all over the face forward of the hardy hole. Surprisingly, the face is dead flat fore and aft and athwartships, and except for edge chipping, is in relatively good condition, and the horn is not bad. There is a very light/faded number "45" (painted?) above the Kohlswa/Sweden brand (see the yellow highlight), but other than that I see no markings or numbers at all. Anybody know what "45" means? Bottom line, I worked a deal at $4 a pound with fingers crossed, hoping I wasn't making a big mistake. I have looked at MANY anvils in this size range, usually either beat to crap (for $500 and up!) or, if in even reasonably decent shape, $700 or more, and I have to admit I kinda wanted a Swedish anvil but could never afford one in nice shape, especially one of the larger ones, and that was probably a "buy" factor. I'm going to use it a few months and see how it works out. Hammer taps ring only around the heel, forward of the hardy hole it's more of a click or sharp clank like my home brew D2 steel anvil sounds. Opinions welcome, shields are up and fingers crossed. Everybody's always saying "we want more pictures!!", so here ya go. I have even more detail views if anybody is interested.

Heard the "JABOD" term a few times on here, never really looked into it. Finding clayey dirt is never a problem in Oklahoma. Seems I read on here that Royal Oak brand chunk charcoal works better than regular grocery store backyard grill charcoal. Pretty sure I saw Royal Oak stacked up for sale at Lowe's a few days back. Hmm.... the wheels are beginning to turn. I'll start looking into the jabod threads and see what develops.

Pretty sure it's a bit tall to allow that, so I'll likely have to adjust it after I try it out more. I think it would have been just about perfect without the casters, but they work so well I don't regret putting them on. I really need to find a forge before I do much more. Been reading & drooling over the Centaur catalog, probably a bad thing for a retired newbie on fixed income to do, heh. I currently heat blade stock with a torch/rosebud, not exactly ideal but it's what I have till I zero in on a gas forge.

Right now the anvil itself is sitting directly on top of the 4x4 (there is a 1/8" pad of hard neoprene rubber glued to the top of the 4x4). The bottom of the 4x4 is sitting on a welded stud in a 1/2" deep puddle of asphalt roofing cement. Sticky, but never really hardens. This anvil is probably as quiet as it's possible for an anvil to be, even without sand. It doesn't ring, it just clicks, and it will bounce a light hammer blow right back at me. 39" comes to just above my wrist bone. Guess I'll find out pretty quickly through use if it needs lowering. OTOH, I'm not going to pound this thing 14 hours a day making plow shares and wagon tongue braces either. It will get relatively light, intermittent use.

Glad to hear that, Frosty. Seemed like everybody loads sand in everything under and around an anvil including the legs, so I guess I thought that was the thing to do. And Irondragon, thanks for the illumination, hadn't considered bits & pieces dropping down the black hole, which could cause a major headache. I think I'll saw a loose-fitting ring out of 3/4" plywood that would just drop over the anvil and rest on that first tier of adjusting bolts. As for height, it's 39" overall right now. Original plan was 36", which would probably have worked better, but I added 2" when I put casters under the base plate, and then, following the law of "you can't cut some on", I left the 4x4 a tad long. My "knuckle" height is a bit over 34" (I'm just shy of 6'4"). I knew the anvil grew some during the making, but figured if after trying it out it was uncomfortable to work on I could trim the top of the 4x4. Of course, any trim exceeding 1-1/2" or so would probably require torching a little off the top of the 6" pipe to maintain working clearance. I may not be that great at MIG welding and torches, but I'm hell on a fast horse with an angle grinder lol. I will likely add a small 3 or 4 hammer rack down low. I even briefly considered welding on a piece of heavy wall 3/4" ID tubing on the back side of the pipe near the top for a wanna-be hardy hole, but so far can't see how hardy tools could be much help in knifemaking. Excuse my mixing topics here, but do you guys think a couple of those Vaughan hammers at around $20 a pop are reasonably decent starters for newbies like me, or would I be just as well off the at Home Depot or Lowe's for Chinese specials? Anyway, thanks for the comments and suggestions!

Well, this thing is essentially finished, with a couple of minor modifications from the original sketch. It's 120 lb give or take a few, but I haven't added the sand yet, not sure if I will or not. I'd just as soon not, unless there's a good reason. Takes up almost no real estate in the shop, and it's surprisingly stable on it's feet and easy to push around the shop, as long as I grab the anvil top and always push only in the direction of the wheels. Because it's a heavy, narrow-footed tripod, I added a couple of "safety stops" at the front corners that are 1/4" shorter than the front 2x2 leg. Keeps it from tipping very far even if I push it in the wrong direction. The D2 face feels good to pound on, I heated up a couple of pieces of strap and beat them around some, and the face feels absolutely solid when struck, and gives nice "feedback" to a hammer. For knife work I'm hoping this will do the trick. I did some rounding on advice of a couple of the Curmudgeon clan, might do more but want to use it a while before I do anything non-recoverable to it. However, I still need to find a couple of hammers. All I have is a 1 lb cross pein, a couple of small & medium sledges, and a hefty 3-1/2 lb straight pein that belonged to my grandfather and is probably older than me. Being still in forging boot camp I don't need $120 hammers to start with, probably will look to a 2 lb Vaughan for starters. Now on to finding a forge. For several reasons, not the least of which is resale value, I'm leaning toward a turn-key commercial unit like the NC Knifemaker or similar. Please don't choke on the colors - I had some green engine enamel and some Rustoleum left over from another job and I'm too cheap to throw leftovers away.

Thanks, Irondragon, for the links. The tine TP used to make his are clearly thicker and heavier than the ones I saw yesterday, obviously from a BIG lift truck, plus the ones I saw didn't have the round stock at the top, just had simple hooks at the back. Although there's probably no such thing as a "skinny" fork tine, I doubt the ones I saw would be thick enough to be useful to repeat TP's design without stacking and welding together, which I'd kinda like to avoid. PNUT: Thanks - You're right, and following the advice of you and others I've already abandoned the HT idea!

As Richard Boone said to John Wayne: "Ain't it the awful truth!"

I take it PPE is "Personal Protective Equipment", as in hard hat, glasses, and gloves... There is no doubt "new" tool steel prices can cause knees to go weak. The little piece of 4-1/2" D2 round I'm using for this project would have been about $40 per inch or about $400 plus shipping, if ordered online from one of the big guys like Speedy Metals. Off the "drops and cuts rack" locally it was about a fifth of that, including trimming up one end, so I had no complaints at all. But Frosty is correct, free is much better, ha. Yesterday I walked by a couple of discarded forks lying in the dirt at a local scrap/salvage place, didn't ask about price but I'd bet it would have been pretty cheap. Not sure what steel lift forks are made from, but because of the lawyers I'm pretty sure they would have to be good quality, albeit still mystery steel.

Thanks to the Curmudgeon Tag Team for that welcome advice, and believe me, I'll be glad to follow it! A fine application of "if it ain't broke don't fix it". Thanks, Gentlemen. And Chris, I'm keeping a weather eye out. Also, I'll PM you re wood. PS: Thanks, TP for the ideas on the radius, hadn't occurred to me to use two or three different radii around the edge. I think I'll do that.

This little build is about done (with a pair of small non-swivel casters included, thanks to the sage advice of Mr. Thomas and other's advice). But before I start beating on the end of this piece of D2 shafting, I need some advice regarding heat treating D2. I have little experience with high-end tool steels, and non in HT of larger pieces of steel. For tools, I have the usual MIG and O/A torch rigs, a 6-gallon bucket of vermiculite, 2x72 grinder, full set of test files, canola oil, and a toaster oven that regulates fairly well up to about 550. Unfortunately, my personal HT experience and knowledge, especially for large/thick stock like this, would fit in a thimble. So: First, does chunk form D2 need HT at all for my intended use of light forging and knife making? Hoping the answer is no, but if it does, should I attempt to surface HT the working face using tools on hand? If the answer is it requires professional "full" HT, there are a couple of local shops that CAN do it, but not sure they'd be willing to mess with a job this small - and even if they would it might be prohibitively costly. I noticed one shop even advertises it has three large ovens, the largest of which can handle objects the size a pickup truck and up to 40' long. Lastly, would it be of benefit in forging to radius part of the sharp shoulder of the working face? So, before I call this project done, can someone chime in with HT advice? Thanks!

Yeah, like most folks I also have a couple of hand trucks - in line with the KISS principle I probably ought to just use one of those. But then I tend to overthink and overbuild everything. The first 48" x 24" coffee table I made back in the day we still use in the den, mainly because it has a nice big chess board built into the top, but also because I can put my feet on it watching football without attracting incoming fire, heh. But it takes both of us to move it if the wife wants to vacuum.

Thanks, Thomas. It so happens I have a 1/2" axle and a couple of 6" lawnmower-style wheels leftover from another project. I had considered wheels when drawing this up, but was afraid it might end up too top-heavy to safely move on wheels, so was figuring on "walking" it in zig-zag fashion to move it. However, I doubt the whole thing will exceed 120 lb, so maybe that's not as much of a worry as I thought.

Shop room is tight, shared with a tractor and a truck, plus several mowers. As a result, most of my machinery is on casters. I don't have the floor space for a permanent anvil location, at least not inside the shop, so I need a knife work anvil that is sort of "moveable" so I can walk/drag it over to a corner when not in use. I want to make use of a 9" x 4-1/4" chunk of round D2 shafting for the actual anvil, supported on top of a length of 4x4 dropped inside a piece of heavy wall 6" oilfield pipe, with the whole thing held vertical inside the pipe, surrounded with fine sand. Base would be a 12" square 3/8 mild steel plate on 1/8" tabs to create kind of a "tripod" base to avoid wobble, since my shop floor is not perfectly flat in some places. Attached is a sketch of this proposed rig. I'm new at all this, so I'd appreciate any constructive (or even non-constructive) comments before I fire up my cutting torch and start doing things that might be hard to undo.

Well, dang. Just once I'd like to be smarter than this computer. Thanks, Frosty. Nope, you can leave us off the prayer list for now, we got a LOT of rain the past few days (over 12") in the general Oklahoma City area, but we lucked out with only about 7" at our little hideout in the woods. Gonna be a while before I can get the tractor out, though. Everything is really soft. Taking your and others advice about simple beginner anvils, I picked up a 10" piece of round 4-1/4" diameter D2 tool steel today for a fair price. One end wasn't quite square so the dealer took a sliver off to square it up for me. He cut it dry at sloooow speed on a very large band saw, and it took him over 30 minutes to make that one cut. This is some pretty hard stuff, although a file will grab it with a bit of pressure. I have some 1/4" wall 6" oil field pipe lying around, so I plan to devise a simple tripod legged vertical anvil stand, using 6" pipe with the D2 stacked on top of a length of 4x4, with both the 4x4 and the D2 held centered. Once I'm sure the overall height is good I'll pack the whole thing with fine sand. It will be fairly heavy, but I still need to be able to move it around in my shop, which is only 25x40 and is shared with several other things like a truck, a tractor, several mowers, and a lot of other small machinery. Sound reasonable? Slag, if you click on the little reply typing window at the bottom to answer a post, it has it's own menus across the top, and the preview/edit toggle is that last symbol on the right. Thanks to Frosty for the education...

Thanks. I did read that, but had not yet updated my profile, something that's now done. As for location, I'm in a semi-rural area near Oklahoma City. Re editing, most other forums I've used offer the option to "preview" a drafted post prior to actually launching it - I looked for but didn't see that function here, although I might have missed it. At any rate thanks for the info!

Thanks, Frosty. I've read a ton of your stuff on here and it's always interesting and informative. I'll pay particular attention if and when I get around to building a forge. The local small metals store had about a foot of 5 or 6 inch 4140 shafting on their "cutoffs and drops" rack when I was there a couple of days ago. It wasn't marked and I didn't ask about the price on it for fear of interfering with my heart meds. Might make an awfully nice anvil stuck on end in a big stump, though. I do keep an eye on Craigslist and such around here, but even a rusty old chunk of rail or anything called an "anvil" seems to bring $100 or more, many time MUCH more.

Thanks for the welcome and the nice words. There is enough metallurgical info out there these days to choke a horse now that everybody and the ship's cook is making knives, ha. Most of it is advanced calculus to me, I'm still working on algebra 1 where metal science is concerned. So far I've followed mostly an old book of Wayne Goddard's, hence the edge quench thing. Actually, I'm still just working on having my knives not looking like they were made by a fourth grader, ha. Most I've given away to my sons and grandsons. Have never attempted to sell one and don't intend to. As for the handles, Slag, I have a big box of scale material, but if my feeble memory serves, from left to right the first two are leftovers from deer hunts here in Oklahoma with brass guards shaped to follow the front contours of the piece of antler (#2 also uses an antler tine for part of the guard function), the third is Dymondwood (sp?) stuff from Jantz, I think the fourth is Amboyna burl, the fifth is natural box elder burl with a camphor cap, the sixth is camphor, seventh is stained box elder burl, and the fat skinner on the right end is from a chunk of Koa left over from when I lived in Hawaii years ago and built a couple of guitars from Koa. I'm not gonna run out of handle material for a while, I like to collect and stash bits and pieces of exotic woods, most of which has been stabilized. I use a home built 2x72 belt grinder with a 10" contact wheel which does fine, but I haven't yet figured out how to make it track well with the platen I built for it. Still working on that. I do want a small forge one of these days, though. I can make most tools, but it's beginning to look like I might need to sell my truck to buy a good anvil.