Vinito

A good asking price is kind of a moving target, but I can tell you that when I chatted with James (the owner of Anyang USA) he suggested, for the older design, a reasonable range would be $2,000 to $3,750 - depending on condition and in his opinion. I dunno, but I would expect James to have a pretty solid take on market values since working that market on that machine is what puts food on his table. Probably pretty accurate. For posterity, this post written Fall 2021.

Yeah, that might be call a "legacy" setup. That stump & anvil combo has been sitting outside that garage door for over a decade and not exactly installed as per industry standards. However, the anvil itself has recently benefitted from helpful updates, i.e. much more added mass and a small shelf, plus a couple other new features. The stump will undoubtedly be adjusted at some point soon. You'll notice that the other anvil to the left is situated more righterer because it's entirely a product of more current attention.

I got to thinking others might like and maybe even do what a couple other guys and I have started to do. I'm new to blacksmithing but older, so you know how life tends to interfere with hobbies often. I was somewhat concerned that over time my blacksmith endeavor could be set aside with increasing frequency as other things encroach, so a couple other beginners and I started meeting up on Friday evenings to practice banging on hot metal. We just had our 6th one in a row and it's already an event I look forward to each week. It's just fun anyway and I think making it a weekly meetup kind of thing will help a ton toward sticking with it so as to gain skill over time. Baby steps and consistent habits seem to be pretty much THE thing to do if you want to get good at something eventually. So we call it "Forge Friday". It's working out really well. Here's a clip I took yesterday. It pretty much captures the mood. Feel free to critique the setup - I'm sure some of you might have some interesting observations. So far it's been at my brother's house, but in a couple weeks I'll probably have a working setup at my own shop too so we can alternate where we meet. Mine may be more suited to being indoors (thinking on a gas forge to suit inclement weather) plus I amazingly just made a deal on a little power hammer so that should also be set up soon. Anyways, Forge Friday is a resounding success. Maybe something similar would be fun for some of you too.

Well we negotiated what I think is a decent deal with the seller, so I guess I'm going to have a power hammer later this week. I tend not to count my chickens and it's not actually in my shop yet, but I did give him a deposit and we're going to coordinate a move on probably Thursday so I feel pretty confident that it will go fine. The seller seems like a solid upstanding feller. He had some spare parts which he handed me to take home today so I suppose that's probably a good sign. One cool thing is included in the deal is a cool little coal forge as well. But the forge is the real deal, i.e. blower, ash dump, clinker breaker, hood. It's better than I was going to build, so I think that's very cool. I'll post pictures once it's here. Also... just wow! I never thought I'd run across a power hammer near me at all and didn't think I'd be worthy of one for quite a while anyway, but now I am kinda pinching myself at the prospect of having one so early on into my blacksmithing endeavor. Since my joints are all so old now, I'm thinking it's maybe not a bad idea to have this to use at this point in my life. So I'm almost doing a little happy dance... almost. Dancing is a little risky for me as well, but you get the idea anyway.

I took a break from the vacation today, so I worked on getting all prepped for my 6th consecutive "Forge Friday". I'm really new to this so anything I do that comes out functional is goodness. I am old and have done tons of various handwork for decades and I'm a machinist by trade, but inexplicably I never got into blacksmithing until now. Anyway, I got a rounding hammer the other day to try out and found that the flat side bounced off at angles extremely easily. Investigation showed that the face was actually slightly concave, which was weird. So I re-dressed it to be slightly convex, so hopefully that helps. We'll see tomorrow. Also, the other day I picked up a hammer off a yard sale which was rusted and loose on the handle, so dressed that head up, wiped on some cold bluing for cosmetics, dressed the back end to be a bit of a chisel, and re-fitted the handle nice & tight. I dunno if either will end up working well, but I'm hoping my three hammers complement each other somewhat. The square one from the yard sale I figger can be a kind of small finishing thing and maybe the square-ish corners will be useful now & then? The chisel I forged last week so I did some finish work on that today and will try it out tomorrow too. So... short on forge work other than the janky chisel, but it was fun finishing these up. I stumbled on the burned handle finish look kinda by accident and liked it, so that's what they all have now.

edit to add: I searched a little and found that on these older Anyangs, the ram actually pulls up into the head a fair bit so it has more stroke than just what's sticking out like in the picture. So yeah, it's not the newest whizzbang, but not a choked stroke either. Sooo... it is what okiedokie is I guess.

I reached out to James at AFP and he said what's on the nameplate means it was made before 2008, so I'm guessing the date code probably means 2005. I'm going to talk again to him briefly tomorrow for a couple details and make a decision to either get it or not this weekend. At the moment, I'm squarely on the middle of the fence whether I want to get it to play with and give it a good home now or just stick with my Armstrong hammer for a year or so. Just for the tool porn angle, here's a non-flattering full length pic. Is it just me missing something or does the ram appear to only have about 5" of travel with those tall dies taking up all the space in between? Seems odd. I'm suddenly suspect of my original enthusiasm. I guess I could whip up some shorter dies, but it's a head-scratcher.

Here's the nameplate, in case that helps. Looks like maybe 2014 vintage? If so, it's not as old as I suspected. If nothing else, maybe this nameplate can help determine if it's a clone or the real deal.

By the way... One thing I was wondering if anybody knows, is if the new 33lb hammers whip the old ones on power or control or anything like that. I can probably afford a new one if that's the case, though I probably wouldn't bother with that for a year or two maybe. This thing popping up for me now is what prompted me to consider one at all. Just trying to weigh out getting a jump on learning some power hammering as opposed to kicking the can down the road. I'm kinda OK either way, but since I'm so green, I am either unaware of what I'd be missing or unaware of what I'm getting into and too ignorant to know either way. I guess this is a way of asking if you wish you had got something like this early on your path or are power hammers not that big a deal?

Hi folks. I am old but almost absolutely new to blacksmithing. Of course I've been internetting tons of info the past couple months or so, thus exposed to a bunch of the tech. That includes lots of time looking into various power hammers, whether they be Davinci, treadle, Clay Spencer, Ken's KZ / MZ hammers or self-contained air hammers. I can build stuff so was thinking I might go that way when the time comes and after I decide which one to go with (ie. start with). Since I'm just starting, I'm already maxing my brain out at the forge just figuring out the basics, so I don't really need a power hammer of any kind at this point. My arm easily keeps up with the baby-step pace I can work at during a heat. But I am liking this stuff so I'll assume that one day I will certainly reach the point of wanting a power hammer. Here's the wrinkle: I have a chance to get a halfway decent deal on a somewhat older (guessing 10-15 years old) Anyang C41-15 (33lb hammer). Wasn't looking, it just came up. It's not a steal, but this little hammer isn't exactly a budget-buster to begin with. Basically the one I'm looking at just a little more than half the cost of a current new one (so probably not much less than it cost when it was new honestly). The dickering hasn't begun yet, so there's that. But no matter, I'm wondering if there are some thoughts on this hammer you folks might have. My own thoughts: #1: I figure at this price I could probably sell it off and not lose a bunch if that was the ultimate fate. If I outgrow it and need/want to sell it off, it shouldn't be much of a loss, if any. That might be a big if, but you never know. I have no idea what size of things I'll want to forge in a couple years... of course. #2: Since it's relatively small, it wouldn't require major infrastructure to run the thing. I'm guessing bolting to a 4" concrete pad probably would do halfway OK. #3: since I'm new, it's something that could be useful enough to be worth having and helpful for cutting my teeth in this hobby. The size makes it a little less to bite off maybe? I can think of cons, but I'd kinda rather not poison the well and see what you guys think about these "little" things first. I do like wielding the hammer, and for decades I've been a fan of various handwork in general, so I promise not to jump that ship and skip learning the fundamentals. This would just be considered yet another tooling option and not a hobble to my learning. After all, having a power hammer is one more skill inside this hobby that might be fun to learn in itself. Anyways, any thoughts you feel like offering are appreciated. Thanks in advance

Thomas, those eyelets are a good idea. Funny enough, I am sitting on 6 of those at this moment (the nut variety) because I just this past Wednesday picked up some salvage utility poles for a project and the hardware was left on. I would not have thought of using those on the anvil stand, but I just checked and hammer handles do indeed fit just right in them. Cool! If I don't get fancy and fabricate something from straps & angle, then I'ma go do dat.

Hadn't updated in a whlie 'cuz... busy beaver. We have stuck to diligently having Forge Friday and this week will be no different. Besides several other things, last week's S hook turned out a ton better than the first one. Each try is better than the last and I expect that to continue moving mostly in a positive direction. I decided to do at least one S hook every time for practicing analysis, greasing the gears and repetition, yada yada. But anyway, here's a pic from earlier tonight. Finally have a halfway decent stand under the anvil. Nothing special, but it's functional and at a proper height for me and I'm very much looking forward to testing it out tomorrow (Forge Friday). It's built up from various 4" thick boards I scrounged. I'll probably add some straps & tool racks eventually. I like to use first & let the upgrades reveal themselves by need.

That's cool Charles! Do you have any more information, review, opinion, etc. on that firepot? I'd like to know more about it, especially comparison to the standard bottom blast types. I'd love to hear some stories, i.e. "my first forge was a brake drum, then found an antique bottom blast, but my current side blast does this & that..." etc. Maybe you've posted at length on it already? Seems like it might not be a big deal to just orient the air hole like that. I've searched a little on side blast forges and everything that has come up for me so far is pretty large and complicated endeavors. I also love that you've mounted your vise right to the table. I've been wondering why people don't do that more often. I mean I can guess advantage & disadvantage possibilities, but sure would be close & handy. Maybe folks just have more space at their disposal so separate vise location is easy. I dunno. edit to add: I think I should make clear... I am guessing I will likely stick to building a standard bottom blast firebox in my forge since it seems to be a simple tried-and-true design. I am a beginner and don't need to get in over my head about something I know nothing about. I am just curious about your firebox and wouldn't mind reading up a bit about it. Seems like every side blast design has water cooling and a bunch of other complexities. In my case there is too much freezing risk of that so I won't even consider that for a long, long while if ever. But yours looks like just yer basic pyramidal firebox except the air comes in the side a little off the bottom. If that's the case, then it's actually simpler than a traditional bottom blast type and I'm into simple if it works... and also if a no-experience beginner like me could operate the thing without it melting a hole to china. Anyways, just wanted to clarify that I'm curious but not going off the deep end.

At the third "Forge Friday" in a row at my brother's forge, the anvil performed great. I did some S hook practice which was frustratingly more challenging than I expected, but just kept thinking it through and pushing to an acceptable final hook. Just one, but my first one ever so... My brother finished a split 3-hook coat hanger thing he started last week. He faced similar confusions thinking through the steps but seemed satisfied with the result. Then he drew out some rough-cut copper bar out to be a little over 2x original length and round. That was interesting. It's going to be parts for some cooking utensils. Then I beat some 1-1/8" hex jackhammer shaft into a hardie cutoff chisel. This was my first try with hard material and it took a couple heats to realize it works a lot easier once you get it hot enough. I first got one end to fit my 1" hardie hole and that went better than I expected (encouraging) so then it was just a matter of shaping a chisel to the other end. I am not sure why - maybe because I half expected it to not work at all. But this was extremely off-the-scales gratifying. Once done, I just kept having to drop it into the hardie hole over & over to witness how well it fit. I'm not sure if the chisel shape is exactly what I want, but it's pretty close and of course I can heat it up again and tweak it. The piece of resistance for me was we cooperated for more hands on deck and on the third attempt, we forge welded some bar stock together. Also don't know why, but this was very gratifying. After reading (and learning from) several queries from people attempting this with no success for years, and both of us having xxxxxxxx tried it a couple times in the past with a torch, it was pretty cool to persevere and have success on the first night of trying it in earnest. Two things I wasn't previously aware rose to obvious priorities, which is kinda what this learning stuff is all about. 1) I now have got to shift my attention to building a proper base for the anvil. I set it on an existing log stand thing and it's at least 10" too high. This often made things somewhat awkward to deal with and you could really feel how tired your arms get having to lift everything up so high. 2) I am sadly uninformed about metallurgy for a layman, but especially for a dang machinist. Honestly (possibly surprisingly to you) it just doesn't come up all that often in my job so whatever little I ever knew has been replaced in my brain by other data long ago. So I just need to focus on that bit. Also might have to look around for a budget heat treat oven for tempering, though a kitchen stove might work for some things for a while. Anyway, the hardie chisel has been half-hardened but I need to look into things (like what the metal probably actually is) and what it takes for a proper heat treat. Important but lower on the priority list is ... proper fitting tongs are important! we have about 10 tongs to choose from, but most of them need attention and none of them fit great. Good enough to play, but that's it. Good tongs are gonna be a thing soon. Forge Friday #3 was a resounding success! OK this has rambled long enough. But the anvil performed great and helped to illuminate my next priorities to address.

OK here's the pics. First I clamped it upside-down to establish a flat base. Then flipped it to mill the top. The yellow-circled area shows the high spot from a light pass. It was humped about .050" total. If you're metric, then DO THE MATH! I mean that's what I have to do. Then I decided a shelf step might be handy and the material was there, so did that. Once all that was done, it was just a matter of deburring edges and a light minimal flap-wheel polishing just to get rid of the machining marks. Oh yeah... and I whipped up a little bending jig for the Hardie I'm happy with it! Hope it's not too many pictures.

Thanks Frosty. Yup I have a pretty good selection of copper that I use for welding helpers pretty often so was already planning to do that on the edges. Brass works OK and that's what I have for the holes so I'll be using those pieces shown before for that. But it's always good to add the suggestion because a) anyone who hasn't heard of that will benefit from learning the tip and b) I am constantly forgetting crap like that so you may have helped keep me from forgetting... I'll report back once I do it and we'll all find out together which way that went.

I'm calling the anvil "done". I'll hardsurface it someday but it should work well for a while. The top & bottom are flat and there's a ledge now. It's reached the point of diminishing returns. I could fill & polish the thing for a week but that honestly seems kinda stupid considering its function. It looks shop-made and I don't mind that. If my welding was better it would look less rough, but it is what it is. I'm going to try forging on it a bit again tonight and see how I like it, but I liked it before and I'm pretty sure it's improved now. I tried to include some pictures but my phone won't upload to this site for some reason. I'll upload some photos of it acting done and also a couple of the machining once I get to my PC. Could have waited to post this too, but just consider this a teaser I guess.

No, but there's a wrinkle with that. I don't do well around groups of people and usually have to recover for a day or two. I'm autistic or something. Since I'm old I've learned to just cope with it. I could do it, but it's not my first choice. Maybe someday I can hang out with a nearby smith or trade steak & beer for one to drop by my shop for a while. I'm in no hurry.

Thanks for the thoughtful replies. Lots of good opinions. I maybe should have mentioned my background again so you all had an idea what things I will and won't struggle with, i.e. what am able to do and what I'm ignorant about. So to that end - the design link I posted I estimate would take me about 4-6 hours to build since I do that kind of stuff all day for a living (machinist by trade and can do some welding). Honestly, I think it would take longer to patch up a brake drum to work than to just cut plate and weld up a pyramid-shaped box. As happens over decades, I have a bunch of material just piled up, so for only my time I could match or be pretty close to what was shown, or similar if changes are made. What I don't have experience with is blacksmithing/forging. When it comes to visiting other smiths, in some ways in-person is hard to beat, but in others it's hard to beat a resource like the experience in this forum. Thus this thread. Though unlikely, I can grok that I might dump this whole effort within a year. Of course the benefit of having something with a fairly decent basic design is that if that should happen, I can pass the thing off to the next guy rather than dump it in a landfill. Besides this option, I figure that I wouldn't do any worse building a moderate, generic, decent forge than if a guy purchased one from a commercial supplier. And since I could have one in a day or two for only my time, this seems more convenient than paying significant cash and then having to wait for shipping (which can be ridiculous lead times currently) Anyway, I think I'll probably build something like this, meaning essentially a pyramidal firebox with a T arrangement air supply, counterweighted dump plate and slotted air grate. If nothing else, it seems to be time-tested and still being sold to this day. I'm leaning away from including the clinker breaker because a majority of smiths seems to not fuss with them to no bother, and as a beginner I expect that I will create a lot less clinker than even an avid hobbyist, thus less of a need in the first place (plus could easily add one later if it becomes a thing). In other words, yeah I'll build one, but try to keep it simple. Thanks for the feedback.

Hi folks. I'm going to build me a forge in the next couple weeks and in a goggle search this firebox design came up: https://www.calsmith.org/resources/Documents/CBA Coal Forge Drawings.pdf It looks to be about what I've seen recommended other places. I was kinda wondering what you experienced folks think about it. Is there anything you'd change for some reason? Should be pretty easy to fabricate one. I do that kind of stuff all the time, but I have done almost zero blacksmith stuff. So I don't mind making a firebox & forge but prefer to get something pretty workable the first time instead of having to remake something had I just known better beforehand. The basic dimensions of the firepot are thus in case ya aren't into opening the link. But there are more pages in the document showing tubing, gate, clinker buster, etc. Thanks for any input

Ooh, I just had a thought... which hurts a little to do but sometimes a guy can't help it. I bought the little cabin across the street at a tax sale long ago and it has a small entry porch - about 8' x 9' maybe. It has a wonky but intact concrete floor so that's not bad. I am just storing a few things in there and it's not much at that, so would be fairly easy to set that up as a nice covered blacksmith area. Has a low ceiling/roof so somewhat trivial to install a ventilation chimney even. For my level (beginner student), that seems like a nearly perfect area to set up and be adequate for quite a long time. I know it's goofy to just forget you have something like that, but forgetting is one of my most prominent traits.

Thanks for the lesson Frosty. I'll do just that... but I don't know what you mean by "fish mouthing". Other than that I think I follow ya. I'm a fan of systematic approaches to learning, so your tips for my next steps is more helpful than you know maybe. I need to look at my hook again for analysis. One thing I do know is that I tapered the whole thing at once rather than what I've seen since then, which is to get the tip to size first and working my way back, so I did it backwards I guess. I'll keep at it and learn. I took a minute and weighed the anvil. It's up to 127 lbs. That seems like a great middle of the road useful weight and I'm pretty stoked about that. I think this anvil will serve me well. I'll look into building a coal forge. Safe, adequate (if not preferred) and not difficult to build - at least not for someone with my background I guess. The only thing remotely tricky is the blower. I'm sure I'll run across something for next to nuthin' that will fill that void. I can sure see the benefit of having one right here at my own house, i.e. my learning would happen tons faster with a blacksmith setup here at my own place. While using my brother's forge, I've noticed that it seems larger than necessary for the stuff we've been messing with so far. It's about 3' x 4' with the coal firepot in the center, but the bulk of the table seems to just be storing coal off to the side. I'm kinda thinking the forge table could easily be a 3' square and maybe even 2' square and still be quite useful for a long time. I'm leaning toward 3' square but at the same time my shop is already cramped. i suppose I could make sure it's covered well and keep it outside buildings since I have plenty of yard. I'll think on it for a few days. But fabricating something halfway decent and mostly complete should be a one-day project I think. Maybe another part of the next day to attach the blower and fan control or whatever. This is just all wild guesses, but based on experience nonetheless. I have a bunch of 11ga steel from which I could make the table, and if necessary some 1/4" from which I could make the firebox, etc.

I used it once so far and it worked great. I'm short a forge so far so I'm stuck hauling it over to my brother's (we've been calling it "Forge Friday") so I have nuthin' but time to work on the anvil until I scare up a forge of my ownie. So what if I had absotively nothing "whipped" earlier because I'm brand new? Keep on hammerin'? Taking lots of breaks while working on this anvil, if that means anything. I guess I'm practicing for the real fun.

A tad more progress

Great. Thanks guys. Probably a good approach at this time for me is to just keep things simple and not making this too frilly. Even on the bending pegs, I commonly see a hardie attachment for that which makes sense too. I'll just call this design "done" then and concentrate on finishing it up.