Hatriot

Thanks George, I have done a bit of reading as well as advice from the instructor at the class I took. I read the sticky on anvil height too which gave the tip about putting a piece of wood on the face and looking at your hammer strikes into the wood so probably gunna try that out to see what height seems best for me.

That is a nice stand Frosty! I think for now I’m going to go with wood. I have a huge stack of 10x10 timber I’ve been sitting on forever. Will just cut 4 pieces and wrap a chain around it and cinch it together with a turnbuckle if I’ve got one laying around in my shop, or just a long bolt with nut and washers. Should be a pretty quick and easy solution to get me started. If I ever upgrade to a bigger anvil though I think I’ll build a good stand for it like that. I’ve got a engine hoist/trolley attached to the beam in the shop so would make it super easy to move around if needed.

Thanks ! Can’t wait to make my first piece on my own forge and anvil! Still need to make a stand for my anvil so got a little time before I’m fully set up so need to decide what I will make first. Yeah I didn’t want to grind much at all on the anvil. I don’t think I even took off a 16th of an inch and stopped. Creating a face plate that drops into the hardy hole… why I didn’t even think of that. Will definitely do that as well. Thanks for the tip on the fire grate, I will definitely try that out in the future. I originally wanted to try and make my own clinker breaker set up with it but wound up just going with the holes. The dimensions on the opening of the pot are a little bigger than the dimensions of the one centaur sells at 14” long and 10” wide but the depth of the bowl is just under 3”. I also have more of that 1/2” plate I used so I figured if it does seem like it feels too wide or long at any point down the road I can just lean another plate on each side needed in the pot. It was just easier for me to use the dimensions of the bowl already in the forge table to get my measurements for the plates. I’m pretty good at visually building something in my head but not so great at knowing how or the best way to get certain measurements, especially with the angles of the bowl etc so I played with cutting pieces of cardboard until they sat and lined up right inside the bowl then used those pieces as my templates to cut the steel plate. So far the anvil and forge table was all I got from the old farm. My cousin knew right where those were but is pretty sure there is more stuff but needs to clean up the barn and air hanger to look around for more. My grandfather would’ve only used this for farrier work, so not like we’re gunna find an old power hammer or anything, but hoping we can find a hand blower and tools, hammers, tongs etc. Again, thanks so much for the tips! Greatly appreciated and can’t wait to see where this all goes.

Howdy, Newbie here from ATX. Just recently took an introductory blacksmith class over at Pioneer Farms with instructor Philip Waters. Philip was a great teacher and I had so much fun and will be signing up soon for more classes. Eventually I want to make blades but for now I want to keep expanding my knowledge and basics before I move on to that. The bug bit me pretty darn good. I knew this was something I wanted to explore more of so I immediately reached out to my cousin who now owns and lives on my grandparents old farm. I asked if my grandpa happened to have an anvil or forge or any blacksmithing equipment. Sure enough, he had an anvil that was passed down to him from his grandfather as well as a forge table. Both needed some work… the anvil was pretty eaten up, lots of pits on the face and horn, but the rebound with a ball bearing was perfect and rang like it should with no delamination in the plate to the body. I did a little surface grinding to clean the face up a bit but could still use a little more work but since I’m just starting out it’ll work great. I’ve already identified my anvil as an old Peter Wright 94lb anvil. The forge table wound up turning into a pretty big project. Since this piece has actual family history I didn’t want to cut into it or weld to it etc. especially in case I ever happen to stumble across parts that could actually restore it. From what I can tell, it looks like it was the Buffalo Forge model #0 table but it was completely missing any kind of fire pot and most everything else that would come with that table. It had some sort of cement pot that I’m assuming my grandpa made for it at one point and was cracked into 4 chunks. I knew I was going to have to come up with something to use as a fire pot and get rid of the cement. Initially I was considering just buying a fire pot from Centaur and just slapping it in there, but those things are like $500 and I knew I could build something myself. I had almost convinced myself I was just going to drop a brake rotor in there and just call it good, but then I thought, what if this really takes off and I wind up wanting something that actually works properly and efficiently. After tossing that around in my head I decided to build myself a true fire pot and that is what turned this into a much bigger project. Thankfully, my late father owned his own construction company and so just about every tool under the sun was passed on to me so there was 0 need to go buy and spend money to complete this project. I went to my shop and found me a big 1/2” steel plate where I keep all the stock and scrap metal and built a pot that would just set into the forge table without cutting, drilling, welding etc to the table. If I ever find the parts to restore the table I’ll just have to cut off the blower intake tube and then I can just pull the whole pot right out of the table. I just finished my build yesterday and figured I’d share some pics with my intro. I don’t have any coke yet so I just tossed some lump coal in for its first fire test and it worked great! Can’t wait to finish setting up my forge space and seeing where this hobby takes me. I took pictures throughout my forge build in case anyone is interested in building something similar, just DM me or maybe I’ll post the whole build somewhere else in the forum. I haven’t welded since I was in my late teens so don’t make too much fun of my welds Glad to be here, thanks for having me, and I’m sure I’ll have some questions for you vets in the future. J.C.