wd&mlteach

If your shop is small and you use it for more than just blacksmithing, go with the wheels. If you have room and figure out where you want it bolt it down, both have advantages. I would love to have the room to dedicate to just blacksmithing but I do not. So the ability to move my vise around with the welded on wheels is great as the base is *commandingly heavy.

Here is my take, you can laugh at me if you want. Anvils that have sharp edges, to me they are just awesome to look at and touch. When I see a clean and beautiful anvil that is pristine I can't help myself but to go over and experience it. The first thing I do is to run my hand across the face and edges just to feel the smoothness of the cool steel. And as my hand slides across the face of that anvil I say wow under my breath. During that utterance, I imagine everything that went into the creation of that anvil. I imagine the hard work and physical effort needed to persuade this large chunk of iron from whatever it was, into what it is now. I think about the working conditions that employees had to endure to make this piece of history happen. I imagine the risks of just working in one of the early foundries. I wonder how many folks were hurt, maimed, or killed making these things during a time period when the employers were not required to ensure safe working conditions. Remember, OSHA, employee healthcare, or workers compensation did not exist when most of these anvils were produced. I think about the extreme temperatures that the fellows had to endure when dealing with over a hundred pounds of blazing hot metal, burns had to be a commonplace. As you can probably tell I cannot get over what it took to bring one of these functional works of art into existence. I do not work in a steel mill or foundry, but I do I teach wood and metal manufacturing at both the high school and college levels. To me a pristine anvil is the pinnacle of human skill-based manufacturing and I will forever respect anvils and the men who manufactured them. However, that being said, anvils with crisp corners cause me a bit of angst when actually using them, -especially if they are not mine. I have a beautiful 150 Peter Wright with nice edges in my shed. I love it and as you can guess I baby it. I never do anything to abuse those corners and I cringe whenever a friend comes over to use my tools. I have not chipped one yet but I am always worried that I might miss when drawing down and chip an edge. To alleviate my anxiety I have three anvils. It is a little bit of overkill, but hey there are cheap 'round these parts. I keep a good working anvil, my PW, and a NC Big Face. I use the working anvil, one with a swayed back, marred face, a bit of pits, and some dents for general forging. I use it for what it is and I love it. If I miss and strike the face with an errant blow (I am hoping we all do that some times and it is not just me), I do not worry. I just keep on forging, no pausing to see if I damaged the face, no worries. If it is something that I want really smooth and straight I then finish it on the PW. If I want a hard corner I use the NC anvil to establish and the PW to refine. I also use the NC for demos as it travels nice with the stand. Anyway that is my take on the edges. My wife jokes with me and says she does not have to worry about me looking at other women, just anvils ;) Has anybody chipped an anvil edge? I have seen some pretty badly chipped edges and I have always wondered what has to happen to chip off an edge.

Peter Wright is my guess. The extra hole is unique.

DRC you should have no problem finding an anvil in PA. I am about 30-45 minutes away from you and everyday I can find them on CL in our area. We are in an anvil rich part of the world, it is rather nice. I personally have not paid more than a dollar-a-pound for any of the anvils I have bought. You actually have your pick around here as to what you want to spend, condition, driving distance, and size. Check CL everyday, two to three times a day for anvils. They are always there. If nothing fits what you want to spend, wait. Eventually you will find something that fits into what you want. I just bought a 232 Mousehole yesterday for $200. It is not perfect but anvils do not have to be to be usable. This particular anvil was on CL for $275 and it was listed for over a month before I bought it. Others in this world are not as fortunate as we are as far as blacksmithing goes we really are blessed with what is around.

And the answer is . . . 232 pounds or 2 * 0 * 8 I have not weighed it yet as my wife's bathroom scale is a fancy looking one made from bamboo. It does not look anvil friendly and neither is my wife. Actual weight will be still a mystery until I find a new scale to call my own. Also, the measurements have changed from what the seller listed. The face is 5" wide, length from horn to heel is 25 3/4", and the height is 11 1/8". Chris John I believe was the closest, nice job. Thanks for all of the replies folks. I almost did not get this anvil the fellow selling it called me and told me he had another person offering more than what it was listed for. I already knew I was going to offer less than what he was asking so I called him back and let it go. A week goes by and he calls me back and asks if I am still interested. Yep, I went today and picked it up. I knocked off the rust with a twisted wire brush and hit it with a coat of linseed oil. It is far from a perfect anvil but it is quite usable and in my mind worth the $200.

Nice, an early PW. Congrats! Use it and love it!

I have only ever placed my hands and eyes on London patterns such as Trenton's, Peter Wrights, and Hay Buddens. So I do not have any experience with Mousehole-style English anvils, which is why I posed the original question. I have an appointment tomorrow to check this one out and see if it is worth purchasing. If I get it I will post more/better pictures. I called and talked to the fellow today and he said it has been outside in the weather for 20+ years which can be a little scary. Judging from the moss on the sides I believe it. I hope it is not pitted to death but it may be. Frosty thanks for the prose.

Here is the riddle: How much does a Mousehole style anvil weigh if it measures? height 12" face width 5" Length 25" I will post pictures when/if I get it.

Yeah, seems pretty expensive to me. I have a farriers anvil that I use for small demos as it is easy to transport and setup. I got NC Tools Big Face, a stand with clamp, a gas forge, two table top drill presses, a bench grinder with multitool attachment, some tongs/hoof rasps, and a bucket of horseshoes for $100 even. I do not think I will ever find a deal that good again but for the money you are talking, I would think you could do better.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Actually, I was thinking about making it into a project for my high school students to make. I tried selling it to them today but they can't see why one would need a bender. I grabbed one of the ones I had at school and showed it to them. I told them how great and simple the design is and that they could use it to make all kinds of things. Then I clamped it in a vise and bent a couple of s hooks. Some of the kids told me it was cool and others told me that they could just buy the hooks why would they need a bender.

I have a couple of these benders at work and I love them. The fellow that taught in my shop before me said they were there when he took the program over 22 years ago. I would like to purchase more of them, but nobody seems to know who made them. Any ideas? The base is cast and the pins are mild steel.

Martin, I have a bandsaw but at eight feet long there was no way that my saw would support it. And I would need a towmotor to move it around, don't have one of those yet. Monstermetal wow what an archive! I have been reading that back issues ever since I found your post. That is some great stuff there. However, I am not going to join the association so it looks like I will have to wait until your article makes it online. Unless you want to pm me a scan, ;) Frosty, I kept thinking the same thing but that stuff was hard. I do not know what they were but they were big, heavy and hard. The farmer told me if I could tell him what they were from, I could have them. The best answer I could come up with was that they were from a machine shop. I pointed out the machine marks and drill holes. But I have no idea what they were used for on a farm, which what he wa looking for as an answer. The farmer speculated that they might be part of truck scale that was on the property before he was around. He said that was over 60 years ago.

I have been contemplating building a power hammer, because I can and want to. I have searched and read through an amazing amount of posts here and elsewhere trying to glean as much information on which style to build. Taking into consideration, what I have learned, what I want to do, and my space limitations, a tire hammer appears to be my best option. I contacted Clay and I plan on ordering a set of his plans. Before I do, I would like to ask those of you that do have one of these hammers, how do you like them? How are they holding up? How often do you use your hammer? What if anything breaks or needs repaired? And, do you have any recommendations for modification/material changes? I have run across a lot of threads on the build of these hammers but not much is out there on longevity after use. Maybe, that stuff is covered in the plans and I am just jumping the gun or maybe they just have not started breaking yet. By-the-way what is the best way to cut a 6.5 diameter 8' steel round bar down to 36" when the bar stock is located in the middle of a farmer's field? A friend and I spent three hours on our knees with a Stihl Cutoff saw yesterday cutting through a piece that diameter. After the first hour I kept trying to come up with a better idea. The best we could do was to roll it when the saw started to get heavy. When we were done that piece did not show any signs of bluing and had a mirror shine. It sure is pretty and commandingly heavy. Best of all it only cost me $35. 20 to the farmer and 15 to buy us lunch, what a blessing!

I just finished my treadle hammer last summer. And I love it! The build is posted here. If I were to do it again i would build the inline version rather than the swing type like I did. As far as pros and cons I really can't answer that, but I can tell you that if you work alone like I do, then the treadle is the greatest assistant for punching, drifting, chisel work, and cutting. I would also say that it may make these processes safer. Did I mention that I love my treadle hammer!?!

My first post vice I found in an old barn for $40. It had no mount, no spring and was completely seized. I spent every evening for a month spraying every concoction of rust penetrator on it. At the end of the month it was still locked up and smelled a bit weird. I eventually got tired of making dead spots in my lawn and threw the whole thing on my forge, covered it with coal, and roasted it for a bit. Once the joint was a dull red, I persuaded it open with a small sledge. I really can't tell you for sure if the rust busters did not help as they might have. But judging from the scale that dropped out of the joint when persuading, I don't think they did much. The real way to go is that electrolysis setup. There is not really much involved in setting the tank up and making it work. There is also lots of information out there to help setup one up. If I were faced with the same challenge as I had before, with the knowledge I now have about electrolysis, I would choose the electrolysis method hands down for beating rust and freeing up anything that is rusted.

The square shank tools were suggested by Fe-Wood and the make sense as to having some advantages. Francis I do have one question, have you ever forged H13? If you have I would love to hear some tips as to what works best. So far I have been just machining it to shape and that is working . However, if I forged some of the shapes it would be a little bit more economical. I do not have a fly press or a power hammer, just me. And the heat treat cycle is pretty specific so I am hoping to learn a bit more about the alloy before I try hot work it.

Windancer is right, I did forget to thank all of you folks. I had ordered the set of plans from ABANA. Plans are pretty much black and white. Having the ability to bounce ideas off of folks who know is priceless and one thing that keeps me coming back. Thanks again for all of the help. I only wish I would have known about the inline version of TH. I believe I would have built that one as it looks like a better design of adjustability. Who knows, I may do it just because I can . . . but it will have to wait until I find a bigger shop.

Alright, whew! Long story short I finished this hammer months ago, but I got locked out of IFI when the server changed. Evidently the new system did not like the "&" in my screen name and kept kicking me out. However, the wonderful Glenn figure it out for me and I am back! Woo Hoo Thanks Glenn! It works great! and it is fully adjustable. Adjusting it is not quick but it is sure and safe -and you know I'll take that. I pondered for quite some time on how to make it adjustable. I explored hydraulic jacks, rack and pinions off old drill presses, and the welded chain idea that was presented here. Out of all of them I liked the chain idea the best. It was in my price range and seemed to make the most sense. And really that was what I was going to do until it came down to where to mount the crank handle. Because I used two upright c channels as the main frame the center of my support column is hollow. The only place I could figure on the chain being welded to the structure was in the center or valley of one of those C's. Then the adjustment handle, used to crank the spring mount up or down, would either stick out the front or out the back. I did not like either one of those options. Also, with that configuration the crank handle would ride along wherever the pivot needed to go, just another drawback that I could see. I got to thinking, why not have a stationary hand crank and use the chain to pull it up or drop it down. So I drilled a couple of 1/2 through holes in the frame at the top and the bottom. Put a couple of 1/2" axels through with milled flats for the sprockets at the top and bottom. I used two stop collars for each axel at the top and bottom to keep them from sliding out. For the hand crank I spent a morning at the scrap yard trying to find a wheel such as that. The only ones I could find were on valve bodies and held with roll pins and I did not have a hammer or punch. So I gave up and headed out for the day disgusted that I brought the wrong tools. On the way out, in the last bin I found a about forty of those cast hand wheels and I snagged one. To make an adapter for the hand wheel I used a 1 1/8" bolt drilled out to accept the 1/2" bottom axel. That is pinned in place. Overall it turned out great and I am happy with it. The next steps are to use it for a bit more and then redesign a few features as needed. One of the first things I might do is to make all of the springs reside within the side supports and not in a straight line. The all-thread that they are mounted to flexes a bit on the ends. Moving them in would help with that. The only thing that I am embarrassed about it is the lock for the toplink. I made a great ring and took the time to weld it perfectly in the center, it looked great. I put it on and wouldn't you know, it hit the bottom spring and the hammer would not drop down all of the way. I quickly modified it with a cutting torch and hap-hazardly bent a new *smaller ring. It is still there and every time I look at it I am reminded that I knowingly did a quick fix and never fixed it right. By the way works great for cracking walnuts, thanks for all of your help.

Square shaft punches, you know I thought about that but I decided to go with the rounds. I figured consistency with a metal lathe was more of a guarantee than trying to forge out 10 or more identical square shanked tools. I am not saying it can't be done, just this was the faster and easier method for me. Thanks for the suggestion, if I make another set I may try for square shanks, especially if I end up making a power hammer. As far as the heat treat goes, I have tried a punch and a chisel with usable results. I followed the pre-heat, heat, quench, and temper information that I found online. The results seem to be okay and I am using a pyrometer for temps -not just eyeballs. However, I do not have a hardness tester to verify my actual results. From what I read about the heat treat process for H13 almost sound like alchemy compared to 4140.

;) I knew it was too good to pass up, lol. I figured that the anvil and cone were a dollar a pound. That makes the tongs and handled tools about $5 each. Too sweet! Once I get them all cleaned up I will post a new pictures. I have been using an electrolysis setup I learned about here on iforgeiron to clean the hammers. I get about three a day done. Frosty, you are right some of these tools really have some sharp mushrooming and I am grinding them down smooth. It makes me wonder what they have been through or how long they have been around. Most of the stuff has heavy pitting, still usable but almost everything needs some work to make it nice.

Francis, those were the ones I was coveting. Ooooo soooo nice! And, very doable! If only I had a dividing head the squares would be perfect.

150 pound beautiful PW on stump with punches and 3 headers 29 inch solid cone mandrel 31 handled tools flatters, punches, fullers, hot cuts, and hammers 21 pairs of tongs $550 for all The wife was not sure if it was a good deal or not.

I finished my treadle hammer in September and I soon realized that I need a set of punches to safely use with it. The tong punch set seems like a good idea. However, the sets cost too much for me to outright buy. However, they look pretty simple to make and I thought I would give it a try. Here is the progress so far on a set of H13 punches. They are still in the roughing stages, but before I do the final shaping and finishing, what shapes do you folks use most often? By the way, I will redo the chisel as it is a bit short. I experimented with it and the hardening tempering process.

Thanks for the help guys looks like it sold for 400 before I could get it.

Any idea who made this one? I was told it weighs 250. It looks like it was welded at the waist and painted black. Other than that I know nothing.