Frosty

An interest in vise. That is just such a juicy straight line I can barely contain myself. Beautiful vise by the way. I was going to reply sooner but have been having weird troubles with the site. <sigh> Wise crack at ya later. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Orion, glad to have you. Don't worry about making a RR spike knife you aren't the only one. We promise not to hate you more than a few seconds, okay done! It looks pretty nice, good grinder technique. About the anvils, I think Josh is the only person who uses an anvil for an anvil stand but what the hey, folk from Fresno have that . . . reputation anyway. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, please feel free to take shots at a lapsed Valley boy. Nice job on the forge. Charcoal? Frosty The Lucky.

Sam: This is just too dangerous for me to give you advice let alone directions to do yourself. Please forgive me but the best advice I have is to hire a pro. I don't have enough friends to risk losing one if I can help it. Frosty The Lucky.

You WILL yield to superior inertia. Frosty The Lucky.

Glenn: Do you or anyone else know if ABANA site is in similar straits? I just heard it's down or hopefully just not responding but I don't even know who their server is. Guys on Theforge.list are asking and if the list mom on Theforge doesn't know. . . Frosty The Lucky.

Naw, squeezing a power hammer into a shop is a PITA. Build the shop around it. Frosty The Lucky.

They're hydraulic upsetters. Grant Sarver was operating the one he used to make his tongs in the pic on his web site. I just spent some time searching for a "hydraulic center upsetting machine" without finding one but there are some really cool videos from folk selling the things. Surf in good health. Frosty The Lucky.

Naw, you're right Steve hang around it's a good warning. One of the guys in our club has a turning hammer made during a Brian Brazeal clinic a couple summers ago. The beginning stock is 4140 loader pin stock we got from a local Machine shop. A while after finished it split full length along one side of the eye and one half has since split lengthwise. The pin was replaced for wear, not bent or failed. Salvaged stock is always questionable. If you don't, good luck. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Joseph, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location inn the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. Sure, you can clay the drum to suit your needs. What kind of clay isn't terribly important, it's not going to fire like ceramic. My preference is a mixture of 2-3 pts. sand to 2pts clay. Add just enough water so it will clump into a hard ball in your hand and break cleanly. If it leaves smudges on your hand it's too wet, if it crumbles it's too dry. Leaving it in a sealed container over night will distribute the moisture evenly throughout though you're not casting so tempering isn't so important. The sand serves a couple purposes, first it strengthens it like gravel in concrete, it also allows some movement so thermal shock is less likely to check it AND it helps moisture to vent without building pressure and spalling the liner. Then I prefer to ram it in the pot, on the table, etc. till the mallet bounces. If you burnish it with a little burlap clinker won't stick as easily and you won't get as much dust in/on your work. Let it dry completely before you fire it off and light a small fire for the first one. A rammed liner is stronger than a mud mix. As the mud mix dries the volume taken up by the water causes it to shrink and check, crack like a dry pond. Rammed is also significantly denser than a mud mix so it's stronger and more resistant to thermal shock. Frosty The Lucky.

Oh she's going to love that Arkie, it's a beauty. What else have you in mind for the stock? Oh I'm assuming saying it's 38' (FEET!) is a typo but I've been wronger. Frosty The Lucky.

Now you've done it Ronin giving our old timer secrets to the new guys! I don't know what your text window looks like Ethan but I have a happy face smiley in BW by the " marks at the top of the window. Left click on it and the menu Ronin posted drops down. Click on one and it's placed at the cursor location. Frosty The Lucky.

​ Yes. Heading a rivet IS upsetting after all. Frosty The Lucky.

You might be able to get away with oiling or waxing over the graphite if it's dry graphite. I mixed soot in my first batch of finish ala Alex Bealer's recipe in "The Art Of Blacksmithing". That's what I coated my Soderfors with when I got her. Baby needs a new coat though. If I want to warm her up too hot to lay my hand on I'll use the Trewax. Carnuba is really durable and she deserves the nicest coat I can give her. Just don't sweat it, what you put on them only really counts if its HOT and you're hitting it with hammers. That's how you put a proper shine on an anvil's face, hot steel and a hammer will do the deed. Of course if your Great Grandfather liked silver paint he might really like chrome. Don't sweat the stump either, put her to work and work out the fiddly bits as you go. I switched from wood blocks to steel stands some years ago and will never go back. That's me though and you can load up on other opinions and reasons right here on IFI in the anvil stand section. While it's nice to have old tools it's pretty secondary for working tools. Heck, you might want to put your great Grandfather's hammers in a case or hang them on the wall and use modern hammers, etc. I'm not suggesting that as "correct" I'm just saying tools need to be right for you the user and some are too precious to wear farther. I have one of my Father's metal spinning rollers and even if I set up a spinning lathe I doubt I'll use this one. Copy it to be sure I'm not a total idjit, just not use it. I could never get a handle on which cousins were firstus or secondists or just shirt tails. I have a handle on my Grand parents and call it good. Let me know if you get it figured out though we could be related, I'll console you. Ethan: I'm not seeing the "bend" in the horn. Where? Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Bart, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. You're going to find out sooner than later a lot of your questions have region dependent answers. I assume you're not in the US, we don't do metric. <sigh> Those look like cast iron counter weights a poor choice for an anvil. Sure commercially made power hammer anvils and sow blocks are cast but they're NOT stacks of disks. Two problems being stacked they aren't coupled well enough to conduct energy and will dissipate it rather than return it to the work. This same effect will cause the energy to concentrate at impact boundaries and cast iron doesn't really like impacts. counter weights are only intended to be heavy, not take a beating. You are getting WAY ahead of yourself with your questions. There are things you have to have in hand before you can determine how to mount them. Frosty The Lucky.

​I was just teasing him about being a wimpy blacksmith Mark. <grin> How's the home show circuit treating you? Frosty The Lucky.

Shes beautiful Ian, well done. How's she work? Frosty The Lucky.

Gee Ivan, I've seen that look of happy anticipation before, she's just more attractive than usual wearer. Frosty The Lucky.

This is how I brought my 50lb. Little Giant home. Look familiar? Not the scenery of course but if it does we can just get together and I'll help you stand yours up. How much rigging experience do you have? It's not a terribly hard job standing a load like this up but you do have to do it right or B-A-D things can happen to the load and to YOU. The second pic is it standing on the base I made for it. It's 4" x 12" through bolted and bolted to the hammer base. I put the base on the hammer before standing it up, that way I didn't have to lift the hammer to mount it. It also provided a cushion so the cast iron hammer foot wouldn't bang into the concrete floor. It also raises the hammer to a more comfortable working height for us late 20th century folk. I backed my trailer in where I wanted the hammer and slid it off the back. When it tipped I then hooked the 12v electric winch dead manned to a floor anchor (I have gozintas in the shop floors for just this) and belayed it to the pickup truck, NOT the trailer! It was off the trailer and standing in less time than it took to rig it which took a LOT less time than planning it. I could make a lot of suggestions for offloading and standing your hammer up but I have more than 30 years of experience rigging loads of all kinds. I have no doubt I could suggest things to some of the guys here and they could interpret and take or leave them as suited the job. However, one rigger to another we speak the language. My best suggestion is to hire a rigger or at least a good wrecker driver. Ask around a crane or exploration drilling company, maybe a house mover, rigging is a daily duty for them. Shoot call the wire rope supplier nearest to you and ask for a referral. A rigger will have your new joy standing and positioned fast, easy and most importantly safely. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Mike, glad to have you. A REAL stump for an anvil stand, classic. Not terribly practical, tripping over the roots and all but it's still too perfect. Most of the guys call a round or block of trunk wood a stump. It's just sweet for this old wise acre to see a beautiful old lady of a family anvil actually on a STUMP. The joker in me is well and truly charmed. You WILL however regret the graphite lube sprayed on her, it WILL get on everything and isn't so easy to wash out. There are a lot of perfectly good finishes to protect her from rust, a good polymerizing oil is popular because it's good, as are various waxes I like spray on LPS-3 or warm her up to cup of coffee warm and wiper her down with Johnson's paste or a carnuba wax like Trewax or Bowling Ally wax. And no, it's not heresy to paint your anvil though uncommon amongst end users many if not most manufacturers painted theirs before shipping, often to order. She looks to be in good shape, plenty of generations of blacksmiths in her still. Do you know what kind of smithing your Great Grandfather did? There are a lot of different kinds but many smiths tended to specialize but there were always the "village" smiths who did to metal whatever was asked. Do you have any more of your Great Grandfather's tools? Pictures, stories, etc.? I think he'd be pleased to see this old lady put back to work. Thank you for sharing this bit of family history with us, it's a treasure we can all appreciate and celebrate with you. Now build a fire and put a proper shine on her face. Frosty The Lucky.

Loose material in the anvil basically prolongs the impact, lowering the G load so less energy is transferred to the work. This is exactly what the padding in a helmet or the air bags in a vehicle do in a collision. B4: No it won't improve the situation enough to make a difference. The difference in resonant frequency CAN be a good thing, it's what makes Fisher anvils so much more quiet. However the resonant frequency of concrete is nonexistent so the energy passing through the anvil is just absorbed and dissipated in the concrete. For the intents of the velocity of the shock wave generated by a hammer on an anvil it's an airbag and actually reduces the anvil's efficiency. Just heavy isn't the answer, any more than just being old makes a thing an antique. Some things are just heavy or old or both with no added value. Frosty The Lucky.

Looks to me like you need a new saw blade, that's one ragged cut. Frosty The Lucky.

Mixing borax with water is an old jewelers method for making soldering fluxes. Just don't leave the joint wet long enough for it to rust and it works fine. The water will evaporate long before it can effect anything. I don't recall if you told us what kind of forge you use but iron wire has been used to bind joints to weld for as long as wire has been available. Well, I THINK it has that is. Don't take the forge to to high a heat till the stock's close welding heat and gentle it hotter. If the wire burns off then don't get it so hot so fast next time. Soft iron wire will have about the same melting temperature as the spikes so if you're burning it off, the forge temp is much hotter than you need to weld. One of the most important tricks is to make sure the joint is hot all the way through so a fire just at welding temp and leaving it to soak a long time is preferable to hot and fast. Steady wins the race. Forge welding is like algebra, follow the steps and show your work. Okay, so maybe the steps are different. Be picky, go ahead. <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

​ Frosty The Lucky.

​Welcome aboard Kas Cia, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might surprised how many IFI members live within visiting distance. Without knowing something about you and your skill levels there isn't much we can suggest that isn't obvious. For instance take lessons and practice till you're good enough. I'm not saying that to insult you it's an example of what I'm saying about not knowing enough to make meaningful suggestions. How long have you been blacksmithing? Where are you located? Have you attended schools, seminars, private lessons, etc. or are you self taught? How well equipped is your shop? Do you have power tools, what kind, how many? The list of questions would be endless if I have to start out knowing nothing. Frosty The Lucky.

Yes. I forge the joint so the join faces are closely matched then take my belt sander to them if I can. I then put a light coat of flux on them, dampening them with water or say 3 in 1 oil will stick the flux nicely. Then I wire the joint together. You can notch the outside corners so the wire doesn't slip if necessary. Once it hits orange heat it is a good idea to flux it again just in case. When it's to heat and soaked a while set the weld with a reasonably heavy hammer but as close to a dead blow as you can manage. Don't give it a big hard old smack, you can bounce the sides apart or cause them to shear sideways. Joe uses a coal forge and has a lot of experience with fire management so the joint will be in the heart but above the oxidizing region. I primarily use my propane forge and have never tried a fluxless weld though I have melted stock so maybe. Frosty The Lucky.