Frosty

That's pretty darned slick bigcity, I like it. Well done. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Darlin, glad to have you. You're MY kind of gal. I grew up working in my Father's shop and I kind of pity folk who didn't have to work from early on in a family business, it teaches so much more than the business. Don't get in too much of a hurry to "repair" your anvil, the edges aren't that bad. For the times you'll need a crisp edge a bottom tool will serve as well. It's simply a piece of steel with nice square edges that fits to one edge of the anvil and has a shank to fit the hardy hole. A radiused edge and a couple sharp ones and you're in business. Given a chance to examine it and provided there were no hidden flaws I wouldn't hesitate to restore the edges, it's not hard you just have to follow procedures. Yeah, like any good weld. Still, I'd rather see an anvil in that shape use than "repaired" even with good experience and record a welder can't repair that anvil without some level of risk. Think of it like surgery, things you can't know about can go wrong. Oh yeah, that's an English anvil the weight is in CWT (hundred weights,) your beauty weighs 203lbs. Do you have a post vise? You really need a post vise, 4" is a good size but larger is better, 4"-6" are pretty common and it doesn't hurt to have a couple few. A lot of guys describe them by weight but I think that's a product of folk describing anvils by weight, it isn't really very important for a post vise. Within reason of course, they're solid wrought or steel so they will be hefty, it just isn't a good indicator of appropriate size or utility. A post vise is designed and intended to be subjected to great forces, hammering on it with a sledge is par, so is putting a steel bar in it and taking a 6'+ cheater to it. If you rip the vise off the post find a stronger post, the vise won't be scuffed. Keep your good old bench vise for sure, a post vise isn't noted for precision filing or assembly work. Sure they'll work it just isn't their forte, I love my big old bench vises and wouldn't be without them. One last little note about the gang here, we LOVE pics, shop, tools, equipment, projects, problems, kids, dogs, recipes, you name it we love the pics. Frosty The Lucky.

The Chickaloon mines, Castle Mtn. have some world class metallurgical coal, it's just not so easy to get to. The last I heard the owners of the rights gave permission to blacksmiths to mine up to one ton a year each for personal use. The mines shut down after WWII and have lain since. The seams are exposed and weathered so the coal I've dug is pretty clinkery but cokes easily and is hot. I believe we'd have to expose the next layer down to reach reasonably clean unweathered coal but don't know how the owners would feel about moving overburden and I don't know who's holding the rights now. I haven't done any research in a long time seeing as I'm a propane forge guy. Still, I used Castle Mtn. coal in 95 and it was enough to spoil a boy. Three of us worked the forge hard for abut 8 hrs. at the State fair and at the end of the day the clinker was about the size of a golf ball. If we can find a clean seam, have permission and go get it ourselves, really high quality coal IS available. Frosty The Lucky.

I have a friend who lives on a cliff in California who has bats living in the rafters of his shop. I only have to worry about meeting a moose once in a while but we usually scare each other enough we both go the other way. On rare occasions I find a feral cat hunting in the shop but there's no food there so no vermin. Frosty The Lucky.

to find center first using a flatter and (hopefully) striker flatten opposing sides of the blank. This only needs to be a little flat line down the length 1/4" is more than enough. Now you have well registered faces so you can use a pair of dividers to find center. making flat sides really helps keep everything in place when you slit or punch and drift. Oh yeah, slit/punch and drift first. Frosty The Lucky.

Hex head bolts are NOT mild steel. FYI Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Bill, glad to have you. I think the basics have been covered pretty well, I only have a little to add. Soderfors anvils are as good as anvils get. They're cast steel Swedish anvils with faces so hard they tend to have chipped edges. Kohlswa are cast Swedish anvils as well but there was a period where the heat treat wasn't as good as it should've been. The real tip is to get yourself hooked up with the local blacksmithing organization, you'll learn more in a few hours with an experienced smith than you will in days or weeks teaching yourself. I know you have a mentor now and that's excellent but it's even better if there are a bunch of you. The more contacts the more knowledge at your disposal, more tools, equipment and materials. This IS one of those rare situations where more actually IS better. <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

Is the "Globe Theater" demolition/reclamation outfit still selling wrought? Frosty The Lucky.

I hate thieves. Too bad most places seem to think shooting thieves should be discouraged. Happily most of Alaska isn't one of those places so we don't even have to go to the bother of burying them. Call 911, they send cops and coroner and they'll charge the estate or survivors. I'm not joking, in the last few years there have been some notable examples, notable in I can remember them. A few years ago a couple of local bad boys, known thieves and worse, were caught breaking into a local church for the second or third time by the pastor. He was in the basement, heard them kick in the unlocked front door and came up the steps. The thieves ran and he shot one dead in his tracks and wounded the second as he was getting in the car. That xxxx was arrested at the hospital a couple hours later. The only charges filed were against the burglar. The pastor swore out a statement and pressed charges. A year or so ago there was a rash of strong arm burglaries in Anchorage by 3-4 men. They'd ring the bell and as soon as someone opened the door they'd force their way in and beat the crap out of whoever was there and rob them. They forced their way into a second floor apartment where they started having a good time beating a 78 year old man till his 74 year old wife came out of the bedroom shooting. One dead in the living room, one in the front doorway, one at the bottom of the stairs and the last one bled out down the block. She was shooting a 0.40 auto and only reloaded once. Her husband suffered several broken ribs but recovered fully. No charges filed, two statements filed. A very similar incident occurred but I don't recall if it was before or after, no fatalities but three seriously wounded. Charges pressed and doing time. The real downside is how prevalent alcohol abuse is and mixing alcohol and firearms results in a far too many firearm related injuries and deaths. While I may agree with shooting the bad guys in the act we get along just fine with our four dogs. Nice dogs, love most everybody, wouldn't hurt a flee. (well, if we had flees here that might not be quite accurate) People just don't seem to want to mess with several dogs. As out of the way, just off a semi-main road we haven't lost a thing is years, worst is the occasional XXX who dumps trash here rather than drive 7 miles to the dump. Been thinking about setting up a couple motion sensor game cameras but it doesn't happen but once every couple years so . . . I think the dogs have something to do with that too. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Glenn, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you may be surprised at how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. Finding an anvil is as much a matter of technique as luck so a really good technique is to maximize your luck. check out the TPAAT threads. Easy search here. It's an amazingly effective method of finding . . . most anything actually. One last work, we LOVE pics: shop, projects, tools, equipment, scenery, dogs, kids, food, most anything. <wink> Frosty The Lucky.

Eddie: Not only can you put a hand crank on one but a little imaginative use of bike parts and you can gear it up to really move air. Nice adaptation there Grymm. Frosty The Lucky.

Eye searing is good for bush work. Nice looking blades and great PR. Getting orders yet, gonna hire help to fill them? Frosty The Lucky.

2 heat maybe, depends on how strong the coffee and hearty a breakfast I had. I don't do round tapers for fire pokers. I draw a square taper say 2-3" long, fold it about an inch inside the taper draw the fold into a point, bend the taper out for the hook, decorate the shaft and put a handle finial on it. Frosty The Lucky.

And you forget to take our project back with you next time at the shop. Like this isn't a law of nature? Never, NEVER put something somewhere can't forget, if you ever want to see it again. Frosty The Lucky.

What the hey, why not chop all the veggies at once? Nice looking knife, well done. Frosty The Lucky.

The most common mistake making home brew petrobond is using too much oil. A friend here who does a lot of bronze and some iron casting uses resin bonded the smoke is almost nil. Frosty The Lucky.

There's a good chance it was a clinker from the fire nothing in the steel. If you don't brush the piece from the fire at least give it a rap on the side of the anvil to knock the crud off. Another delight of gloves being you just have NOT lived till a piece of hot crud lands in the glove. It's not as bad as in your shoe but it's a close runner up. Frosty The Lucky.

Good idea, sounds like a vie tool to me. Frosty The Lucky.

Seeing torch cuts on anvils makes me want to tie it to someone's neck and send them swimming. She doesn't look to damaged to me, put it to work. Frosty The Lucky.

Beautiful, Owen. Nicely done. Frosty The Lucky.

A stop nut, perfect. I've never done more than look a fly press over, well, got to turn one once but. . . <sigh> One has a high spot on my wish list. Frosty The Lucky.

Wecome aboard SWright, glad to have you. There are many hundreds of pages about setting up shops on low budgets.j In truth, getting deals is a very blacksmith thing so we're always keeping our eyes open for bargains. Start visiting whatever version of Yard, garage rummage, etc. sales folk on your side of the pond have. For a minimum kit you need a hammer, a ball pein is good, a cross pein is as well, don't get something too heavy to start, keep it under 2lbs. you'll want heavier hammers but it takes greater control and you need to learn good technique and hammer control so keep it light to start. You need something to cut steel with, cold chisels are a good choice but it's hard to beat a hack saw for salvaging working stock and cutting work pieces. Let's see, hammer, cutters, okay. An anvil can be anything heavy and hard enough to abuse hot steel on, boulders have been used longer than we've had iron and steel. Steel is better than stone and all you need is something with a face area a little larger than the hammer face, call it 3-4" square or round. It should weigh enough it doesn't bounce around too much under the hammer, 100lbs. is a good place to start. It can be almost any shape, lots of us used/use Rail Road rail, a piece of shaft on end is excellent but it can almost anything, train coupler is a favorite. You get the idea, just learn to tell what cast iron looks like and avoid it, it's not very good as an anvil. It's better than a dirt clod or Datsun fender though. I think that leaves us the fire. You need a HOT fire, not a big one, I believe you can buy coal or coke so a coke forge is a good one. However you can burn coal and coke just fine in a charcoal forge or vise versa. Making a fire pot is usually the hardest challenge most folk have but you can do it with an old brake drum, a washing machine door and a hatchet. Just get a normal brake drum, large truck drums tend to be way larger than most folk need, especially learning. an old blow drier and some pipe and you''re got the parts. There are lots of drawings and pics of the air supply so I'm not going to get into it now. If you want a side blast forge that's even easier, just a longish table with a "V" shaped trench down the middle and the air blast (Tue) at one end a couple inches off the bottom. A side blast will eat tue irons so don't get attached to the idea you can make them last. Even a water bosh burns up eventually so just get used to it. I think that covers the basics. Oh what about tongs you say? those are darned good learning projects and you can use stock long enough you don't need tongs. The perfect boot strap blacksmithing projects. Frosty The Lucky.

Unless it's hardened you can cut 6" rd. much faster than 3 hrs with a hacksaw. I can cut 2" sq. in under 10mins. with a hacksaw. Well I could, I ain't 35 anymore. <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

Good to see you posting again Paul. Don't be scaring the crap out of us like that again! Ya hear? It's good you're getting out in the shop again, a little work is good for what ails ya, not over doing it is important so take those breaks. Frosty The Lucky.

The flames look good for air fuel ratio, turn it down. The #1 rule when tuning burners is do ONE thing at a time and test it. If you do more than one you'll never know what did what, lucky guess is NOT the way to do these things. Oh yeah, keep notes. Frosty The Lucky.