BIGGUNDOCTOR

Lary, I see a fire donkey

And a good hydraulic system can be more expensive than having a screw made. Then you have leaks, etc...

I could see it becoming a flat rate today with what things cost today. One good suggestion could save millions of dollars. Glad to hear it is still around. I made it as far as talking with the Army and Air Force recruiters when I was a senior in high school. Ended up taking some machine shop courses for two years at the local community college, and going straight to work after graduating. Three years later I started my machine shop with a friend. I sometimes wonder how much different my life would have been if I had signed up back in 1983.

I wouldn't worry about the pitting much. Scale abrading it, and some planishing would smooth it out soon enough. It probably wouldn't affect the work much, if at all. Value depends on what you the seller, and the buyer agree to. There are plenty of Hay Budden fanboys out there, so they are not hard to sell. I paid $175 for my minty 170# HB in NV, and $100 for the 96# in UT around 2015. In that condition I would say $450 tops, but your location will determine value. I would not grind, or flap wheel the top if you are selling. If I saw that it would be a big red flag. The top plates are not that thick to begin with.

Curious as to how many people use letter openers today with the drop in letters overall? Even my bills are done paperless now. I wonder if they are headed the way of the buggy whip. BUT, it looks like it could possible double as an oyster shucker. Looks great BTW

We had a SAJO combination mill in our small shop that took #40 tapers in both spindles. Later I picked up a Bridgeport copy for home. I need to bring my machine shop equipment from CA down to my place here in NV. I have a #2 Van Norman horizontal that takes #50, two Monarch lathes, Clausing hydraulic surface grinder, the Millport mentioned above, and a 16" G&E shaper.

Hydraulics are slow, especially hand pumped, and many times you need speed with a vise. There are hydraulic vises, but they are not used in a smithy. Air would be faster, but not strong enough. I have a couple of ideas for screwless vises that I want to try out.

$500 would be too much even if the edges were great in my opinion. As you stated, you are getting into new anvil purchasing range, and new anvils are better in many ways; no face plate to delaminate, solid one piece construction, no soft wrought iron used, and better alloys today. As to edges, you do not want sharp edges as they promote cold shuts in the work. They were shipped sharp so that the smith could radius them as he saw fit. The ones above could be smoothed out with a flap wheel, but would they work for what you do? You could always make a block, or saddle that has smaller or varied radii that drops into the hardy hole or over the face. For those starting out I recommend an improvised anvil, due to the cost of beat up vintage anvils today. An anvil does not need to be a London pattern to be a "real" anvil. In regards to price, only you can determine what an anvil is worth to you. Regarding welding up, if done wrong it can do more damage than helping.

Pat Masterson. some cable has non metallic center cores that would need to be removed. I believe the pattern is from, as said previously, the boundary layers between the wires. Forge welding is not like arc welding where a liquid puddle is formed. Even with arc welding, when a flat joined piece is polished up some you can see the weld bead edge. If the cable was repeatedly folded and welded it would look more homogeneous. Hheneg - my Dad said the same thing, and he was ex Air Force. He said he would fight to keep our Marines, but never wanted to have one of his kids be one. Something about having to check their ID when you asked them their name... As for imaginations, the Air Force had a program called beneficial suggestions aka benny sugs - don't know if the other branches had it as well. What these were for was to improve the running of any operations. If you saw a way to save money, or improve how something was done, you filled out a form. If the idea was adopted, it was sent out to all of the bases that could use it. After one year of implementation you would get a check for 10% of the cost savings your idea provided. That cash incentive got people motivated. Don't know if that program is still around, dad was in the Air Force from 1947 - 1967 as a machinist and aircraft mechanic. He also did 4 in the Army from 1943 -1947 as an Engineer.

Pictures would help too. Many tool steel are air hardening, so they need to be welded and handled far differently.

To be honest, I don't know. I bought it a looooong time ago, and just set it down with the other blowers. I haven't done any forging for at least 6 year now. Being a machinist, I figure I could make what I needed, but good used is the best. I got a bad case, and with the run in I had with the county I just stopped. I need to get everything set back up , and do something as it would probably do a lot for me mentally. The last few years have been rough on my mind, and I have not pursued any of my creative hobbies.

TW , I prefer to be more fluid in my work, and not as viscous..... Spelling Nazis can be vicious... DWH - the anvil is fairly small, and has some condition issues (edges) from what I can see in the pictures, so I would not expect top dollar. Say around $3 , or $225. A good general shop anvil size is 125#-175# in my opinion. The stand would have to be modified for me, as I hate chains wrapped around an anvil waist. As to the source of the wood, do you have any provenance? The wood may be more valuable to a wood worker than a smith.

Twisted, just mount the vise and see if it pulls down flat with the bolts. My guess it will bend as they would not put a brittle mount on a vise designed to be beat on. And you did good on the Champion 400's. I usually see them listed for $250. I have one myself that needs a restoration. I think I gave $20 or $30 for it years ago. I know where one is being use as yard art, but they are not interested in selling it off due to it being her grandfather's.

O1 will air harden in thinner sections. Always good to do some testing to get the process down right.

JHCC, where are her safety glasses? That is still a bearded axe, but it is the goatee style. Have you tried a speaker magnet under the heel of the anvil instead of the mile of chain?

All of that white stuff makes me happy I moved to the desert. It was a beautiful sunny 65F degree day today. Das, we used to burn our Christmas trees in the woodstove. Let them get nice and dry, and they are the best kindling, and they make the house smell nice. Never had any issues with making the chimney dirty as long as you get the stove burning hot, and not running rich. Dry palm fronds are similar due to the oils. Great kindling to get things warm in a hurry. Goats love Christmas trees as a snack. I believe the last really good snow in Las Vegas was in 08. There was enough to make snowmen by the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign. It hits that end, and over by Henderson due to the higher elevation in the valley. Once you got to around Sahara it was just rain. That year it lasted for around 3 days before melting off.

Cold blue as used to touch up firearms would give some contrast with the copper. As it is now, it is hard to see the copper. It works best if the part is warmed up some. You could even do just parts by brushing it on certain areas with a paintbrush. Tempering oxides fade fairly fast. They do not hold up like case hardening colors do.

By boat will be less expensive than air. If you could piggyback it in a container that would be best. IIRC someone here got there anvil in a container with some old tractors making the trip I believe you are talking about Robin Sharples Waterfoot in the UK, he is on a FB anvil page and ships anvils all over. He has a job lot up for sale now that has I believe 40 or 50 anvils in it, along with factory stands, and swage blocks. I think he said he was getting a container shipped to the States for $1,800. That is reasonable considering containers from China now are running $20,000 due to high demand. My friend checked into getting his dad's Porsche 911 shipped from Germany to Las Vegas and it was going to be $1,500. As to the Navy buddy, my aunt and uncle got a few cases of Vernors ginger ale delivered to England by submarine.

I wouldn't worry about it.

Mark Saw. as to the paint, most of my anvils have paint on them, and many left the factory painted. Seems to be a modern belief that the anvil HAS to be bare metal and oiled. Personally I would leave the paint alone, wire brush the loose rust off the working surfaces, and get it mounted up. Working on it will polish the face up nicely as the scale that comes off the part is abrasive.

I believe it was after 1909 that they added England to the logo. Other than that, the logo would need to be in better shape to get closer I believe.

Machine Shop, what brand of milling machine is that? Looks like it takes a #40 taper shank.

Drill shank. I got a few from a PG&E auction along with a mess of jackhammer bits when my Dad and I were starting out. Most hex stock is more than mild steel, as it is used for things like PTO shafting and needs to be tough. May not get super hard, but tough. I wouldn't worry about the springs for gigs. Just use one of the unbroken ones. I wonder if it is the rust that causes them to break. Out West I have only seen a couple of broken leaf springs, more simply bent, but hear about far more back East.

Haha, well at least U.S. lets us know you don't need to Google translate your posts. There are 9 cities worldwide named Olympia, with 6 in the States. No big deal to me , but I thought it was interesting how many there are. I grew up In Fairfield CA, and there are 53 worldwide and 35 here in the States. I live near Las Vegas now and there are only 3 of those in the States, with one being kinda well known. The remaining 55 are mostly South of the border, so I usually don't need to clarify. I am pretty sure I know which one by your comment of that describes one state pretty well. I moved to the desert because I hated the rain we had where I grew up. Olympia - Washington Olympia - South Carolina Olympia - North Carolina Olympia - Missouri Olympia - Kentucky Olympia - California Your garden art is very well done, and it is a nice clean forging. I grew up with older parents and I learned how to roll a hoop. Dad cut the spokes out of a trike wheel, and made a tee stick for it. I have seen some hoops that were quite large in old pictures.

When my Dad was in the Air Force (1947-67) and working on radial engines , he said the procedure was to put the old valves in a bucket, take them out back of the shop, and bury them..... I wonder how long it will take the stems to corrode through