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So here's some results from my latest adventure in hot cutting 1" bar. Other than missing my saw mark (sigh..) my friend and I cut this pretty efficiently! It took a single heat and didn't mess up my hot cut made from the chisel-y end of whatever the end of this was. Come to think of it, how did I cut this originally...? Ignoring the torn up anvil (it was cheap as dirt during the plague and rings like a bell) here's the result of my hot cut. Pretty satisfied with it, but I'm not sure about the little burr on it. Came out worse on the other piece, but I just ground it off after a ridiculous attempt at hot-filing it off (fuel costs too much for *that*). Any way to avoid the burr? Or is not worrying about it and just having my apprentice grind this off with the belt sander the best course of action?

I got an amazing gift recently. I got a Hardy/hardie tool bench. It came with 4 pieces. One is a Blowhorn I know that... there's a spike that im pretty sure has nothing to do with it and 2 items that cannot be used in the bench. One of the two, looks to me, like a removable Anvil horn, the other is a long rectangular object with a step in it. Both are horizontal fits and both have a round, male insert with two flattened or "keyed" sides, unlike other vertical that are tapered square/rectangle. There are no stamps or markings. Can you help me identify the 2 and possibly the spike? I am also interested in finding corresponding pieces for both bench and unidentified tools. I am new to blacksmithing, just getting the final pieces together to really start. I appreciate any help you guys can give. I've tried for days looking up different words to identify the 2 with no luck in the slightest. He'll, I honestly don't know what I'm looking at with these 2 specifically. They could be for something entirely unrelated. Anyways, thanks again guys!

So, I'm pretty new to the craft (less than 6 months serious work) and I really wanted a hot cut hardy tool. I do some steel shopping at my local scrap yard and I was lucky enough to come across some 4140 elevator pins. 1-1/4" diameter. I had a a few extra hours on Friday sooo... I got to bangin... I used an angle grinder to make a square nub on the end so I could grab it with my tongs. I made this with a 3lb cross peen and a file for final profile on the cutting head. I never thought that moving that much steel by hand would be possible. My shoulder still hurts and I broke my hammer but I did it. Hahaha. I heat treated the blade portion but didnt bother tempering as I felt the heat from hot materials would ruin any tempering I do. I would love some feedback. Please and thank you.

Hey all, I have been stalling about making proper tools, and decided to try a hot cut Hardy tonight. This was made from one of the largest crow bars I've ever seen with just a chisel, a 3 lb cross pien from HF, and a 180# Trenton. I had to upset it for a good 20 min to get to be larger than the size of my Hardy hoIe. I so wish I had a striker, as the tapering took so many blows from my 3lb hammer. I would love to see all your hot cut hardies as a comparison! Any and all advice or comments are welcome. Brent

Hello, I am new to this forum and I have an anvil that I am trying to identify. I can make out the words: "? ???LDRIDGE & SON, ????RBRIDGE, BEST WARRANTED". The other side is stamped in hundred weight: 3 1 3 (the first three is upside down). And yes, it has THREE Hardy Holes! Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks, Isaac

Does anyone know an inexpensive non-destructive way to make a square hole for my anvil? So I got took my little 20 kilo (about 44#) Peddinghaus anvil to a cnc machine shop hoping they could mill a square hole so I can make some bottom tooling for it. In the process I had him re-surface the top. So when I went to pick up the anvil last night, he told me he was unable to machine the square hole because this metal was tough stuff, in fact he has broken some carbide bits while re-surfacing it. I wish I had told him that the edge of the anvil was supposed to have a tapered radius because he ended up taking off a little more than I had expected (about a 1/4''). Lesson learned!

Getting by with a track anvil can be difficult sometimes. I have already created a horn on mine, but getting a hardy hole has been a challenge. I believe having this hole would be a great benefit because you can place different tools in one to achieve different things. I have had a different piece of railroad track, not the track, but a different section that holds the rail timbers. In the video see how I ended up crafting a hardy hole section to hopefully achieve this. link removed Area under the track plate hole has been drilled out, Spike can now be modified to fit into the *hardie hole* and be used.

Got another item off the to forge list over the weekend! forged myself a Brazeal style hot cut hardie with tapered shank and curved blade. did most of it solo as I was starting with just 3/4" sucker rod (4130), which is not terribly difficult to forge. had to enlist some help to forge the fullers and strike on the flatter because I ran out of hands. it is actually as small as it looks, my anvil's hardie is 5/8" so it had to be pretty small to fit. unfortunately because I started with a piece that I had previously squared up for an unrelated project I ended up with a much narrower waist than I had anticipated and it sits right at the lower edge of the fuller, which I don't think is ideal. not catastrophic if I have to make another one, just more practice :) still need to file the edge, and beyond making the curve uniform on the belt grinder and knocking the remnants of the previous ragged cut from the tip of the shank everything is wire wheeled as forged. comments and criticism welcome, always willing to learn. question for anyone though: what exactly is the purpose of the fuller between the top of the shank and where the blade springs? I included it largely because that's how Brian's are made, but does it have an intended function that I am overlooking? Thanks for looking!

Not to long ago i picked up an 'auto body half-football dolly with grip' from a harbor freight parking lot sale ($4.99!) i bought it with the intent to use it as a bottom fuller/psuedo horn becaues the horn on my little ASO is pretty flat on top, like a round edged triangle. trouble is the blasted grip is far too large to fit the 1" hardie :( ideally i would like to reforge (handled top fuller over the horn and a striker) the shank to bring it down to about 1" square, or at least close enough to where a massage from the belt grinder will finish it up without wasting too much material. i cant forge the entire shank (around 5" long) to be 1" because the increase in length will bottom it out against the foot of the anvil beneath the heel. that being the case id like to only forge the top end of the grip until i get about 2-3" of 1" square and the remainder of the grip still at the full size beyond that. at that point i would cut the 1" square part in half, leaving me with the football on about 1.5" of 1" square shank, and the remainder of the grip also on about 1.5" of 1" square shank. then it becomes a matter of deciding what kind of tool i want to make out of the grip remainder, be it a hot cut or who knows what. i could also forge the football flat on top, basically turning it into a hardie anvil block, which will give me a more solid surface to work on, and probably a more reliable set of edges as well. the grip remainder could be bent over and forged into a hardie bick too. has anyone worked with one of these, or similar products from HF? do they have a propensity towards using particular steels for particular tools? i should have sparked tested it the last time i was at the belt grinder but i didnt think about it. hardening questions will wait until i have something more than a W.A.G. as to the composition, but they are still there :ph34r: or am i just being stupid and should shape the shank on the belt grinder, cut it off on the band saw, keep the football as is, and maybe take a shot at reforging the grip remainder? to make matters more irritating, this is aparently a discontinued item that they were clearing out in the parking lot sale, so i cant buy more as a hedge against failure, or a platform for lessons learned, or to repeat if successful :angry: i appreciate any input you may have! this is it its about 5.5 pounds of who-knows-exactly-what, black paint on the underside which will need to be stripped. the other side of the grip has FORGED stamped into it, and theres a very pronounced shear/grind/saw looking seam line running the length of the whole thing. minor edits for clarity and skipped words.