January 1, 20197 yr My blacksmithing cone mandrel is the penetrator from a ballistic missile---fellow showed up at Quad-State one year with a flatbed load of ones that had failed Q/C. Wish I had bought a dozen of them!
January 1, 20197 yr Not one to hand and it's up at my other shop. Anybody else that bought one of them have a picture handy? (I know at least one person who was on here had one...) (It's going to be a couple of weeks before I get there again).
January 1, 20197 yr 96 lb and what I believe is a 1911 Mouse Hole Forge from the lettering Edited January 1, 20197 yr by DanNorris Resizing pictures
January 1, 20197 yr Welcome to IFI Dan... I always suggest reading this to get the best out of the forum. READ THIS FIRST BTW: looks like a nice Mouse Hole to me.
January 13, 20197 yr I picked this beauty up today!! This is my first anvil ever. Before this I was using some railroad track and a 10kg lump of steel shaped like an anvil. This is an 84# kohlswa. There are a few very minor dings in it but overall it is in great condition and I can't wait to put this to work tomorrow!
January 13, 20197 yr Hey Shoshinjoe, fellow Australian, welcome and congratulations on the Kohlswa! A finer anvil you will not find! (But I am biased because my work anvil is a K). Have you done a rebound test on it? 95% for sure. We had Swedish visitors to my forge recently and they said that the town still exists, but it is Kolsva.
January 13, 20197 yr Hey ausfire, cheers mate. I have not done a rebound test, but as soon as i come across a ball bearing i will do one. From the research i did i knew i could not pass this up. As you probably know anvil prices and quality here are all over the place, so i am pretty happy i found this one Im going to clean up the face today and get to work as soon as possible
January 13, 20197 yr Nice score anywhere you go! When you say clean the face up I hope you're not talking about taking a disk grinder to it! I don't know what you see as dings but I don't see anything that needs more than wiped off with a rag and put to work. Hammering hot steel on her will put a shine of that fine Swedish lady's face in no time. Don't worry about the chips from the edges, cast Swedish steel anvils are famous for being hard enough the edges chip rather easily if you miss a hard blow and actually hit the anvil's edge. Use it a while before deciding but anvils should NOT have sharp square edges, it causes problems when setting shoulders. A sharp inside corner is a stress riser and tends to initiate breaks if flexed. Think scoring glass before snapping it, same thing going on. So most of us radius the edges we're going to forge directly over, setting shoulders being a prime example. A useful method is to grind different radii so you have a good selection. Okay, hopefully you won't do any grinding on the face, the rest of that fine lady could use a good wire brushing and a coating. I like a cup brush in a small angle grinder and paste carnuba floor wax as a rust preventative. Boiled linseed oil is another good choice as is Johnson's furniture polish. Bees wax is popular but remains tacky for a long time. I have a Soderfors, Swedish cast anvil. Prepare to be spoiled by a truly top shelf anvil. You WILL, I promise, start keeping a little cash stash in case you see another Kohlswa or luck into a Soderfors. The only time I use another make anvil is if I'm testing it or mine isn't available. Frosty The Lucky.
January 14, 20197 yr Frosty, thanks for the tips. After a bit more reading last night I realized I should not touch the face at all. I was going to wire brush it. But saw a few posts saying just use it. The dings in the edges don't bother me at all and the edges are pretty nicely radiused though very small radii. And I have some boiled linseed oil read to go. I missed out on a 169 lbs Soderfors by the skin of my teeth, for a ridiculously good price. So lesson learned, I should have jumped on it immediately. The fund for something like that has already begun. Cheers
January 14, 20197 yr Author You may wish to read the thread Anvils, rent-to-own. Follow the suggestions and rent your current anvil to pay for the new one.
January 14, 20197 yr Great idea Glenn. When i actually have a property and proper workshop i will definitely implement this. For now my tiny courtyard in my townhouse will have to suffice haha
January 18, 20197 yr 3 hours ago, FlatLiner said: I like it foundryguy. What is the projected price for it? We have been asked not to talk price on this forum. Just showing off my new design
January 18, 20197 yr 3 hours ago, FlatLiner said: What is the projected price for it? You can always send foundryguy a PM to discuss price and sales privately.
January 20, 20197 yr Here's my 75Kg Refflinghaus anvil that I bought from Shady Grove several years ago. It is on what will hopefully be a short term stand made from scrap wood I had lying around. It gets the job done for now.
January 20, 20197 yr Nice! It appears to be cast but I would not know. Are the slots like dovetails to wedge tools into temporarily?
January 20, 20197 yr I'm pretty sure it was forged, not cast, due to the presence of handling holes in the body.
January 20, 20197 yr On 1/18/2019 at 10:14 AM, foundryguy said: My newest creation. H13, 230 lbs, 52 to 55 Rc. Another beautiful anvil, ALL sweet spot! Too bad I'm too old and lazy to need anywhere near that much anvil. Oh MY, Jeniffer! I'm adding that up to 292 lbs. in my head. What a SWEET score! Yes, the dovetails are to receive bottom tooling for various steps in production blade smithing. A video of a British bladesmith using one of these has been posted, I wish I remembered the name or location of the link. . . . Somebody with an undented head please? I don't need another anvil but I'd clear space and build that beauty a stand soonest. Frosty The Lucky.
January 20, 20197 yr 7 hours ago, jlpservicesinc said: Glued joints? Nay, just heavily screwed (wood screws). There is a 2x4 sub-frame under the box and I routed out the shape of the anvil foot into the top about 1/8 inch and used silicon to keep the anvil in it. I thought maybe the silicone would reduce the ringing some but it doesn't appear to do so. All in all a pretty solid base. If I painted it with high temp paint to help avoid fire issues it could be a keeper.
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