Show me your anvil

[Skitzboy]

Welcome aboard Skitzboy, 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.

A 5 burner Majestic is a really big forge. What do you plan on forging?

Frosty The Lucky.

 

​I actually got the larger forge so that I can anneal farrier rasps with it as well. I use them in making tack and misc horse themed items. Each burner has its own valve so I can actually fire 1,2,3,4 or 5 burners depending on what is needed I can fit about 9 rasp per side tangs out in it. Im 100% service connected disabled (Marine Corps) and spend about 1-3 days a week in salt lake city at the VA hospital and then I usually weld in my shop the days I am home (Bigfork, Montana) fabricating anything from lawn ornaments, saddle racks, Salt Block Holders, Bottle openers, Saddle pad holders, Horse trailer swing out tack items, and household western themed items.I plan to start adding hand forged items and hand forged parts to existing designs that I fabricate to distinguish and differentiate myself from others that fabricate similar items. 

Edited April 9, 2015 by Skitzboy
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[smfg_mendo]

Nice anvil skitzboy and welcome!

[smfg_mendo]

             

Edited April 9, 2015 by smfg_mendo

[Frosty]

Thank you for serving, you guys are the heart and soul of America.

A while ago there was a thread here on IFI about blacksmithing as therapy for vets. Does it help?

Sounds like you have product lines up and running, that's good news. Lots of guys get into the craft with ideas but no real plans so success is a crap shoot. I'm thinking you're just branching out. You can count on me to do what I can to help, it's the least an American can do.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Frozenforge]

Nice Trenton, by the S/N its approx 1902. Mount it good, with the thin heel a long horn it will probably have quite the ring to it! 

[Branstetter]

$100 for the remains of an old Hill anvil. 136 lbs on the bathroom scale. Haven't got a chance to look it over real good yet. Tomorrow for sure. 

Good deal? I think so. That's all that really matters right? 

[Skitzboy]

Nice Trenton, by the S/N its approx 1902. Mount it good, with the thin heel a long horn it will probably have quite the ring to it! 

​Frozen Forge, thank you for the dating on my Trenton. I knew it was close to turn of the century and for a 113 year old anvil it looked and sounded to be in great condition. Just setting it on my wood work bench to go over every inch of the face with a hammer to test for dead spots it had a very pleasant ring. I am excited to get it mounted.

Frosty, you're welcome! and you are quite right I have a line of items I am selling but I want to do a bit of value added work with hand forging various parts and items. I have tinkered with "kind of" forging in the last couple months. I hammered some bottle openers out of half horseshoes and other items using my oxy-acetylene set a 3# hand sledge and an old andiron that was made from a piece of train rail. I have read a blacksmithing primer and the backyard blacksmith cover to cover and reread the chapters I felt I didn't fully take in. I planned this addition for a couple of months and now I am in the process of implementing it. I am a bit scared of the financial cost of doing it but since I am already in the shop welding out items for customers anyways I will get to practice a lot more when I am waiting on orders or hit a slow period. I plan on doing some small items for my wife to take to farmers market as well.

I like re-purposing items used in the equine world after they have ended their duty cycle into unique new useable items. I find working with steel to be relaxing, almost cathartic. I like taking something hard and turning it into a useable item that people want in their homes. I have a full blown wood shop as well. I could open a cabinet shop but I like the fact that unlike wood if a measurement is read wrong you can add a bit more to it and not lose your piece because of a slight miscalculation. The shear fact of the matter is it is fun playing with fire and making something that is near unbreakable bend to my will!  Does it help as therapy, i think that any person needs a hobby. One that makes them feel relaxed, that they can focus energy into and produce something that is of use to someone. If it art, music, or underwater basket weaving, it doesn't matter as long as you take pleasure in it and yes a bit of pride in accomplishing it. so short answer yes.

  So the question i put out to everyone what would the best style of stand be for this anvil? I would like to make the stand somewhat portable. My thought was welding one out of square tubing and an angle iron base. Fill the square tubing legs with sand, cap them, then weld the legs to an angle iron base. On the angle iron base welding ears for mounting a bolted on cross bar to go over the feet of the anvil. I thought of using 1/4" steel on it and using the sand to add mass to the base. other option is I go out and cut a 21" slab of a ponderosa pine or other similar local tree. I don't know anywhere around me that has any downed cotton wood. Thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

[ThomasPowers]

sand makes it less portable due to weight, could you make two stands a shop and a travel stand?

[Frosty]

Ah its just butterflies, we all get them starting a new skills set, especially if we're hoping to make a dime off it. You'll do fine, you have realistic expectations, a good handle on basic business and a paycheck coming in already.

I do this largely because I like playing with fire and hitting things with hammers. Being able to use humankind's two oldest tools, fire and something to hit with and bend the most recognizable symbol of strength durability and permanence on earth to our will is soul deep satisfying. I think maybe we're on the same page eh? Being able to take other people's trash and sell it back to them to their delight is icing on the cake. Probably the truest form of compliment is paying someone for their efforts.

I have steel stands under both my main anvils now and really like them better than the wood blocks. First and foremost they're really quietened them down. The Trenton is a loud anvil on a wood stand but nothing compared to the Soderfors, that one had me wearing both ear plugs and muffs, any missed blow was damagingly loud. Now they're both decent, miss a blow and they're still loud but it's a clank rather than a ring. A steel stand has a different resonant frequency than the anvils so as the shock wave jumps the gap they self damp, no ring. It's like ringing a triangle and leaving the striker in contact, clank buzz, no ring.

I wouldn't put sand or anything in the legs, it won't quieten them any more and a heavy stand is of limited use. I just made an angle iron frame the feet sets into and hammer and tong racks that wedge between the rim and anvil foot to keep it in place. Turns out the self damping action keeps the anvil from bouncing anyway so I don't know if wedging it in helps.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Skitzboy]

Ah its just butterflies, we all get them starting a new skills set, especially if we're hoping to make a dime off it. You'll do fine, you have realistic expectations, a good handle on basic business and a paycheck coming in already.

I do this largely because I like playing with fire and hitting things with hammers. Being able to use humankind's two oldest tools, fire and something to hit with and bend the most recognizable symbol of strength durability and permanence on earth to our will is soul deep satisfying. I think maybe we're on the same page eh? Being able to take other people's trash and sell it back to them to their delight is icing on the cake. Probably the truest form of compliment is paying someone for their efforts.

I have steel stands under both my main anvils now and really like them better than the wood blocks. First and foremost they're really quietened them down. The Trenton is a loud anvil on a wood stand but nothing compared to the Soderfors, that one had me wearing both ear plugs and muffs, any missed blow was damagingly loud. Now they're both decent, miss a blow and they're still loud but it's a clank rather than a ring. A steel stand has a different resonant frequency than the anvils so as the shock wave jumps the gap they self damp, no ring. It's like ringing a triangle and leaving the striker in contact, clank buzz, no ring.

I wouldn't put sand or anything in the legs, it won't quieten them any more and a heavy stand is of limited use. I just made an angle iron frame the feet sets into and hammer and tong racks that wedge between the rim and anvil foot to keep it in place. Turns out the self damping action keeps the anvil from bouncing anyway so I don't know if wedging it in helps.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

​I really like your stand what size material did you use for that 1/4' on the angle or a little bigger? the legs look to me like 2x3 or 2x4 1/4" rectangular tubing. yeah I think we are on the same page. Where is meadow lakes Alaska? I lived in Palmer, Hilltop, Anchorage, Ninilchick, Kodiak and Ketchikan when I was younger. I actually joined the Marines in Alaska. I flew from Ketchikan to Anchorage for MEPS then when I got out I returned to Anchorage. I lived in Alaska for 13 years total. I still have cousins there and my sis and her boyfriend guide up there.

[Frosty]

 Good eye, the legs are 1/4"x2"x3" rectangular tubing the angle is 1/2" x2" x3" with the 3" as the base under the anvil. The 2" flange would've left a gap and small tools, cut offs, etc. would've fallen through.

I need to raise my Soderfors stand a couple inches as it's my finish anvil and it's set just above knuckle height. Of course the heavier Trenton's stand has it at wrist height but the anvils have different size bases and won't interchange. <sigh>

We're literally on the west side of the boundary between Wasilla and Big Lake burroughs. Vine Rd, 2 miles from the Parks Hwy.

When you think you'll be back? Montana is a nice place, elbow room and such but you have Alaska in your blood. It's a harder addiction to kick and blacksmithing. A really large demographic of Alaskans is folk who were stationed here and couldn't wait to get away and couldn't stand it. Probably the truest thing Wally Hickel ever said was why he lived here, "It's the place I dislike least." As honest a statement a politician ever made.

Look me up when you visit your relatives. We'll get some of the guys together and have some fun.

Frosty The Lucky.

[jwilson645]

Here's my small freebie. 50lbs of cast iron. On the lookout for something larger, of course.

 

 

[ThomasPowers]

It's a start and that horn looks like a good bracelet mandrel for non-ferrous ones being worked with a wooden mallet.

[TreeBek]

My First "Anvil". A little railroad track that needs some flattening.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard TreeBek, glad to have you. I sure hope your Avatar indicates we have the honor and privilege of the company of another Ladysmith. If you're actually a guy who likes pinup art. . . Nevermind.

There's nothing wrong with your rail anvil as it sits. Flat is an over rated desire, far from a necessity. The rail is straight enough lengthwise to straighten on. The crown across the rail on the other hand increases the efficiency of drawing. The most I'd do with a grinder on yours is to clean up any burrs where train tires rolled the edges. Maybe radius the edges on the ends but that's a maybe.

I've put a lot of hours on rail anvils, most around a camp fire, about the only thing you can't do on one that you can on a London pattern anvil is set a bottom tool in the hardy hole or punch over the prichel hole. Neither of these can't be done using alternatives.

Nice spread of pictures, we LOVE pics you know.

Frosty The Lucky.

[TreeBek]

Yeah i'm a dude and thanks for the advice. Hopefully I can get a forge up and running soon I am thinking of using a hibachi grill, but i'm not sure of how to go about restricting the airflow. More pics

[stan]

Here's my small freebie. 50lbs of cast iron. On the lookout for something larger, of course.

 

 

​Can`t get any better than free, looks too good for cast iron.You don`t  happen to know who use to make that metal furniture the anvils sitting on? Have  a whole setting that my parents bought when they lived in the US and bought back to aust. 

[MotoMike]

Hi

Here she is.  Arm and Hammer.  I've started discussing it on "Family heirloom Arm and Hammer" post.   

[jwilson645]

​Can`t get any better than free, looks too good for cast iron.You don`t  happen to know who use to make that metal furniture the anvils sitting on? Have  a whole setting that my parents bought when they lived in the US and bought back to aust. 

​I've seen many sets of it but I can't remember any of the manufacturers names at the moment. Around what time period was it purchased? Do you recall?

 

 

[stan]

Hi jwilson ,It would have been around 1978 or 79.

[Eddie Mullins]

Here's my main anvil, a 152 lb Arm and Hammer. For the majority of what I do, this one is just about the perfect size, and certainly heavy enough for moving around by myself. The serial number is 44419 (if memory serves) out of a 51000 +/ total ending I believe in 1950. So I am guessing it is from the mid to late 1940's. I would really like a double horn to add to the shop one of these days though.

[Anthony San Miguel]

My lovely 82 lb Hay Budden, and my first "anvil", and several in between. The 65 lb crusher hammer head moves a surprising amount of steel. Keep that in mind if you're in search of an anvil at the scrapyard.

[Jakesshop]

Here's a new addition to my shop. A 170 pound "no name" hornless anvil I had recently brought in from Europe. I had just finished the stand and took her for a test drive today to find its personality. Got some nice curves and has decent rebound considering it was from prior 1850. Fairly quite compared to the two S&H's in the picture. I will be using this anvil doing demos at Renaissance and Pirate Fairs in my local area.

.

[Anthony San Miguel]

Here's a new addition to my shop. A 170 pound "no name" hornless anvil I had recently brought in from Europe. I had just finished the stand and took her for a test drive today to find its personality. Got some nice curves and has decent rebound considering it was from prior 1850. Fairly quite compared to the two S&H's in the picture. I will be using this anvil doing demos at Renaissance and Pirate Fairs in my local area.

.

Wow! I love it! Looks Austrian.

[ThomasPowers]

May I say this in the kindest way possible---you dog! That's a Beauty!