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I Forge Iron

Show me your anvil


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1 hour ago, Soupyjones said:

Well you certainly got me there. Truth be told it was given to me right after it was made. It is only eight years old and has always been inside. The idea of painting it still scares me a bit

Invite the neighborhood kids in and tell them NOT to paint it. Finger paint would be unique, maybe even cool.

Rig the bagpipes to the exhaust port of a modern utility hammer for neighbors who complain.

There's an Alaskan smith on one of the islands who has been salvaging boilers and steam hammers for decades. A developer bought acreage adjoining him built a subdivision and immediately started complaining about the steam hammers.

The city, then the Island/borough and finally State told them they had no case the hammers were there and working long before they built. The tactics turned into nuisance complaints at all hours. Rather than file suit for harassment he rigged steam whistles to the exhaust ports on his steam hammers. I understand everybody within a few miles knows when they're in use.

At least they have a legitimate reason to complain now.

It's your anvil, paint or not I want pics. :)

Frosty The Lucky.

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8 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Invite the neighborhood kids in and tell them NOT to paint it. Finger paint would be unique, maybe even cool.

Rig the bagpipes to the exhaust port of a modern utility hammer for neighbors who complain.

There's an Alaskan smith on one of the islands who has been salvaging boilers and steam hammers for decades. A developer bought acreage adjoining him built a subdivision and immediately started complaining about the steam hammers.

The city, then the Island/borough and finally State told them they had no case the hammers were there and working long before they built. The tactics turned into nuisance complaints at all hours. Rather than file suit for harassment he rigged steam whistles to the exhaust ports on his steam hammers. I understand everybody within a few miles knows when they're in use.

At least they have a legitimate reason to complain now.

It's your anvil, paint or not I want pics. :)

Frosty The Lucky.

Always loved steam whistles myself.

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He never would send me a recording, the lighter hammers cycled much faster than the 1&2 ton hammers. The 100lb. hammers don't rattle the dishes in your cabinets though but I suppose a steam whistle cycling what 150-200 toots/min. would make up for no ripples on your coffee.

If Deb and I ever get to the Island I'm sure he won't be hard to look up.

Frosty The Lucky.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Nice looking little anvil. You can drill the flange as well and screw it directly to the stand, it'll be a little more secure. You were able to drill the hole to pilot the hardy because whoever ground the contact surface to make a flat face ground through the induction and work hardened surface. I don't know of a way to reliably harden and temper the rail without running some risk. "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" by Alexander Weygers has a prety complete section on using rail for anvils and includes good instructions for heat treating it.

Frosty The Lucky.

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I was worried about losing the hardness too but honestly in the month I've been working with it, it's been absolutely solid. I was prepared to harden it but so far I haven't found a reason to. I don't know if it came out of the fact of its heavy use or what but the machinist that ground down the face said he came to the conclusion that the two hardest substances he knew of was carbide and whatever the hell this was. I have TCMB it's a great book and I recommend it to anyone looking to start.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Greetings everybody,

I signed up here several years ago and haven't been involved much, but now I'm back. I got this at an auction yesterday. It is covered in several layers of paint that I'll be working to remove over the next few days. I have no idea what it is, yet. I have found a couple 2's stamped by the tong holes under the horn. These are the auction listing photos, I'll post more up as I get it cleaned up. 

A bit of history on this. This was the mechanic's anvil when I hired onto the fire department 23 years ago, I have no idea how long it has been here. I'd always hoped I'd get the chance to own it, now I do. It has been sitting in storage for several years and I never saw it get used much before that.

AR9551.JPG

AR9551B.JPG

AR9551F.JPG

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