Hi everyone

My apologies if this has been discussed already.
Blacksmiths Depot sells a small Stake Plate. Has anyone bought one? Have you found it useful? How did you mount it?

Thanks for any info!
David

Gee, I would like one of those. I think it would be good to have one mounted near your anvil so you could leave swages and hot cuts, etc ready for use. I often find that when I have worked on a piece, decide to cut off a bit and put the hot cut in the anvil the piece is too cool to cut making it necessary for another heat. If the hot cut was ready to go it would all go in one heat. Same for swages.

I would mount it so its the same height as the top of your anvil on a bench or stump.

.....I think it would be good to have one mounted near your anvil so you could leave swages and hot cuts, etc ready for use.........

Hot cuts left mounted are very dangerous, please reconsider.

That is why I would like one of these plates so it could be mounted in a safe but readily accessible place.

I have been playing with an idea to mount is on another block and this type of plate would make that very easy.

I had a great stake plate that was tie plate from a railroad track switch. I turned it over, bottom side up, trued up the holes to 1" min dimmension, and bolted to a work bench with 2x4's supporting it to make a level plat form. With 6 holes to choose from and a solid mid range carbon steel plate it was a great place to mount one or more tools. A scroll bending jig using two or three hole could be mounted and left in place without interfering with setup on your table or your anvil. Alas gone with the wind.

I'm building my treadel hammer with a 1" center hole so I can use it for mounting gigs and dies that I don't need on my anvil.

Thanks for the comments/warnings and the idea about using a tie plate. I've only seen smallish plates in my local scrapyard. I'll have a look at one a bit closer when I'm next smelling the roses there.
David

I believe they're called fish plates. I have one I made into a bench plate with larger 1, 1.25, and 1.5" square holes cut into the thicker center section. It has a heavy pipe welded to the bottom going down to a base plate like a post vise leg. It is the table behind my first post vise, so they move around together. I spend a long time with torches and files making the square holes nice. A much faster way would be to drill or mill it out close, heat the plate, then drift the holes square and flatten out the plate again. This gives me a variety of hardy hole sizes right nearby, and I've made a number of straight shank sheet metal stakes to use with it also.