Bought my first anvil today!

[Lateralus]

Hi all,

I'm new, so i shall introduce myselve, i'm Johan from The Netherlands, and i wanna start forging iron. Today i bought my first 90 kg anvil. The letters "UAT" are written on the anvil. I googled it and I found some results of dutch people asking what kind an anvil it was etcetera, but no answers. I'm gonna repaint the anvil. (just the sides)

But the questions.

Shall i put the anvil on a big piece or wood, or shall i weld a three legged stool? And are there big differences in the sound anvils make? Mine's really loud when i hit it with the hammer. And can i use my regular hardened steel hammer? Or do I need a special forging hammer? Maybe my hammer is too hard, because i can smash (very)little dents in the anvil.

Regards

Johan

[pkrankow]

Anvils are loud, some are much louder than others. You can fasten them down tight, use a pad like tar paper or silicone caulk between the anvil and stand or stump, and you can wrap "loosely" in chain. I use a 20 ft cargo chain wrapped hand tight and hooked to itself to help on mine.

I use a stump as I have no access to a welder, and the stump was free. I made some brackets and straps that could tighten the anvil down onto a bed of caulk (construction subfloor adhesive, may be "permanent") I added the chain since it was too loud still. I still wear earplugs. 3 legged stands can have the legs filled with dry sand and wrapped in chain to help quiet them.

Hammers are hardened, they may dent the hardened anvil. It has been recommended that you can plannish the ding out immediately by tapping the rim back down(I have never tried this). Softer hammers are nice for learning as the hammer gets dinged instead of the anvil, but still need to be hard enough to not ding up right away. Don't hit the anvil directly, hit piece of material on the anvil softer than the hammer and anvil.

Welcome aboard!

Phil

[arftist]

The traditional method is to select a stout tree with a big fork, of a good type of hardwood. Around here, ideal would be elm. Of course oak or locust would also work. The tree should be cut above the fork, and buried with the fork end down, for greatest contact with the earth. The bit that remains above the earth will serve as your anvil base. Try to bury at least six feet of the trunk. There are many other ways to mount an anvil, but this is ideal.

Try your best not to hit the anvil with a hammer. Not only can it dent the top, but it can lead to delamination of old style anvils.

[Lateralus]

thanks for the info guys,

Today i painted it black, and i made stool out of I profile steel. It's not finished yet, but i didn't had time left to finish it.

[Fe-Wood]

Welcome!!!
Looks like you are well on your way Any hammer is fine as long as it is hard.
Heat the metal and pound to your desire, ask lots questions, read lots of books and have fun :D

[Lateralus]

thanks

here's a link to my website !

http://www.johanvanzanten.com/onderwerpen/smeden/

It is in dutch...

[pkrankow]

I bet you will wrap the waist and legs in chain soon, but it looks really nice and sturdy there. I think you did a very good job!
Phil

[Jack Evers]

thanks

here's a link to my website !

http://www.johanvanzanten.com/onderwerpen/smeden/

It is in dutch...

I use Firefox rather than explorer. It has a translate button on the toolbar. First time I ever tried to use the button but it did a fine job of translation. Yuor stand looks fine. Click on the anvil subject area. There was a thread on Anvil stands a couple weeks ago.

[Iron Clad]

Some anvils ring louder than others. On my smaller anvils I use a chain wraped around the base. My large anvil is so loud I cannot stand to hammer on it so I use two welding magnets under the bick. It's nice and quite now!!

[blksmth]

That looks like a serviceable anvil stand you made of iron. Should you wish to make on of wood, you can get some idea's from http://www.blksmth.com/Anvi_base_preparation.htm . Personally I like anvil stands made from a tree trunk even though I sell 3 legged iron stands similar to the Hofi, Tom Clark, and Brazeal style. If feasible, it is best to bury in the ground, but that is not always possible. It is good if you can fasten the stand to the ground or floor in some way especially when using strikers. If you want to preserve your anvil, it is always necessary to use a hammer softer than your anvil. You can test both with a file and try to determine if the hammer is softer or not. If the hammer can put dents in the anvil the hammer is too hard! Many blacksmiths have a hard hammer for hitting tools such as hard purchased chisels, and other forging hammers that are generally soft in comparison.

[ThomasPowers]

The loud ring is a *good* sign. Means it is most likely a cast steel anvil and not cast iron that has more of a thud or thwap sound.

Now that you have heard it---quiet it! Makes your smithy less of a pain for neighbors and helps save your hearing in the long run. Fell free to use more than one of the methods suggested---it won't hurt to double them up!

Also you can fill the legs of your stand with sand to help dampen the sound in them as well.

A soft hammer is suggested for folks starting out with hammer control issues. You can just take a commercial hammer and draw temper on it till it gets as soft as you like. I have one dead soft hammer that I let students use as it's a lot easier to re-face the hammer as needed than to reface the anvils!

Once you get good at smithing you won't hit the face much and can move on to harder hammers---note that they may need to have the faces smoothed so as to not have sharp edges to leave marks in the work---or the anvil face.

[Lateralus]

wow thanks for all the great replies!

1. Welding magnets, are those the 90 degree magnets used to keep thing in place when welding?
2. I think that wrapping chains around the anvil works good aswell?
3. What do you mean by "draw temper on it" ? How do i do that?
4. I finished the stand today, painted it black, and welded some angelsteel on it to keep the anvil in place. I also want to put a piece of wood or something between the anvil and the stand.

[Lateralus]

and another question, when i'm more experienced, i want to start forgewelding damascus steel for making knives. But next week i'll probably start building a forge, but what fuel is best for damascus? Charcoal, coal or gas?

[pkrankow]

Drawing temper is part of heat treating. You are reheating the metal to soften it, converting the martensite that formed during hardening to softer cementite. You can draw temper further to soften hardened steel. Read about heat treat processes, there are many good threads on IFI, and articles on the web.

I use chain to help quiet my anvil, and it helps. The triangular magnets are often called welding magnets, but I don't have any of those.
Phil

[Iron Clad]

The welding magnets I mentioned are indeed the triangle magnets. You can buy them at any good welding supply store. My larger anvil is 300 lbs so I use two of them under the bick, it works well. It's the same principle as ringing a bell and then grabbing the bell to stop the noise.

I wanted to mention something about store bought cross pein hammers. Most, if not all of them are "crowned" on the hammer face. Like a raised or sharp edge before the hammer head face angles down to its side. This needs to be rounded off or else you will dent anything you hammer on. What I do is round this off on a belt sander, being careful not to over heat the hammer face. While rounding the edge off, dunk it in water OFTEN to keep it cool. Take your time! (It's hard to explain what I'm talking about here without showing you, perhaps somebody can explain it better.)

Anyway, after this edge is rounded off, the CENTER of your hammer face should be just a little bit higher and then tapering SLIGHTLY in all directions. Your hammer face should not be flat!! You want a SLIGHT radius. With the final product, hold your hammer with face up and rest a straight edge on the hammer face. The center of the hammer face should be touching the straight edge and then slightly tapering to the sides.

If I get time tomorrow I will try to take some pictures of my hammer and post them here, unless somebody already has a good picture of what I'm talking about.

[Lateralus]

i think i understand what you mean, soften the edges of the hammer, make it a bit spherical. And make sure that you don't overheat the steel, otherwise it changes to cementite.

btw, does someone know an answer to the following question?

when i'm more experienced, i want to start forgewelding damascus steel for making knives. But next week i'll probably start building a forge, but what fuel is best for damascus? Charcoal, coal or gas?

[ThomasPowers]

Well the first thousand years they were making pattern welded steel it was pretty much all Charcoal.

The second thousand years they were making the stuff it was pretty much all coal---save of the Japanese and areas that have no access to coal, (Indonesia, etc)

Now we're working on the third thousand years and a lot of the professionals use only propane.

So what's best is what's best for *YOU*: cheapest, easiest to get, works best with your skill level, etc. Something we can't answer. I;d suggest finding out what the person that's going to coach you uses and start with that and progress as you get good.

[Reinier]

Hey there! That's a nice anvil you bought! The stand looks good and sturdy to me, although I prefer a solid wooden block because it feels like it gives more backing power, or that's just only in my head. Good to see other people from the Netherlands going smithin'. Good luck with building the forge!

Hartelijke groeten,

[Lateralus]

thanks and dankjewel!