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I Forge Iron

When the anvil search method goes awry...


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I started the search for an anvil using a couple local MC forums I'm on...

It worked...sort of, I'd been keeping member updated on the forge status
when I posted about looking for a forge. A fellow member and cool guy, got his interest
peaqued(sp?) and... he got this for free...

post-14529-012743600 1282791083_thumb.jp

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Sorry.. M/C forum, as in Motorcycle Forum...

It appears my interest and process of building my forge, sparked his interest. He'd asked a friend
for a chunk of steel to use for an anvil at a scrap yard on his side of town, and the guy came back with
what they believe is a 160lb Fischer.

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I started the search for an anvil using a couple local MC forums I'm on. It worked...sort of, he got this for free...

I would say that the TPAAAT worked. Results were one free anvil. Ok, maybe not YOUR anvil, but one free anvil just the same. Double your efforts, and apply each technique suggested with great vigor. Keep a positive attitude and CASH in your pocket so you can strike while the deal is hot.

Tell your friend that you will buy the anvil from him for twice what he paid for it LOL.
Someday down the road he may take you up on the offer.
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heeeey! thats me! Just had to share, The anvil has "Fisher" stamped at front of base also, the anvil has 1887 in approx. 1" numbers stamped at the waist back side, and right below that is a "2" and space and then "12" below that kinda hard to read, but on the base it has "Patent" and "apr" and "14" and "1877" hard to read... and below that [drumroll please] it has my BIRTHDAY, wrong year (1887?), but month and day stamped with 1/2" numbers into the rear base face. Is that the date it was made? I couldnt see 'em changing dates in the mold daily but what do I know.

I would think the 1887 and the 1 and 12 below it is the casting date
but I guess the apr patent date is when they figured the "special" way to forge top and bottom together for a "quiet" anvil?

Thanks for the info and I'll do an intro in another thread.

Timothy

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On 8/26/2010 at 1:00 AM, Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver said:

So someone gave HIM an anvil? What's an "MC forum"?

yup, my buddy works in a scrap yard, he had 2 of these hauled in for scrap. I mentioned less than a week after he got these that I wanted a piece of railroad track to make an anvil and he brought me one, just happened to have my birthday forged in the side of it too ! [guessing it was a "meant to be thing"] I built the wooden base out of 6x6 and 2x12 and glued and nailed it all together, pretty solid and absorbs greatly!

On another note, I went to visit his yard and almost cried when I saw the huge assed stack of monster lathes all piled and destroyed with their big pinching/shearers..... tooling and all tossed in the mix. He says they come from factories and such when they liquidate and then guys come in and haul what doesnt sell for scrap.
On a plus side, I get to pick and choose of the finer metals that come through.

Timothy

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Fisher's were not forged together but had a slab of tool steel heated and laid into a mold and had cast iron poured onto that. It's the use of cast iron that makes the anvil "quiet"; cast steel anvils are noisier than forged ones!

They make a great anvil---my main shop anvil is a 515# Fisher!

However every Fisher I have seen has *nothing* "Stamped" on it; everything is cast proud of the surface rather than stamped into it. (eg the sand molds were stamped with the info and so it stands proud from the surface and is quite easy to change things in the "stamp")

If those are really stamped into it they may be aftermarket additions...

As for forging multiple pieces into an anvil---that technique dates back several thousand years

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yes sir, "stamped" would be incorrect the numbers and all are definately cast into it.
Thanks for the lesson, I didnt know how they did the top piece :-) That would be neat to see a video of the process. I did see a utube video the other day of some guys with an anvil red hot and were hammer forging a top piece on it looked like. pretty awesome.
Timothy
 

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The last Fisher anvils were made in 1979, by Crossly in Trenton. There is no film of this.

I have slides of the last Fisher pour in 1961. That is about it. I would also have loved to see how the whole process was done.

I have figured out he details of the process, but subtle details are lost to history.

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This is just getting better and better! Not only are you getting into smithing Tim but you're a charmed guy. If I fly down to look for metal tools and folk start giving them to you can I get a cut?B)

Fisher anvils are nice, they're quiet because there's little to no resonance between the tool steel face and cast iron body. I have a Soderfors Sorceress #5 that has a tool steel face on a cast steel body and a missed blow will make your ears ring through ear muffs AND plugs, it's just wicked loud.

Frosty the Lucky.

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"Charmed, demented or smidged. Is there a significant difference? Remember we're a bunch of guys who like to play with fire and hit things with hammers"

But only the toughest of us will have a face off with a great white birch!

(I love the scene in young Frankenstein with the hermit---"Fire is our friend!")

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