John McPherson Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 OK, I have to ask. What is a bridle iron used for, and why would you need them by the hundred? And thanks again for posting this originally, and again as a complete pdf file. That is why I love this forum, the free sharing of knowledge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Miller Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 They were used to attach large timbers to brick walls and other timbers think pre structural steel era. I salvaged a few made from wrought iron from an old mill that made lace in my home town. They are quite intricate forgings with lots of bends they need to be precisely made and the double ones are forge welded from two pieces. The ones I have forged were made form fairly low quality material surprisingly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McPherson Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Bridle irons, eh. Makes sense now. Insetting timbers into masonry leads to rot. The stand off would help prevent that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benderart Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Great catalogue....maybe late models??? Ken Sharabok identified mine as about a 1901 vintage....we have no idea how it ended up in Australia, maybe left behind by US Troops after the war. I wouldn't part with it for love or money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
journey333 Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Just have to resurrect this thread to say thanks for posting this Timothy. My anvil is a HB from 1914, so it is nice to see the catalog as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatfudd Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Since I can't figure out how to download this catalogue or copy it, is there a place where it can be saved on IFI for easy retrieval? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 In post #27 is a PDF file that can be downloaded (Thank's Farmall). The images and PDF file appear to be hosted on IFI already. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatfudd Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 Thanks Phil, I missed that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1forgeur Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 All I can say is WOW and Thank You!! Mine is a 125 #er and has a 7/8 hardy. Born in 1902 and is twice as old as me this year!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdot Rob Posted July 9, 2013 Share Posted July 9, 2013 Thank you very much for this resource! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverDeck Posted July 9, 2013 Share Posted July 9, 2013 Great calalog! Thank you so much for making it available to us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcusb Posted October 30, 2013 Share Posted October 30, 2013 Great info for hay budden owners, had to dig awhile to find it, guess I will send it up top Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Miller Posted October 30, 2013 Author Share Posted October 30, 2013 This really should be pined to the top of the anvil section . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcusb Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 100% agree Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenBear Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 Merry Christmas to all! This evening I purchased a Hay Budden anvil without any large dings. Under the logo is 208. I also found under the horn in front the edge is A20887 . I was hoping some one could help with the age and share information about the quality? I hope I paid a fair price at $395.00. Thank you in-advance for your help and may you have a very happy New Year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njanvilman Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 Merry Christmas to all! This evening I purchased a Hay Budden anvil without any large dings. Under the logo is 208. I also found under the horn in front the edge is A20887 . I was hoping some one could help with the age and share information about the quality? I hope I paid a fair price at $395.00. Thank you in-advance for your help and may you have a very happy New Year. According to AIA, your anvil was made in 1920. The 208 should be the weight in lbs. HB anvils are considered among the best forged anvils. They were made in Brooklyn, NY. At just under $2/lb, if the anvil is in good shape, you did very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenBear Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 Thanks for the info & Happy holidays Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utaholdiron Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 @ Timothy Miller, I just printed the HB catalog from the pdf posted above.. Using the "BOOKLET" setting on my printer (and carefully following the instructions) I got a nice copy of your catalog. Thanks so much for sharing. Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petehdgs Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 This weekend I purchased a well worn 233 Hey Budden. The face is depressed about 3/16 in the center 1/3 all the way across. It is usable as is with good ring and rebound but it is not flat at all. It appears to be very old and beat up all around. I am considering buildup of the face to make it flat, but seing as how it is wrought iron should I weld on it? My initial research indicates it can be welded with ordinary low carbon steel rod. Any advice on that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kal Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Petehdgs, thank you for updating this post and bringing it back to the front of the index. I had no idea it was out there. I have 190# HB that like most would not sell for love nor $$$. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatfudd Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 This weekend I purchased a well worn 233 Hey Budden. The face is depressed about 3/16 in the center 1/3 all the way across. It is usable as is with good ring and rebound but it is not flat at all. It appears to be very old and beat up all around. I am considering buildup of the face to make it flat, but seing as how it is wrought iron should I weld on it? My initial research indicates it can be welded with ordinary low carbon steel rod. Any advice on that? There are a number of posts on IFI about resurfacing an anvil. It is way more complicated than what you are proposing but it can be done. I would do a lot of research before you go after the anvil with welding rod and ruin a usable anvil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricJergensen Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Do not build up the face to make it flat. Do not machine the surface to make it flat. Flat is not important. Hardness of the top plate is. The top plate is *not* wrought iron. It is high-carbon steel that has been heat treated. Any welding on that will ruin the heat treatment near the weld. As Fatfudd says, do your research. You will find that unless the anvil is in truly horrible shape, you're better off using it as-is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petehdgs Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Thank you all for your help. I'll use it as is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allessence Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 The later variety of Hay Buddens are solid steel from the waist up.. In the past I have completely heated the face and reforged the corners and leveled the face and then re hardened the complete anvil with good results ending up with essentially a new anvil.. This is the way they did it in the olden days and the reason I really love the later HB anvils (more modern shape).. You don't have to worry about face separation in the redressing process.. Worse case is when they have cut into the face with a cutting torch.. No good way to fix it if the scars are to deep. It's a big process but to save some of these from being ruined with hardfacing or milling it's the best way... Last one I did was nearly 20 years ago now but the process remains the same.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donal Harris Posted April 29, 2019 Share Posted April 29, 2019 Odd. I was searching for a Hay Budden catalog last week and missed the link to the PDF. All I could see were the non-working images. So I Googled “Hay Budden catalog” and found what is the same exact PDF someone saved here after putting the individual page scans into a single PDF on the Blacksmiths Association of Missouri site. It may have been the same person uploading the PDF to both sites and creating PDFs is easy enough, plus modern blacksmiths seem to be keen to share things relating to the craft, so it wouldn’t necessarily be a problem even if someone had taken a file from here and posted it to another blacksmithing site, especially if they had noted where it came from. But sometimes we go a little too far. The most obvious example I can think of off the top of my head is “Anvils in America”. Perhaps this is just something only seen in old posts, but one poster consulting AIA to answer another poster’s question about an anvil they have had always seemed to me the same as stealing from Mr. Postman. The person with the question will likely never buy his book. Were it an out of print book it would be a different matter. Plus it really isn’t all that expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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