My first anvil!! :D

[SamT]

My uncle sadly passed a few months ago, and today I went to his welding shop. My cousin is selling most of the steel and equipment, and I picked up an anvil.

M&H
ARMITAGE
MOUSE
HOLE
FORGE
1 . 3 . 13

Judging by anvilfire, it's a 209# produced between 1854 and 1875. some damage on the far edge (horn to left), but the face looks good to me. Surprising, knowing my uncle Charles. Also got a rather large T stake, a beakhorn I believe, about 3' long overall. Also got about a 2x5x10 plate for a cutting block and about 4' of 2" square to make a leg vise from. Also in the load was a 3.3lb cross pein, a maybe 1lb brass hammer, a maybe 2lb double-faced hammer, two pieces of hydraulic cylinder rod about 2" x 2', and about 2gal CI pot. gave her $300 all together. Think I got a very good price now that I've had a chance to look at that anvil, so good a price I may have to give a bit more... or just overpay a bit for the next load of steel i get. I'm sure my uncle would be glad to know this anvil and stake are going to get used instead of being yuppie yard art. Now I just have to figure out who's getting it once I die. Can't find my phone patch cable ATM, but will post pics.

[MLMartin]

Be careful heating cylinder rod, whether it be in the forge or welding on it. Lots of cylinder rods are coated in chrome, as it burns off it lets out some vary nasty stuff in the air that can make you sick or die.

[SamT]

Pics of my prizes as promised. Sorry about the blurry shots, I suck at photography.
What should I do about that far edge. Didn't really get a good picture of it, but should I dress it to a radius?

Anvil.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-P3AOOTER-Ok/TfU-35zK70I/AAAAAAAAADI/Ba5srY-f5kE/s800/SANY0019.JPG
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/--xZUlJycHII/TfU_DhUZioI/AAAAAAAAADM/cBdDvgxoVa8/s800/SANY0020.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-tNNCHLCrO9g/TfU_KBLwe6I/AAAAAAAAADQ/63pH1sbCFZ0/s800/SANY0023.JPG
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-SNo1FYmUNAE/TfU-AgP0MNI/AAAAAAAAADE/xSg0Q41TIeY/s800/SANY0024.JPG

Stand.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-CqTMDsmLrZI/TfU8UECWPCI/AAAAAAAAACk/_HYH8FwLVU0/s800/SANY0022.JPG

Block and hammers.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EF_aWiH3De0/TfU9gXOYdVI/AAAAAAAAAC8/qXz1rTbQ7Gw/s800/SANY0027.JPG

T-Stake.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ppoMW__plmQ/TfU90ZL87cI/AAAAAAAAADA/-PRHA309fyg/s800/SANY0025.JPG

[SamT]

Be careful heating cylinder rod, whether it be in the forge or welding on it. Lots of cylinder rods are coated in chrome, as it burns off it lets out some vary nasty stuff in the air that can make you sick or die.

Yes sir, we had lengthy discussions about metal vapor poisoning back in high school and college welding classes.

[ThomasPowers]

I'd just get to working on it and decide what you want to do with the far edge after you get used to it. (Pretty simple to walk around the anvil and use the *other* edge if it's needed.)

[SamT]

I'd just get to working on it and decide what you want to do with the far edge after you get used to it. (Pretty simple to walk around the anvil and use the *other* edge if it's needed.)

Will do. Just have to build a forge now, probably a 55 side blast for starters.

[Bentiron1946]

I know that Thomas has mentioned this in the past but didn't this time so I'll do it. Do not put that stake in the hardy hole of your anvil, it is not meant to go there. It has a tapered shank not a straight one as all tools that are to be used in the hardy hole have so please don't do harm to your anvil by using it there. Most of us that have a nice beak horn stake like that usually end up mounting it on a separate stump by inletting a hole into the stump to accommodate the shank and then use it as a stump anvil and never place it in the hardy hole of main shop anvil. :blink:

[SamT]

I know that Thomas has mentioned this in the past but didn't this time so I'll do it. Do not put that stake in the hardy hole of your anvil, it is not meant to go there. It has a tapered shank not a straight one as all tools that are to be used in the hardy hole have so please don't do harm to your anvil by using it there. Most of us that have a nice beak horn stake like that usually end up mounting it on a separate stump by inletting a hole into the stump to accommodate the shank and then use it as a stump anvil and never place it in the hardy hole of main shop anvil.

Stuck it in there to give a size reference. Thanks for the warning, don't want to wedge the heel off my anvil. What sort of wood should I use to mount the beakhorn? I'd assume something difficult to split. Could I build a stump by strapping 6x6 posts together with the socket in the middle?

[ThomasPowers]

Lets see MS???? How about sweet gum? I just inlet 2 stumps for my stake anvils yesterday---used elm as that's what I could get locally---and is a good wood to prevent splitting. I did mine by drilling a 5/8" pilot hole and then heating the spikes to glowing and pushing them in and then using an 8# sledge to drive them to fit. NOT A GOOD IDEA WITH TINNERS TOOLING! For that I would suggest *forging* a "fake taper" to size out of mild steel and then heating that and driving it in to fit---leave it a little proud so that the real one will fit well once the char is removed (though it's easy to use a thin wooden spacer if later needed)

Another method would be to take a section of sq tubing and forge it to fit on the tapered shank and then burn that in and use it as a socket.

I doubt your stump would need banding---but it always looks nice. You might rig a router to a piece of lath and tack the lath in the center of the stump to make the band section a perfect circle (if your log is close already)

Biggest problem with it probably be getting it dried out and not rotting/buggy. Here in NM we had a relative humidity of 4% yesterday afternoon...any wood imported *shrinks*; any wood exported *swells*...

[SamT]

Now that I think about it, my axe bounces off of sweet gum logs... Pretty hard to split. Have two around 20"D that we left 8' long or so. Ill roll them when I get a chance and see how rotted they are.