castlegardener Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 hello everyone, I am a beginner blade making and am using a small chunk of railroad track currently for my anvil. I have not been able to find an anvil anywhere on this island (Oahu, Hawaii). I have tried the local feed stores and even the local farriers, but no luck at all yet. If anyone knows of someone here or a place here that might have an anvil for sale I would greatly appreciate any help. A small anvil would be nice. Unless someone has an old one they wish to give away that I could pay shipping to get here? Never hurts to check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 An anvil is anything you can pound on that doesn't break burn or melt! Most of the world (and all of the world for most of history!) doesn't use London Pattern anvils so stop looking to pay a lot of cash for something you don't need. A chunk of broken fork lift tine makes an anvil far superior to RR rail (as does the broken knuckle of a train car coupler) Living on an island I will guarantee that there are forklifts around to unload stuff brought by ship. When a tine is damaged they are not generally repaired due to liability concerns. You should be able to find one for scrap rate! http://www.marco-borromei.com/fork.html Also mentioned in a recent thread are the large dock cleats for tying up ships. Think heavy chunk of steel---having a curved section is nice but not needed. (and I built a stake anvil to go with my 25# Early Medieval "cube" anvil that was made from an odd shaped sledge head to get a curve to work off of.) Getting caught up waiting for/wanting a London Pattern anvil is sort of like saying you can't drive a car because can't find a Porsche. Now it's way far away; but Bang Iron Valley on Pitcairn Island was named that as that is where the anvil from the Bounty was put after the mutineers landed there... Also a great-uncle-in-law was telling me about forging parts for a sugar refinery using the refinery's shop and anvil. And I know of an anvil that was used during WWII in a hospital for orthopedic work. So anvils can be in the weirdest places (got a big postvise from an auto repair business that was finally closing. It opened in 1918 and so had a complete smithy as part of it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 I have a few friends that are bladesmiths and they all use a piece if steel 6"x6" welded to a stand. check the scrap from the navy they have tons of junk and don't want to hall it off the island and is just going to sit and rust away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Falzone Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 I have a few friends that are bladesmiths and they all use a piece if steel 6"x6" welded to a stand. check the scrap from the navy they have tons of junk and don't want to hall it off the island and is just going to sit and rust away. Ever since WW1 every single american navy ship had an anvil in it's engineering shop. Check with the navy salvage / scrap yards, you may find one from a decomissioned ship. Thomas is right though, any large chunk of steel will do. Think outside the "anvil" shape and you'd be surprised at what you may find. My first anvil was a 5"x5"x5" block of mild steel - I still use it as my travel/demo anvil. good luck. Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 Well pretty much all the early ships had anvils on them as well for repairs: whalers, shipping, etc (read the section in Moby Dick about forging the harpoon or about the mutiny on the bounty where there is a place on Pitcairn Island still called "Bang Iron Valley because it was where the anvil from the Bounty was set up...) Still I'd bet it would be easier and cheaper to find a fork lift tine... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferrous Beuler Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 Finding an anvil on Oahu is going to be tough,braddah. I was on Oahu for three years back in the 80's in the marines and I got to know that island pretty well. The only possibilities that spring to mind are the shipyards at Pearl Harbor, the old narrow gauge railroad that I think is now a museum and maybe the Dole plantation or the sugar mills in Ewa. You might find one in one of those locations but getting them to part with it is a different story. Being that the shipyard is in Pearl Harbor it is of course off limits to the public but most of the workers there are civilians. If you can locate one of those guys maybe you could offer a finders fee to see what they can come up with. DiverMike on this forum also lived on Oahu in Kaneohe. You can find him in the New York State Designer Blacksmiths in the blacksmithing groups forum. Shoot him a PM, he might know some folks out there who can help you. Likely you are going to have to buy one stateside and have it shipped. I did a quick little experiment that way online, it wasn't pretty. A 260 lb JHM Competitor runs $1,088.90 retail. Shipping from Lexington Illinois 61753 zip to Honolulu 96818 zip is (take a deep breath) $1,500 to $1,800. Yikes! You could go with maybe a 125 lb farrier's anvil to shrink those numbers a bit. Hope you got da kine good luck, braddah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferrous Beuler Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 P.S. Maybe you could try this guy but I don't think he has logged on in a long long time~http://www.iforgeiron.com/user/13-t-gold/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
castlegardener Posted August 24, 2011 Author Share Posted August 24, 2011 thanks everyone, I have the main farrier for the island looking now, and I will check the scrap yards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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