mikey687 Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 First off, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has done posts on I Forge Iron. All the condensed wisdom has really helped me a lot over the last week or so. I took a few blacksmithing courses off Peat Oberon in the UK a couple of years ago but never had the right place to setup a forge. But we always knew we were going to buy a small holding eventually and last August we found our ideal place and moved in. There's been loads of farm type things to do, but with the warm weather starting to appear I knew it was time to start thinking about setting up the forge. I've been keeping my eye on Ebay for any Anvils that were local and last week one turned up. I went to see it and apart from a missing piece off the end of the bick and a few rounded edges and a lot of rust it seemed reasonable: I'm not too worried about the missing bick end as I'll just create some Hardy tools if I need to do some tight radius work. It has 2,1,13 stamped on the side so I make it to be 265 pounds and as it happens, no one else bid on it and I got it for £95 or around 56 cents a pound so I was pretty happy :) . I've spent the last few days cleaning it up and getting ready for use. Each time I did a step, I'd run back inside and check the knowledge on I Forge Iron and make a decision and then carry on - like I said - invaluable! First I wire brushed all the rust off it and discovered some more text stamped on the other side. I can't make out the manufacturer but it's got Stourbridge Warranted and the date 1886, which is great because I love history in an object. The bick had a lot of chisel marks and pitting in it so I decided to really smooth that out, I tackled the table with a bit of smoothing but didn't worry too much about making it perfect, and then I tackled the top plate. The plate looks to be at least half an inch thick on a cast base. I wasn't going to take this right back I just wanted to get most of the pitting out of it. Apart from a few deep gauges, most of it smoothed out nicely using 40 grit flap wheels and then 60 grit to end. I was moving the wheel around like mad to try and let anything heat up too much. One side of the plate was pretty wavy so I took a bit of the wave out and tried to turn it into a usable quarter inch radius (or thereabouts). I wasn't interested in grinding the plate right down as I wanted to keep it's thickness, plus the other edge was much better and I've been able to keep around an eighth of an inch radius on the edge. So I'll use that side for tighter corners. I'd tested the anvil with light hammer taps before I bought it, and I knew it rang pretty well across the whole plate. The grinding was tough work so I also thought it might be quite hard. Today I tested it with a hardened stainless steel ball bearing dropping it on the final dressed surface and now I'm really pleased. I swear it keeps around 90-95% height after one bounce. :D I can't wait to start using it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgewayforge Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 That looks great! Nice job! I find the only downside to blacksmithing is looking at all the "china" made tools I always think "I could make that better!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arbalist Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 I did a course with Peat a couple of years back, very nice guy. Good job on the Anvil! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikey687 Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 Thanks guys! I so enjoyed the courses with Peat that I just knew that eventually I'd take the hobby up properly so I bought one of his custom made forges off him. It's been sitting in the shed gathering dust for the last couple of years (including the blower he recommended I get). Every time I passed it I'd think "some day" and now that day is here! I've added a variable rheostat control to the blower and tested that out. It's a bit non linear in it's control but it seems to do the trick. I'm hoping tomorrow I will have the time to fire up the forge for the first time and start making some tools (I have all the basic tools from Peat's course, but I'm missing a hot cut for the hardy hole which would be good). Now all I need to do is find a good supply of coke as I think my one bag of Sunbrite Singles I got off Peat 2 years ago is not going to last very long! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metal99 Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Wow the face on that anvil is in really nice shape! Any ideas on the make? Not an anvil expert but it sure looks like a great anvil! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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