90yotaman Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 Hello everyone, New to the site here and new to forging. I used to make knives a couple years ago then decided to get a house, ect.. and that was put on hold. Now i finally have a spot to start this back up and i have everything to get it rolling except a anvil. Just going to have to find one so i can get to forging. I have looked though the site and there seems to be allot of talented people here that are quick to share there knowledge with others. I hope to pickup allot of tricks and tips from you guys. Well ill be posting up what im making when i finally get my anvil. If anyone has any advice on which one is a good and a portable one (because ill have to be moving the anvil around, not such a good neighborhood) I will be mainly doing knives, axes, gigs, mostly. If anyone can point me in a direction of what size would be good i would appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Japanese swords were forged on anvils that look like a rectangular solid of iron/steel. Viking swords were forged on anvils that were tiny and looked rather like a cube of steel. Are you wasting your time looking for a london pattern anvil whose design has been around 1/10 the time as other designs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
90yotaman Posted October 2, 2013 Author Share Posted October 2, 2013 Japanese swords were forged on anvils that look like a rectangular solid of iron/steel. Viking swords were forged on anvils that were tiny and looked rather like a cube of steel. Are you wasting your time looking for a london pattern anvil whose design has been around 1/10 the time as other designs? No im wanting to find a nice solid piece of steel or iron i could use. I have a friend who owns a scrapyard keeping an eye out for me. So far what i have seen that i would like to get is a piece of a broken forklift fork and weld it to a large I beam my father has. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 How do you plan to have it welded. If just flat to flat on top you have decreased the usability and massive increased the noise. What the hammer "sees" is how much steel is between the top of the anvil and the base. For an I beam that's probably 90% air. I had a friend drag out a 180# forklift tine from a trash pike in a forest. He cut off the bottom section and had the vertical piece welded to a rr tie plate for $25. His anvil looks like solid steel all the way to the ground! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McPherson Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Welcome! There are a couple of local, reputable anvil and forge tool dealers that I have personally met. Both advertise every week on craigslist, and keep an inventory of items that they buy and sell. One is in Pageland, SC, and one in Denver, NC, west of Lake Norman. No steals 'n deals, but no scams either: fair market prices for working tools. The next two local events are the demos at the Dixie Classic Fair in Winston-Salem starting this weekend, and the State Fair in Raleigh later this month. December meeting has not been decided yet. http://www.ibiblio.org/nc-abana/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
90yotaman Posted October 2, 2013 Author Share Posted October 2, 2013 Wow i had no idea there was a place in Morganton, that's only 15 mins from me. Ill have to defiantly check them out. As for the I Beam, i was going to either use it or just get an old stump and tack it to the stump until i found a good solid piece of steel to weld it to. I didn't know which one would make the most noise when hit. I'm not a big fan of allot of ringing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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