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Thomas Powers Applied Anvil Acquisition Technique (TPAAAT)


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Gas forges are quite good at removing both fleas and excessive body hair---at the same time.  However do remember that neighbors tend to be grumpy about flaming Sasquatches running through their yard to dive into their pool....

(now forge a stick hand holding a mug to add  to that to represent you *after* you have your coffee...)  New Avatar picture?

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After several years with a piece of railroad rail welded to a 2" thick x 14" diameter flange, I scored a 124# beat up Hay Budden for $120.  Face was half cracked off, but it had about a 4" square section that was still good.  Later on I had a friend who said he had one I could have, and I offered to trade him a knife.  Literally two years later, on the day I moved out of town, he brought me a 150# Hay Budden, a couple of sets of tongs, a couple of hardies, a cone mandrel, and a couple of top tools, then placed an order for a $250 knife in return.  Sold the original beater for $250.  Fast forward a few weeks and I spotted an anvil in this guy's driveway a couple of blocks over.  I left him a note on his front door, and he called me a few days later.  He's an interesting older fella, 74, and a bona fide anvil hoarder.  Has three or four at his house, plus another group at his son's place, and he's not planning on selling anything.  Guess I'll play the long game on this one, lol.  Few days later on FB marketplace I scored 30 pairs of tongs for $100, but didn't have cash for the rest of the stuff the guy had, so I pitched it to the anvil hoarder down the street.  He paid $275 for a champion 400, a calvary forge, a leg vise, and a drill press on a stand. I haven't done a deal yet with the anvil hoarder, but we'll get  there some time.

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An anvil is nothing more than something to beat things on. That's it ANYTHING smooth boulders have been anvils since we started mooshing metal. Don't get hung up on shape, horns are only useful for a few things and you can do most on the face or edge. 

If you wait till you get THE anvil or heck any tool you'll be looking forever. Perfect is an illusion unless you're a deity.

Frosty The Lucky. 

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On 10/22/2017 at 6:05 PM, ThomasPowers said:

(now forge a stick hand holding a mug to add  to that to represent you *after* you have your coffee...)  New Avatar picture?

I am feeling that sculpture Thomas.

3 hours ago, Owen Hinsman said:

lucky!

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/44842-just-a-box-of-dirt-or-a-simple-side-blast-forge/


Here, I am sure, is what Mr Powers referenced above.

Robert Taylor

Something  just a bit harder than our heads, Thomas and Frosty!

 

 

 

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ok thats really cool. I would make the pit a bit larger, for working with larger items. Thanks JHCC

On 12/14/2017 at 10:05 PM, Frosty said:

An anvil is nothing more than something to beat things on. That's it ANYTHING smooth boulders have been anvils since we started mooshing metal.

Ill look around this weekend at my local scrap yard. see if i can find a suitable piece of metal

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If you don't find anything at the scrap yard you can check the local machine/ fabrication shops. Go in and explain what you are doing and what you are looking for and they may have a suitable block of steel. I just picked up a block of steel that's 3 1/2"x4"x9 1/2" from a local fab shop. They tossed it in for free with all the other forging stock I bought from them. 

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How big of stock are you planning on working? I reworked a pick into a stake anvil last night with the original JABOD forge that forge will handle 1” stock

Be advised the largest Viking anvil had a 3” face 12” long with horn and heal and weighs about 30# on average we are talking 10# or less so a sledgehammer head is a suitibke piece of steel, as is a solid 2” draw bar.

below find some of my “anvils”

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Another of my “anvils”

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And the JABOD forge and what it can do

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  • 2 months later...
On 1/31/2013 at 9:43 PM, Albert A Rasch said:

Ok, he says to me,"Dad, here's a 275 lbs Anvil and he wants $400 bucks, oh, and here is another one but it's only 160 lbs. and he doesn't say how much. Do you want me to call them?" He was checking through the computer while talking to me.

You live in Sarasota!? I'm going there, or at least to Sanibel for the third week in April, I might meet you!

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  • 10 months later...

Have you read the forum posts that specifically address this question? We've had a lot of discussion of how and where to buy anvils, how much you might expect to pay, what to look for, and what you can use instead of the usual London-pattern anvil. Please look at those threads (especially those having to do with TPAAAT: the Thomas Powers Applied Anvil Acquisition Technique), and then let us know if you have any questions they haven't answered.

Or to put it another way, you're asking some basic questions (here and elsewhere) that have already been discussed at length. Rather than making us say all of that over again, you can do some research and learn a LOT of other stuff along the way. Enjoy!

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1: Avoid the internet; you want to find an anvil not being sold by someone trying to make money selling it!

2: Talk with everyone you associate with.  The last anvil I found was in the shed of a 92+ year old lady in our church.

3: Have money to hand to be able to close a good deal  ASAP! (A great deal may have a halflife of *minutes*!)

All of this is discussed in detail in the TPAAAT threads, you do know how to search for them NOT using the forum's native search engine right?

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  • 2 years later...

Anvils of all sizes and makes, are rare and elusive critters! they like to hide in barns, under old work benches, old sheds, junk yards, and other various hard find places in their natural habitat! 

heck I just bought a 225# pound Peter Wright on Sunday and it had been living on a front porch for the last couple decades!

like Thomas said you have to do your gumshoe work!
   And once you figure out where and how to politely and respectfully inquire about the tools your looking for then it becomes really really easy to find anvils or any other rusty ol tools! 
 

 

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It's always surprised me that folks tend to think that anvils are only rural creatures. In Fact they were much more heavily found in cities!   Besides machine and welding shops, old car repair, factory maintenance, even hospitals might have had an anvil!

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