Everything Mac Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 The ingenuity of blacksmiths around the world astounds me. I stumbled across this video whilst looking for something else. The anvil appears to be a slab of steel. Thought I particularly like the bellows seen towards the back. I'm often impressed by those people who make do with what they can. A few videos come to mind. A smith forging billhooks in India for one. And a video of some gentleman in Cambodia forging on an artillery shell.... Though I can't find the link. To see what these guys can do on a simple block of steel puts many of us to shame, particularly with our quest to get specific anvils. Share your videos of smiths improvising if you have them. I for one am intrigued. Cheers Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Theres a great one out there of a fellow forging kukri blades using the head of a sledge hammer as his anvil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everything Mac Posted January 24, 2014 Author Share Posted January 24, 2014 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Makes my back twinge just watching them sledge bent over like that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzonoqua Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Andy, I worked in India with some smiths and they used a piece of railway iron to begin with, and did some amazing things with it!! After a few weeks I gave them some money for tuition and they went and bought a chunk of tool steel-- about 20cm x 20cm x 30cm and proceeded to forge it into a mushroom style anvil. Was an amazing thing to watch!!! lol Thomas I know what you mean, but you get used to working like that and they are so much fitter than we are in the west, as they are used to their bodies sitting squat like that, we "civilized" sitting in chairs all the time are actually harming our bodies by doing so!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Not the squat; squat's reasonable; but the bent into an upside down L.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everything Mac Posted January 24, 2014 Author Share Posted January 24, 2014 Andy, I worked in India with some smiths and they used a piece of railway iron to begin with, and did some amazing things with it!! After a few weeks I gave them some money for tuition and they went and bought a chunk of tool steel-- about 20cm x 20cm x 30cm and proceeded to forge it into a mushroom style anvil. Was an amazing thing to watch!!! Awesome! I read about that on your website. Very interesting, and quite the experience I bet. Will you be attending the blacksmiths festival this year? Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzonoqua Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Yeah, quite the experience, you could say that!! Love to go back one day to see how they're getting on. and Yep, I'll be there, had some photographers round on Tuesday who are putting together an AV display. eeek!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogsoldat Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Making of a mammoth shovel at the end of the first video is interesting as well. the guys are holding a hot cut in a split stick wired together. neat also how the metal show where the power hammer was hitting by showing more colour Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yahoo2 Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 These scream anvil to me, spring steel crane counterweights (I have no idea why they are spring steel I guess it is a anti-flex thing) I offered to loan some pieces to a group for temporary anvils they said they would rather go without. So what do I know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtforge Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 In the Congo. First is what they had already. Second is what we packed on the plane to show how to make another style forge and blower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 there is a video of a Russian making knifes in the woods with a block 2"x 5" with little legs welded to it to hold it to a log. It is not the size of the anvil it is being connected to the earth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Blythin Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Ah yes, but none of these guys grew up watching Wile E. Coyote dropping (or rather, trying to drop) London pattern anvils on the Roadrunner. The problem is that we've all been brainwashed by Warner Bros. What's interesting to me, is that in the west, blacksmithing is often described as being a (nearly) lost art. But in these parts of the world, there never would have been any discontinuity in the practice of smithing. I'd bet money that they have always had a smith in every village going as far back as anyone can remember. Amazing how snobbish we can get here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzonoqua Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Yahoo, those people who refused those are quite frankly fools, they look like perfectly useable lumps to me!! MT my Rajasthani smiths had a very similar set up to the one in the Congo. I'll have to dig some pics out. I would like to see how the Smiths I visited in India are getting on as they could barely make a living doing what they did. All the sons who would be expected to follow on had all gained other employment as it paid more than smithing. Sound familiar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zachary Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Unless I miss my guess. I think in the first video their anvil is an old stone crusher jaw die. Very impressive to say the least Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quint Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Not necessary at all but will admit I still like my anvils. Granted for making knives which is what I do I could get by with just about anything but I like the various features of my london pattern. Now that being said if I had to sell them off for what ever reason I would be trying to beat off crack heads to find a good chunck of steel to use. Wanted to add that first video is pretty cool That thing must weigh a ton lol. Nothing like being able to sit on your anvil while you forge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 It may be that with a "real anvil" they figure they are getting a quality surface to work with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yahoo2 Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 What's interesting to me, is that in the west, blacksmithing is often described as being a (nearly) lost art. If I repair a 2 yr old combine harvester I get labeled a mechanic. On a 20 - 30 year old machine I am a Fabricator/Machinist. A 50 year old machine makes me a restoration engineer. If I work on a binder, stripper or a winnower for the museum I am labeled a blacksmith. For me they are all the same job, modern industry has taken the profitable parts of what was blacksmiths work, a wide ranging field of expertise and repackaged it into hundreds of specialized niches that cater for a specific market. Blacksmithing is still here, just hidden behind a layer of shiny paint, the fairytale image of the traditional village blacksmiths shop died with the birth of standardized mass production and cheap rail freight in the 1870's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everything Mac Posted February 15, 2014 Author Share Posted February 15, 2014 I'd love to mount one of those counterweights on the vertical and forge on it! That would be an incredible anvil! Imagine how much mass there would be under the anvil! Yahoo, you should buy them and fix them up as blade smithing anvils. All the best Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Our team, the Brotherhood of Friendly Hammermen forge large billets on a non-traditional anvil for demos. The anvil is an Upset forged axle for a rough terrian loader, and the little one we travel with is a couple of hundred pounds of 4140.The last photo is the one I set into the earth outside my shop. 454# of axle. These are great for sledging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 This is the big one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 A london pattern post? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 No a Louisville pattern post. Forged in 2004 at 28th and Broadway street in downtown Louisville KY by Sypris Technologies in a 10" upsetter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Yahoo: If the guys don't want perfectly serviceable anvils because they don't look right my only reply would be, "as you wish." When I think about it, the horns on my two London pattern anvils are probably the least used feature, except maybe the pritchel hole. Then again I've used whatever was handy more times than I can count. I tend to learn as much or more watching 3rd. world smiths than you might think. It's not that the guys I know and watch online aren't excellent smiths, the 3rd world smiths all use what they have. It's a good way to reduce a person's outlook and expectations to the true basics of the craft. You only really need: a hot fire, something to beat on and something to beat with, oh yeah something to beat. Of all my field forges I really wish I'd brought out the axle I used in the Resurrection River forge. I don't know what it was off but the axle was a good 6" dia and the wheel flange about 12+" with 10, 7/8" bolt holes. The center of the wheel flange was slightly domed and a little hammer time and was smooth as can be. It had to weight a good 300lbs.+ and was hard enough to give the hammer a nice rebound. The forge itself was really successful there was a prevailing wind blowing down the river so all I needed to do was make an upwind facing funnel for the blast. Everything but my hammers and one pair of tongs were found in and around the river. Dumped wreckage from the 64 quake. I surely wish I'd kept that axle, it was such a sweet anvil. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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