I found this at the scrapyard and was wondering what it is made out of and will the shaft be good hammer material. The round shaft is about 1.5" diameter. 

 

Good Morning,

Breaker Bits are usually made from 1045 to 1055. It would work well for a Hammer.  Clay Spades are either 1 1/8" or 1 1/4" Hex.

I reforge lots of Breakers, I use Water to quench, draw the temper to a light straw, before Blue.

Neil

Good to hear. Thanks Neil!

Rmartin2,

this has nothing to do with your post...sorry. But your picture helped me solve a mystery! So I'm new to forging , very new. I run an Allied trades shop and have a beat up anvil in the shop, it's missing a whole corner of the anvil, it's been painted over a 100 times. Since I got interested in forging I got curious about the manufacturer of my anvil but the only part the manufacturer stamp visible anymore was what I thought to be LOAN  and the arm and hammer. When I saw your avatar it clicked! What I was seeing was LCAN!! So now I know it's a Vulcan anvil. Haha

HardHead, Vulcans are generally considered the bottom rung of the working anvil ladder. They have thinner top plates than other brands, and have suffered from casting flaws over the years. If the edges have not been dressed, you will want to put a radius on them to help prevent chipping. As long as you only work hot steel you should be good. 

A good thing about Vulcans is that they are one of the quiet anvils-it doesn't ring like a cast steel, or wrought iron anvil does. This is due to the cast iron base with a tool steel top construction.

8 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

HardHead, Vulcans are generally considered the bottom rung of the working anvil ladder. They have thinner top plates than other brands, and have suffered from casting flaws over the years. If the edges have not been dressed, you will want to put a radius on them to help prevent chipping. As long as you only work hot steel you should be good. 

A good thing about Vulcans is that they are one of the quiet anvils-it doesn't ring like a cast steel, or wrought iron anvil does. This is due to the cast iron base with a tool steel top construction.

What would be considered the top of the line in old anvils.

Mouseholes, Peter Wrights, Hay Buddens, Trentons, Arm and Hammers---not Vulcan stamped *in* not cast proud of the surface...also the swedish cast steel anvils and the American Cast steel anvils like the Columbian.   Lots of other brand up there or a step below; Postman has identified over 100 English makers already.   (Folks please feel free to add  to this list; my fingers are too sore to type all morning on it and I'm not very familiar with the good brands of French, German, Scandinavian, Italian, Spanish, Central Europe... anvils)

That breaker bit looks in great shape. Have you looked into selling it?

On 1/8/2017 at 8:31 AM, bubba682 said:

What would be considered the top of the line in old anvils.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries a lot of people would have said Fisher, apparently an anvil with a wrought iron body will eventually deform while one with with a cast iron body is more resilient. According to the book I read Fisher was the only anvil manufacturer to have a complete guarantee on their products.

But if an anvil has lasted 100+ years it's probably serviceable regardless of the brand.

27 minutes ago, Iron Poet said:

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries a lot of people would have said Fisher, apparently an anvil with a wrought iron body will eventually deform while one with with a cast iron body is more resilient. According to the book I read Fisher was the only anvil manufacturer to have a complete guarantee on their products.

But if an anvil has lasted 100+ years it's probably serviceable regardless of the brand.

The anvil i  own we think was made localy in the coal mine foundry they made every thing there we think early 1900's we gave it the bearing test it was dropped about 16'' it bounced back a little over 15 other than a couple of  chipps off the edges you would never think it was never used.Theres no markings on it.Old anvils are hard to find around here so thats why i asked .I was up to Ont last sept we went to auction house or flee market around Oshawa they had 3 old ones there the prices were crazy and they looked ruff she wanted full markup on everything she had.

On ‎1‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 4:46 PM, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

That breaker bit looks in great shape. Have you looked into selling it?

My thoughts exactly... Unless you just want to use it to make a hammer, those are easily $120.00+ bits (new). So, if you got it at scrapyard price...

Anyhow- please post your hammer-making progress; that's cool, too.

I stopped by the local home improvement center in the rental section to see if they had any worn out jackhammer bits.  I was given all I could carry free of charge. 

I offered to pay for them but the manager just laughed and said I was doing them a favor by taking all the dull stuff away.

One neat thing about those large 1-1/4" bids is the bolster at the chuck end.  That's just about perfect for a hardy tool.  Grind four faces to fit your hardy hole and the bolster diverts any hammering force into your anvil.  I made a nice straight bick out of one.

I like the sq ends on sucker rod for that use too, of course you need to source rod that the wrench flats fit your hardy...

On January 7, 2017 at 10:08 PM, HardHead said:

Rmartin2,

this has nothing to do with your post...sorry. But your picture helped me solve a mystery! So I'm new to forging , very new. I run an Allied trades shop and have a beat up anvil in the shop, it's missing a whole corner of the anvil, it's been painted over a 100 times. Since I got interested in forging I got curious about the manufacturer of my anvil but the only part the manufacturer stamp visible anymore was what I thought to be LOAN  and the arm and hammer. When I saw your avatar it clicked! What I was seeing was LCAN!! So now I know it's a Vulcan anvil. Haha

Glad my avatar helped with your mystery. 

On January 8, 2017 at 4:46 PM, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

That breaker bit looks in great shape. Have you looked into selling it?

 

On January 13, 2017 at 3:18 PM, Adun Clebr said:

My thoughts exactly... Unless you just want to use it to make a hammer, those are easily $120.00+ bits (new). So, if you got it at scrapyard price...

Anyhow- please post your hammer-making progress; that's cool, too.

I didn't know what those things went for new. I figured they were in the scrapyard because the were no good. There were many there when I grabbed mine, but only got the one. I took a break from forging for a while so the bit is in the same condition. I still plan to do something with but I have no idea when. I will definitely post pics of whatever comes of it. 

I have that same bit and was thinking of using it to make an ax drift

Many tool rental shops have used  jackhammer bits that they just throw away. 

I think they include the cost of a jackhammer bit in the rental price. Maybe to limit their liability is renting a used and possibly damaged piece of hardware.  They work fine for hardy tools. 

After forging to shape and grinding, I use them as is without any heat treating. They are plenty tough enough and easy to dress with a file if you miss the work and hit the tool with the hammer.