January 17, 20179 yr Hi everyone! I found an old and small anvil in my grampa's garage and decided to bring it back to life, so to speak. After I cleaned all the rust, I realized my pritchel hole does not actually go through the anvil, although there is a matching hole on the other side. I'm pretty sure the hole isn't clogged, I have cleaned it to bear metal and actually pour some wd40 in the hole to see if it would seep through the hole, out the other side but nothing. Can someone enlighten me? What is the purpose of this "dimple"? I'll put some pictures up. Thanks in advance.
January 17, 20179 yr looks like what they call a stake anvil... almost like a big hardy tool.... what does it weigh??? any other markings on it??? That hole could just be a hole the previous person wanted and drilled into it... looks like it has been used as it is really chamfered...
January 17, 20179 yr Definitely a stake anvil. Do a google image search, and you'll see lots of similar ones. The dimple could be for setting rivets, possibly with a hand-held top tool with a matching divot. Put the head of the rivet in the dimple, and it won't get hammered flat while you're hammering a dome on the other end.
January 17, 20179 yr Reminds me of one in an old picture of a mexican army smith's set up; but I can't fnid the picture right now to doublecheck...
January 17, 20179 yr Author 5 hours ago, fat pete said: looks like what they call a stake anvil... almost like a big hardy tool.... what does it weigh??? any other markings on it??? That hole could just be a hole the previous person wanted and drilled into it... looks like it has been used as it is really chamfered... Without putting on a scale, I'm guessing 4, maybe 5 kg. There is a letter 'S' on the side of it and I believe it had more marking that fadded away. The strange part of it is the hole on the bottom, opposite the 'rivet hole' as sugested by JHCC, in the comment below. What could that be? 4 hours ago, JHCC said: Definitely a stake anvil. Do a google image search, and you'll see lots of similar ones. The dimple could be for setting rivets, possibly with a hand-held top tool with a matching divot. Put the head of the rivet in the dimple, and it won't get hammered flat while you're hammering a dome on the other end. Any idea on the bottom hole, opposite the 'rivet hole'? Perhaps the hole was to hold half of some kind of plyers? Does this even happen?
January 17, 20179 yr Author Hold up. My stake anvil can be stuck on a bigger anvil?!? That's an excuse to get a bigger anvil if I ever seen one
January 18, 20179 yr ha, yes sir you can put that in a hardy hole if the stake end fits. I cant see the hole underneath but I guess it could be a forge hole where the tongs would fit in... JHCC has the best question here for you to answer.....
January 18, 20179 yr Love it. It has been used extensively, my guess is riveting leather or heavy canvas belts (?) ... but only a guess. love the idea of having a hardy hole tool shaped as a miniature anvil ... definitely an excuse to find something to hold your little anvil ... absolutely! I suggest 350 lb as an ideal base
January 18, 20179 yr Would not suggest placing a tapered section in a hardy hole and hammering on it! On the other hand; nothing wrong with getting an anvil with a hardy so large the anvil drops through until it's resting on the flat
January 19, 20179 yr Author Thanks everyone, you've been super helpfull. I'll finish up the restauration and put some pictures here for you guys to see. Also, since we're on the subject, I got this big tree stump I'm thinking of using as a base. The thing is, it's got 3 "branches" on the top end, I'm thinking of staking the anvil on the middle one but not sure what to do with the other two, you have any recommendations? What would be handy to have next to the anvil? Maybe drilling some very big holes on the larger branch, to the left, to hold all the hammers I don't yet have? Here's a picture of the stump Here's a better picture of the inscription, it's pretty fadded. And the hole under the anvil, which does not go through the anvil but is simetrical to the 'rivet hole' on top
January 19, 20179 yr Vitorino, there is a jeweler on the Rio Grande youtube channel that has a centrally located stump in his studio like that with multiple stations for vises at different heights, swage blocks, bench anvils, etc. Since he normally works in a sitting position, he can just roll around the perimeter in an office chair to work. Imagination is more of a limit than tooling to most folks these days. That is why getting out and going to conferences, hammer-ins, and reading multiple fora is important. It is the modern replacement for the old journeyman's trek.
January 19, 20179 yr Swage block on the big one as it can be used on a slant for some processes, hardy hole on the other small one.
January 23, 20179 yr Author Mr. McPherson, thank you for the reference, I will look it up. And thanks Thomas for the suggestion. Everyone is extremely helpful around here, thank you for that.
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