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I Forge Iron

A collection of improvised anvils


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Just thought I would post a pic of something I found today that I plan on using for a anvil. Would have loved to find a good reasonable anvil, but the current prices can scare a guy, and being it is just for hobby use, I figured it would work just fine. It's a piece of 10" round stock 22" long, which was said to weigh 465lbs. Definitely a big piece of honken steel to haul 100 miles in a VW. I an thinking about cutting a notch out on one side to have a strait edge, but will see once mounted. First I got to borrow a cherry picker to get it unloaded. Will post pics when done.

20201028_173015.jpg

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The CDL manual and test for the license says to pull over immediately and wait for roads to melt and clear. I'm thinking I'd need more than a sleeper if that rule were enforced. 

It dropped into the teens last night and hasn't broken 30f so far and it's 3:30pm. 

10" di. x 22" steel. That's an anvil for sure, mount it on end and round the edges a little. Sharp corners on the inside of forged products are stress risers and tend to be failure initiation points.

I'd suggest you grind different radiuses on the edge for different purposes but wait until you've used it a while and see what you need. 

I'd be pleased to have that available.

Frosty The Lucky.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Interesting, I was watching an episode of forged in fire, and one of the competitors had an improvised anvil made of a steel I-Beam with what looked like timber filling in the sides at his home forge.

Just so happens I have an I-beam.  I may reinforce it so I have an additional large striking surface.  It won't have as much mass under the hammer as my pig iron slab, but it may work for some things.  I'm also wondering if I could cut something like a hardie hole in it for the future

 

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Do you have a scrapyard near you?  A lot of Farm and earth moving implements use large "carriage bolts" to hold things together and so use metal plates with square holes in them. for example:

129970805_improvisedHardyHoles(2).jpg.b4ce989b1d31ed1b2928f7efad10b8e1.jpg

 The second from the left has two 1"sq holes in a slab that weighs 50 pounds and cost me US$10  The fact that the top of the holes in that one are round doesn't affect my use as all my hardy stems go down through the square section.

I beam tends to be very LOUD and way too "bouncy" for hammering on.  FinF is NOT a good source of information in my opinion.   Instead of trying to refrib your I beam I'd suggest looking for a better piece of steel.

(I actually found an odd grader? blade that was about 2' wide with 1.5" sq holes; but it's currently serving to hold the acorn of a 6.5" postvise mounted in my dirt floored shop.  As I have 3 anvils that use 1.5" hardy holes I plan to make a work table out of it when I can use my welder.)

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It seems like all the scrapyards nearby are all in the city and mostly seem to specialize in auto parts, though I haven't really looked too hard locally.  It would make sense out here in the sticks that there would be places that have farm equipment scrapped.  They don't seem to be advertised on the internet.  Probably too busy actually working :).  I'll have to spend some more time looking.  I did take your advice on searching for another old gas grill to turn into a forge.  No luck yet except of one sitting on the property of an empty rental house nearby.  if I can hunt down the owner, I'll offer a few bucks for it unless I spot something on tomorrow's trash day drive around.

Could I be missing something obvious in my search for the scrap yard?  Think asking at the feed store nearby might get some results?  I realized that might be a good place as I was typing this.

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Don't offer money; offer to clean it out of his rental's yard!

I don't think any scrapyard on the internet would interest me: repeat after me "The Internet is a terrible place to find many types of things!"     

Got a local shade tree welder?  Ask them about local scrap piles.  Find out if a local implement dealer has a bone pile.  Check out the county road maintenance department.  Things like grade blades are disposables and offering to pay scrap can get you a cheap one and may get you a pile of free ones. (Note the price they get scrapping them at a junkyard is usually a LOT lower than the price you pay to buy from the junkyard---I think my yard buys about 1/10 of what they sell at.  And where does the road department send their scrap?

Can you get your hands on an old PAPER copy of the yellow pages and look under scrap metal, metal recycling, etc...

Flat;  I think the value of a lot of the 3rd world videos is that the people are DOING things and not saying "I can't forge knives because I don't have a london pattern anvil and can't afford to buy one!"  (My wife veto'd swinging the sledge for me though.)  Simple forge they built, simple anvil they improvised, simple hammers---only one pair of tongs and I'd bet they made them too!

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Paper!?!?!?  Paper!?!?!?!!!

It has excellent data retention but the search function can get wonky.  

come to think of it, there is a shop that makes round bale truck bed adapters, they may have some interesting stuff.  There is also a large plumber shop close by.  Maybe I could hit them up.  I have an idea to use a water heater tank as a retort for making charcoal.  I could lay it on it's side, cut a door from the bottom of the tank and hinge it.  The water inlet or outlet can be used to connect a pipe to route the gasses back underneath the retort. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

The top Piece is an unknown type of steel, I found it advertised on FB Trading for $20.00 weight was right at 67 Lbs. had the top and bottom milled flat mounted it on the 4x12 Tube Steel packed with sand and capped with 1/2" Plate. 

I have planes to use the other 4x12 tube on the left side of the picture to add a 1" plate surface with Prichard and Hardy holes and steel skirt and webbing between the coulombs to hold my tools.  

20200829_192016.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Nirve:  A chunk of steel that big doesn't need much mounting because you will have a hard time moving it with a hand swung hammer.  32" might be a little high for anvil height.  My anvil is at about 30 1/2" and I am 6'2".  To use it as is you might have to slightly inlet it into the floor or build a low platform for you to stand on to get the optimal height that is comfortable for you. 

Traditionally, you anvil should be at about your knuckle height while standing erect.  You want your hammer face to be parallel with the face of the anvil when you strike.  If it is too low you will tend to hit with the toe (the part further from you hand) of the face of the hammer.  If it is too high you will tend to hit with the heel (the part closest to your hand) of the face of the hammer.  Some people like it higher and some lower than the "standard" height.

If it were mine, I'd set it up as is and start hitting hot iron on it.  If it felt uncomfortably high I would build about an 1 1/2" to 2" high platform around the anvil.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

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For doing fine work, like blades, I like it mid wrist high.  Too low and I find myself bending over too much which my back tells me about later, (in exhaustive detail!)  For heavy work I like it lower knuckle height or even lower if we are using top tools and a striker.  Luckily since I teach a bit I have anvils at a range of heights for students to use and so I can use the anvil that is at the best height for my task!

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