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I Forge Iron

Rat hole anvil


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Last I knew, yes.  Website is still active, as a one-man-show Steve wasn't the fastest to respond to emails but he gets there in the end.  Search for Fontanini anvils, that's what the website is under.  Can't say enough good things about mine with the caviat that I have one of the older anvils of H-13.  I understand that the alloy has since changed and have no first hand knowledge of the newer castings.  

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

Assuming my wife allows it, I will have a new, 250 lb Rat Hole Forge anvil some time in May. She gave me the evil eye when I first brought up the subject. I am not entirely sure why. It is essentially free-ish. I took half of the first stimulus check and opened a RobinHood account.  
 

I thought my arguments as to why I need it (despite it being a hobby and already owning a small Mousehole) were pretty solid. She didn’t seem to buy into my logic. But thanks to a thread on IFI about how to move a 400+ lb anvil, I am able to counter at least one of her counter arguments. 
 

My only concern about it is the hardness of the face, but Nimba anvils seem to have the same hardness values.  

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3 hours ago, pnut said:

I read rat hole but heard mousehole hahahaha.

D said he already owns a Mousehole anvil and wants a Rat Hole anvil too. Your hearing is fine pnut, you did read Mousehole. 

I'll be interested to find out what kind of hole he's digging with the missus.

Frosty The Lucky.

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She still hasn’t agreed. I just hope she does before the 54 he will be receiving from the foundry in May have been sold. Unlike what someone above said in 2018, he responded to me very quickly. Within a day. 
 

If she doesn’t, it would likely be for the best anyway. I need a grinder much more and a motor and VFD will not be cheap, even those which have been rebuilt or refurbished. I have a perfectly serviceable anvil for someone who is not planning to feed the family with it. 97 lbs is large enough for the stock I use most. The edges have been abused, but a Hardy tool would fix that. Plus, being a Mousehole, the King of all Anvils, it has plenty of rebound and a huge sweet spot. 

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Thomas, i only had to do it once but we dug it 3x6x6. When i was about 13 i had an aunt that passed. The family was to poor to hire a grave digger so we did it ourselves. 

I completely missed the part about the mouse hole. I also have one. Mine is 153# or t least stamped 1-1-13, so it is provably a little less after 170 years. Still has better than 90% rebound. A few nicks and dings on the face but only a couple small spots chipped off the edges. 

 

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Nope, but I did tell her just the other day the thing is a booger to start unless you follow the instructions on the saw  exactly. Then it fires up easy every time. 
 

I should be good though. I think she had drifted off to her happy place. She likely never heard a word of it. 

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Yes that happens; when we moved out here we had two choices for a house: one was 5 acres on a dirt road with a working windmill and a Massive shop building with 20' walls; but the house was 600 sq ft. Cost was US$60K  we could have bought it outright and had a lot of money to put into a manufactured home!  The other one was 1 acre with a 2300 sq ft home and no shop and would have a mortgage.  We voted, I for the shop and she for the House.  She won...

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