s2srea Posted November 27, 2018 Share Posted November 27, 2018 Hey everyone. I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place. I'm new here and I have been looking in the forums for some time. I have absolutely no experience blacksmithing, but I'm very interested in it and have been doing as much reading as I can the past month or so. I went to a local machine shop and asked the owner if he had any spare steel scraps he would sell me. He let me look around. He had a 8 inch piece of railroad iron. I had read about using them here, but I came across this piece. It's 83 lbs and it's cold rolled steel apparently.I don't know if I overpaid, and I don't know what cold rolled steel is, but he charged me a dollar a pound.he ended up being a pretty nice man. He said he used to buy and sell anvils a long time ago. He had called an acquaintance of his while I was there but apparently still sells them and told me he would let me know if he had any he was looking to sell. His employee said his son used to blacksmith and still has a forge sitting in his garage that he might be interested in partying with. I took his number down. My plan right now is to take four 4x4 treated lumber that I have sitting in the backyard and tie them together somehow and cut a insert between the four of them to let this sit in there. Do you think there's a better idea? Any tips is greatly appreciated thank you so much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 27, 2018 Share Posted November 27, 2018 Looks great; especially in that same orientation! I see grass so I guess you are not anywhere near me or I could point you to a local scrapyard where you can buy steel for 20 US cents a pound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s2srea Posted November 27, 2018 Author Share Posted November 27, 2018 Thanks Thomas. Yeah he told me a dollar a pound and I had no idea if that was a good deal or not I had nothing really to go on. Live and learn right? I'm just outside of Dallas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted November 27, 2018 Share Posted November 27, 2018 Welcome to IFI... one of the reads that will help you get the best out of the forum is this. https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/53873-read-this-first/ Have a look at the anvil stands section to get an idea of how to mount that improvised anvil. We won't remember your location once leaving this post, hence the suggestion to edit your profile to show location. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s2srea Posted November 27, 2018 Author Share Posted November 27, 2018 Thank you, will do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFC Snuffy Posted November 27, 2018 Share Posted November 27, 2018 Welcome! What sort of surface do you have in your shop area, or the area where you'll be forging? If it's dirt or anything other than perfectly flat, a tripod is always a good mount as all three legs always contact the floor. If you rig up a stump or solid mount for it, putting three "feet" underneath will serve the same purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s2srea Posted November 27, 2018 Author Share Posted November 27, 2018 SFC. Thanks for the tip. For now I"ll be using my garage, so I'll have a flat surface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 27, 2018 Share Posted November 27, 2018 In general random steel is cheaper than known steel. Having a good anvil for $1 a pound is not a bad thing these days! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 27, 2018 Share Posted November 27, 2018 He probably didn't give it to you for scrap price because it was still usable in his shop. Not a bad deal though, nice weight. Lumber on END works much better than stacking it laying flat. And mount that beauty on end, if you need a large flat face you can flip it over. Easy Peasy. And BEFORE you start worrying about putting a hardy hole in it, search out portable holes here. A fast tip forget the site's search engine, it's . . . stinky stuff. Use your favorite search engine and include "Iforgeiron. in the terms, it'll bring you here and works much better. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dickb Posted November 27, 2018 Share Posted November 27, 2018 I'd be a little cautious about using treated lumber. The stuff used to treat it is usually toxic. From time to time you may drop red hot iron onto the treated wood and throw off a cloud of smoke. Not a problem on untreated wood but maybe not a good idea on treated wood. Try Google and search for " is pressure treated wood toxic" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s2srea Posted November 27, 2018 Author Share Posted November 27, 2018 Frosty- thanks. I hadn't thought about most of those points. Dickb-another good point. I knew I'd never use the treated lumber for our pit, but I didn't think about the hot piece of iron falling on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paragon Posted November 28, 2018 Share Posted November 28, 2018 cold rolled is likely 1018. It may mark up with a stray hammer blow but the nice thing is you can easily smooth out the surface if it gets to that point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted November 28, 2018 Share Posted November 28, 2018 9 hours ago, s2srea said: his son used to blacksmith and still has a forge sitting in his garage that he might be interested in partying with. I assume that you meant "parting with", but it works both ways. Good find. Take a look at this thread for a block anvil almost identical to yours: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s2srea Posted December 4, 2018 Author Share Posted December 4, 2018 Hey everyone. Just a quick update on the anvil stand. Here's what I got so far. It aint pretty, I know. But I'm hoping it will be practical and functional to start with. Im at the station today and don't have all my tools to finish it off with. Iwent with a style based on the post shared by JHCC (thank you and everyone for the tips). Also, as an aside, I'm really excited to share that I really lucked out today. A fellow firefighter I work with is a bladesmith. I shared with him what I was doing and he gave me today this drum forge, coal and some iron to start hammering away at. Super excited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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