Does anyone know what this really is...





It'll be an anvil horn for me but I have no idea what it was really for/called. I would like to find one for a friend. I found this at a yard sale for $5. Thanks in advance, Rob.

I've got one just like that; forgot where I bought it; but it was sold to me as a small blacksmith cone...I'm like you what was it in its first life!

It appears to be the top of a cone mandral, if the shank is square it would fit in the hardie hole of your anvil. What ever it was in it's former life for 5 bucks ya done good! You could use it in a vise if it doesn't fit your hardie hole.

Maybe it was a spool holder from a sewing factory. A lot of them got thread in on cone shaped hollow cardboard spools, maybe this was what they sat on. The round shank would fit into a holder at each sewing station.

Just a guess, as I'm not sure either.

key keeper, that may be a very good guess. I have a sister in law who owns a very old commercial sewing machine that used the large cone shaped spools. More than once I have tried to con her out of the spool holder which looks very simular to the item pictured here.

James

LOL, maybe I'm smarter than I think, or look.

Come to think of it, I know of a long closed sewing factory near here. I know the renters of part of the building. Maybe I can get them to let me look at all the equipment in the basement.

Edited July 27, 200817 yr by keykeeper

Looks to be cast iron so I wouldn't be to keen on doing heavy or much cold forging on it. Cast iron cracks kinda easy. I have a cast iron bracelet mandrel that is about twice as thick that is used to shape round bangles. I use a rawhide mallet on it, never a steel hammer.

Thanks for all the responses. It'll give me some more things to google for. Good point about it being cast too. I was thinking I would use it mostly for opening up loops that I make to small or getting a radius without having to "free hand" over the side of the anvil (read as rr track )

Thanks, Rob.

I took a wire brush to the shaft. The shaft screws into the inside of the cone. Stamped into the shaft was "warning, wear safety goggles". So I'm leaning toward some sort of driving tool or expanding tool. The end was slightly mushroomed when I got it.

Rob

Do a spark test to varify if cast iron or not.

It's most likely a mandrell for expanding exhaust pipe. Harber freight used to sell one similar to that.
Travis

i new here it is a muffler swege for thin wall pipe.

Morning Phil.

Welcome aboard.

Frosty

welcome aboard phil