Wanting to start, came across this on craigslist

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Your Columbian is in very good shape, so no grinding, milling or welding is needed. Trying to "repair/restore old anvils without the equipment and knowledge does more harm than good. A tip, if you lift the anvil from its stand and place a bead of calking compound around the perimeter of the base, it will reduce the ringing considerably. I have both of my ring prone anvils set like that and they are just a quiet as my Vulcan. I must say ya done very good.

[Nailsmith]

The round edges never deterred me. I like having both rounded and more square edges; it should give me options in the future (plus, having a worn in anvil makes it look like I know what I'm doing to others haha).

I need to find a place to get some stock. I have the coil spring and the bars of 1080 the seller gave me, but I'd rather make something other than knives at the moment. I wanted to try making some S hook, twists, leaves, etc. I also have some old 6' plan hangers that are about 3/8"-1/2" round that I might do something with.

[pnut]

Have you checked for a steel supplier near you? I looked in the actual paper phone book and found a place about 15 or 20 minutes away from me. They even sell off cuts/remnants for 40 cents a pound. There's no scrap yards around me that aren't single buyer contracted so they don't sell to the public. You may also want to check for scrapyards in your area. 

Pnut

[Nailsmith]

There is this place: [commercial link removed]

I'm not sure if they have a storefront where I could just walk in and buy some. I will have to ask once this "stay-at-home" order gets lifted.

Edited April 6, 2020 by Mod34
Commercial link removed per TOS

[ThomasPowers]

What you don't want to do is buy steel at a big box store. I have found then charging as much for a 3' bar of A-36 as I pay for a 20' stick at a "real" steel seller.  (Note commercial steel sellers usually sell by the 20' piece in hot rolled and 10-12' piece in cold rolled, as you will be forging it cold rolled in not generally needed!)

Also; ask around!   The closest steel seller to me is actually a Windmill installation and repair business.  They get a price break on what they buy the more each order is and so they sell to the general public too and will even piggyback a special order if you need something odd. They are about 2 miles from my shop, the scrapyard is 6 miles down the same road; so if I need a certain thing I check the scrapyard first and hit the Windmill place on the way home if I can't "scrap it".

Also check around; back in Columbus Ohio I found a medium sized "ornamental iron" fab shop that let me clean out their recycle bin for FREE  as they had to pay to have it dumped.  Picking up hundreds of pounds of drops for free in useful sizes and new condition was a real treat.  I always checked with the office, used PPE and left the area cleaner than when I found it and NEVER got in the way of them working!!!!  Gave some hand forged trinkets to the office staff too.