Rectangular holes in my anvil?

[tom_ET]

Hey Frosty,

Thanks for the box bellow- short intro. I read about it  but didn't go into detail as I figured the air (with charcoal at least) shouldn't be too big of an issue. 
Also I wanted to check what local blacksmiths are using. Some of them have an electrical blower a lot of them are have an assistant that makes air. They seemingly make them a lot out of wheel-tubes. But it needs double action, and stops blowing when the action stops, so my (future) manual version is going to be either a bigger bellows or the drum version might be a good alternative. 

I read though that a computer-fan might already be enough..  That sounds comparably small  (the electrical blower they were using here locally surely was more powerful and they also just use charcoal. Looks to me though as they don't even have a real hole in the ground but simply a small charcoal-heap on the ground and a pipe going into the bottom of it for the air. 
Anyhow, I was in Addis and that's always an adventure to be in Merkato (where they sell everything. Didn't have too much time and quite some money in my bag.. there also the blacksmitths are in some hidden alleys. In fact of course again I was pick-pocketed. So I did not make any "friends" yet  (to really take time and see the setup and learn from them) and I spare that for where I am living. a smaller town. I am sure there will be a few as well so I want to meet them and  see if I can learn a bit more how they work.

So I will probably try the Desktop power supply fan first. Its working on 12 V DC (would therefore be possible on any small solar system) and a DC fan can easily speed controlled. I'll probably try that one.

Excuse me if I do not want to search now around. I found a lot of times that Galvanized pipe cannot be used and is really dangerous. So that's noted but I didn't see immediately what's the reason. what happens with the zinc if getting too hot?

 

Don't think I'm gonna become a village blacksmith or commercial at all for that matter. Basically its "just another craft" worthy to learn to some extend to build stuff that you don't get so easy here. Working for others will be more in the sense of trading favors. 

But you are right with the scrap. There is hardly anything somebody else might not need so usually everything is in a way "recycled" in Addis I saw shops that concentrated on scrap springs, others on sheets of mild steel in any thickness, etc. 
Today I already convinced my mechanic to allow me to take 2 coils and to leaves. 

Best,
Thomas

 

 

 

[ThomasPowers]

Look up "Metal Fume Fever"; the zinc on galvanized metal burns at a fairly low temperature (to blacksmiths) and the fumes can cause Metal Fume Fever.  Welders often get it; usually it's just a really bad bout of  sickness but it can lead to pneumonia and with other factors (like COPD) death.

Removing the zinc or keeping it from getting too hot is not that hard; but in my smithy NO galvanized metal goes into the forge!

[tom_ET]

Thanks, got it. 

Maybe again to the limits of the Anvil. Saw them hammering here with pretty heavy sledge hammers. 
But then, most Anvils also looked quite battered.

[luke777]

On 5/21/2020 at 1:34 AM, tom_ET said:

Hi there,

 

First post after introduction.

if you didn't read there, I am completely new to forging, never had done anything in these regards. 

So I started with buying an Anvil (always wanted one, even independently from blacksmithing not bad to have),

In Ethiopia, there is a place where you get a lot of used and old stuff, sometimes you can make a deal, sometimes that's anyway the only place where you can find something at all. 

So I bought this Anvil. not sure how heavy, my assumption would be something like 30 kg? (yes, sorry, I am metric)

Can't see any mark/brand but I assume that somebody brought this one a few decades ago from Europe. 

Looked pretty plain and has pretty sharp corners. I learned already that I should probably get some radii on but that's a different topic.

 

my first question is about the holes:

- I have 2 rectangular holes in there.

- Why would they do that? what could be the logic behind it?

- I'll probably anyway not get any hardy tools in Ethiopia so i'll probably have to make them myself, I guess I will have to make the shaft rectangular as well?! Or is the sliding left and right not so much of an issue, making the shafts rectangular would otherwise not allow me to use the tools in different directions.

- I guess I would use the one with more material below as a hardy hole but what do I use the second hole for? I guess from the position it is maybe still for having some kind of "holding clamp" ?!

 

I know there was  a thread where somebody had 2 rectangular holes as well but there is pretty little info there and given it is 13 years old, I thought I can open another one.

 

Best,

 

Thomas

I have this exact anvil and of course the same problem with rectangular Hardy holes! I'm in Australia. 

[JHCC]

Welcome to IFI, luke777! 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome from the Ozark mountains. Have you seen this yet? Great bunch there.