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Kanca vs Holland vs Hoffman


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And they live in Presbytopia? 

Boy, Messr Slag, talk about taking the wind out of a joker's sails. Just kidding, I know you're not into word play like I am. I'll try to take a longer view next time a straight line arises from your keyboard. ;)  

Frosty The Lucky.

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  • 10 months later...

Try not to drive everybody crazy with your anticipation. Waxing the shop floor is NOT necessary but not unheard of. :ph34r:

It's been a while, you must be jumping up and down by now. Use it in good health and remember this stuff is FUN.

Frosty The Lucky.

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On 8/22/2021 at 7:17 AM, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

Awesome! Are you gonna build a steel tripod or a steel sand stand? 

I'm building a steel tripod since my barn has a dirt floor and I need to move things about as it is a multi use building.

On 8/22/2021 at 10:43 AM, Frosty said:

OOOH, P R E T T Y! :) 

Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks. Had problems with my local fedex on delivering.  But, Hobie went above and beyond on helping get it sorted out. 

On 8/22/2021 at 11:37 PM, Rojo Pedro said:

Nice!  Not sure about the shelf but love the pointy horn. Let us know what you think of it after you have used it awhile. 

That's why I went with the holland over other German patterns. 1, with the hardy hole placed at the square horn end, I get to keep my round horn to my right, and 2, this keeps the shelf out of the way when working over the horn. Oh almost forgot its made in the USA out of h13. I really considered a kanca, as they where a bit cheaper, however, I didn't like that if you were using full width hardy tools, the outsides of said tooling would be hanging out over the horn, unsupported.

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Yes. I bent the angle iron to fit the anvil's foot close and welded it flange up. The anvil slips in and wedges in place tightly with the tong and hammer racks. 

Wedged, I lift it into the pickup in the stand using my engine hoist. Without the racks in place the anvil lifts out with a little jiggling. Below is the Trenton in it's new stand, it' a match for the Soderfors stand but prettier.

On a wooden block either anvil is deafening with a missed blow, in the steel stands the ring is damped to a clink. Still loud if you strike horn or heal but they no longer make your ears ring through plugs and muffs.

Frosty The Lucky.

295244835_Anvilstand01s.JPG.58bcc7d29a538adf826dc153b5f52e6c.JPG

 

1437541063_Hammerrack01.JPG.044e3ee5d0c3212ffae8c74eec856175.JPG

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Thats the one I remember seeing.  I was thinking that since 1" plate is so darn high, use a 1/2" top plate, the weld 1x1x.125" angle to the underside, one leg down like an under skirting for reinforcement. Another idea I had was instead 1" plate, my anvil base is approximately 8"x10" so I've found 1"x10" bar stock can be bought per foot for about the same price as the 12"x12"x1/2" plate steel. That would give me a nice 1" lip around the edge of the base, plenty of room to weld 1/2" bar stock to locate the corners of the base, then glue the anvil to the stand with silicone.  My original plan was to drill and tap the anvil base for bolts coming through the top plate from the bottom. However, as tough as hardened h13 is, I don't see the point in that as a drill and tap that would do it, and only be used once, is over $300.

Actually on metals depot, the 1"x10"x12" bar stock is $10 cheaper than the 1/2"x12"x12" plate.

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There is no plate in the stand, the only support under the anvil is 1/4" x 2" angle iron. If I flipped it over you could look at the bottom of the anvil in the frame.

It's not like the anvil is going to flex enough to be detectable without REALLY high tech instrumentation and adding the weight doesn't increase the anvil's effectiveness.

As long as the legs are directly under the anvil's foot it doesn't need more than kept in place. The flange up angle iron just keeps the anvil from moving sideways or twisting if you're using a bending fork. Even without being wedged neither of mine will bounce under a heavy hard hammer blow though you can tip one bending. Hence the wedges plus being handy places for hammers and top tools.

Frosty The Lucky.

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I got that same anvil about 2-3 months ago. I don't have any issues with it, but don't really know if I was as it's my first ever anvil. Rebound is great. Haven't used the hardy yet as I'm working on some tongs to hold the material that'll fit in there (sucker rod ends). Reading what you said about the round horn to your right, I've been using it backwards from that, haha. Round horn has been to my left. Drawing out the reins for the tongs I've been laying it along the shelf perpendicular to the anvil face. Not sure how wrong that is. I really need to find an experienced smith to just show me the basics. But I haven't found anyone around me. Dallas or OKC seem the closest ABANA meets I've found. But I've enjoyed hitting hot metal on it so far. 

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General guide, you want your hardy hole to your tong hand side, simply to eliminate hitting your hardy tools with the hand that holding your hammer. Course I was also thought that when not using a hardy tool, it shouldn't be in the hardy hole. However, I don't always do what I was taught. 

Frosty, the main reason why I wanted a thicker plate is really to help add to the mass of the stand, that and Ed Brazzeal also recommended a 1" plate and heavy wall tubing for the legs.  Not sure why, not like I'm mounting a 460# refflinghous...lol

125# anvil. I'd like to try to get the stand as close to that weight as possible. Which I may not be able to with a tripod style stand. 

Edited by Mod30
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Actually a lot of folks say that horn pointing to the left is MANDATORY!  Of course they are full of it.  The horn should be to the side that makes what you do and how you do it easiest and safest.  (Big long discussions on which way are buried here on IFI;  I remember going through "Practical Blacksmithing" and every time a smith sent in a plan of how their smithy was set up I recorded which way the horn was pointed,  it was a mix and as I recall the first one I saw had the horn pointed directly at the forge as they were doing rings!

It is "good lab technique" to not leave tooling in the hardy hole that could impact with your hand/arm.  However I do note that I don't seem to be able to hit my hand on hardy tooling with what I do and how I do it; of course I've only been smithing 40 years now and so I hope there is still a decade or two for me to try!

And a big shout out for using the term "tong hand"  as we do allow lefties in the craft!

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The only issue I have run into with my square hole at the horn is when I got the anvil new, I radiused the edge near the horn and transitioned back to sharp about half way down the face. 

Ended up if I had a tool in the hole, I could not use my biggest radius on the edge. I eventually radius most of the edge and mostly in the middle where it would not interfere with any tooling. 

My rookie experience with a new anvil.

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