Stump Stand

[KMADDOX]

Would sycamore hold up ok as an anvil stand? Drove by my little towns debris dump and someone dropped quite a few big chunks of it there. 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Yes, basically any stump will do. We used eucalyptus back home.

[KMADDOX]

Biggundoctor thanks! I figured it would probably work fine. Ill likely go by and measure tomorrow and try to snag a couple. 

[George N. M.]

Since we don't have any hardwoods of any size around here about all we get is pine or cotton wood big enough for an anvil stand.  I have used a piece of Ponderosa Pine for years with no problem.  I have heard that, traditionally, the best wood for an anvil stand was a piece of elm set 4' into the shop floor.  Just as long as it is solid with no rot or punky places any solid piece of any species should do.  Well, maybe not balsa or anything particularly soft but that is about it.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand." 

[Frosty]

My Soderfors was mortised into a spruce block till it got so punky I had to retire it. Built my steel tripod then and don't use wood anvil stands anymore.

Frosty The Lucky.

[KMADDOX]

Frosty, unfortunately a welder is also on my list of needed tools and i would build a tripod stand. Youd think a guy thats welded off/on for 20yrs would have a welder... lol

[JHCC]

Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) has very similar working characteristics to sugar maple (Acer saccharum), if slightly softer and with a slightly coarser grain. Should be great for a stand, and you can't beat the price.

12 hours ago, George N. M. said:

I have heard that, traditionally, the best wood for an anvil stand was a piece of elm set 4' into the shop floor.

Sycamore and elm both have interlocked ("rowed") grain, which resists splitting. Another point in sycamore's favor.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I can vouch for elm being split resistant, that stuff can make my 25 ton Splitter really sweat when trying to split it green! Lol

I haven’t ever cut sycamore but it does seem to rot a lot faster than other woods when it’s on the ground, but that may just be my imagination,

a neighbor up the road a couple miles just had a massive white oak go down, it was growing on a creek bank by his house right on top of a boulder an I guess the creek finally washed away enough dirt after a 100+ years that it lost its hold an fell, 

he stopped by and asked if I wanted some and I haven’t got around to making a stand for my 225 Peter yet so I told him I’d like a chunk or two, so they saved the last 10’ log for me, I think he said it’s around 36” so I gotta get down there and cut the rest of it up, 

[JHCC]

The trick to splitting elm is to put the blade tangential to the growth rings rather than trying to split the log radially.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

They way ive split it is starting on the outside an turn the round into a octagon an kinda work in a spiral, 

I don’t cut a lot of elm just a few a year, I mostly burn white oak, red oak an hickory 

[JHCC]

Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year,
Chestnut's only good they say,
If for logs 'tis laid away.
Make a fire of Elder tree,
Death within your house will be;
But ash new or ash old,
Is fit for a queen with crown of gold

Birch and fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last,
it is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
E'en the very flames are cold
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a queen with golden crown

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke,
Apple wood will scent your room
Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom
Oaken logs, if dry and old
keep away the winter's cold
But ash wet or ash dry
a king shall warm his slippers by.

-- Lady Celia Congreve

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

That poor lady must never have burned with hickory or Osage! They really put out the BTUs! Lol

thats a pretty poem JHCC, thanks for sharing,

ive never cut or burned ash wood before I’m not sure if it’s even around here

[JHCC]

Give Lady Celia a break: I don't think they have hickory or bowdock in England!

I got about a chord of ash firewood some years back when the Emerald Ash Borer took out the tree in our front yard. A lot of it went into hammer handle blanks, too.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I’d mail her some hickory nuts and Osage apples so she could get some growing over there but I’m guessing by the way she talks that she’s probably not around anymore, 

 

[ThomasPowers]

England/the UK is a LOT more picky about about importing non-native species too!

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Shoot.. we’ll there goes my idea of mailing them all seeds to get a grove growing 

[KMADDOX]

Nice poem there jhcc. And yes i figured the grain of sycamore would be another plus. 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

If it is green wood, coat the ends to seal them up. That will slow down the drying process.

[Frosty]

On 9/23/2021 at 2:24 AM, Longbowhunter said:

Youd think

I try not to think, it only gets me in trouble. Getting a solid stand and the height right for you is the important thing.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Chad J.]

I've had 2 hammer handles snap on me while working, both were ash.  I'm sticking with hickory whenever possible. 

[tjdaggett]

Informative. Thanks all! My ash stump is starting to split pretty dramatically, and I haven't even had the forge running to act as a dehumidifier. But this is Minnesota and there are always fallen trees for the asking. 

[ThomasPowers]

Dehumidifier?   Most of the moisture in my smithy is from running the propane forge which puts out H2O as part of the exhaust.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I've seen a lot of stump anvil stands with bands around them to stop splitting.

[Frosty]

On 9/24/2021 at 12:03 PM, Chad J. said:

I've had 2 hammer handles snap on me while working, both were ash.  I'm sticking with hickory whenever possible. 

Don't char them all the way through?

I've been wanting to say that since you posted and my resistance finally failed.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Are you accusing Chad of being a Char-Laddie?   

If you are looking for local woods to use for hammer handles then I would find out what the indigenous peoples used for bows and try that,  Also a lot of the fruit woods have been used for handles,  crab-apple being one particularly suggested due to it's flexibility and resistance to breaking.