My anvil - in pictures

[Merlin05]

I got this anvil Jan. 2019.   I'll let the story unfold in pictures; feel free to ask questions.

As I received it:

Both the good - and the bad - of the top face:

 

Next up:  Non-invasive/non-destructive cleaning and refurbishing.

Thanks for looking!

 

P.S. What is the preferred format for pics:  As an attachment (direct from my PC) or as an image link (as posted above).

Thanks, Al

Non-invasive/non-destructive cleaning and refurbishing:  Water, a big tub, washing soda, scrap iron and a manual (not automatic computer controlled trash!) battery charger:

Always remember with electrolysis:  Black on Black:

Can you read it a little better:

How about this:

The only conclusion I can come to is that this is some form of Klingnon:

WARNING:  Graphic Image!!!!

[Daswulf]

Only ones I know of with black are Black Prince and Black Jack. Never heard of Black Imp. Looks like a good usable anvil. 

The numbers on the waist is the weight in hundredweight. If that is a 1  7  5  I'm seeing, that would put it at 112lbs.

How is the ring and rebound?

[Stash]

Actually I think that is the actual weight- the middle number in Cwt only goes to 3. It looks American made- Hay Budden. I can't find anything Black imp...(?) in AIA about it, but Postman only listed the names he had at the time of  vendors that HB made anvils for. This might be another obscure one.

Steve

[Merlin05]

Not too bad, Stash!  Personally, I see a "1 7 6", but then again, I'm biased:

And if the scale is to be believed:

Thanks!

[Daswulf]

Good catch Steve. I just slapped the numbers in an on line calculator and it let me lol. I was under caffeinated at the time and wasn't thinking enough.  

Does seem weird the weight stamp would be that spread out in lbs. but not that unlikely. Stamping was sometimes messy and all over the place. 

The last number could definitely be a 6. 

[Merlin05]

I need an anvil stand.

Does anyone see any anvil stands in this pic?

How about in this pic?  The left piece came from the Shagbark Hickory that narrowly missed my house; the right is a piece of Red Oak that fell across my one mile gravel road.  Both were cut and shaped at my cousin's sawmill.  The left is sized for my anvil; the right is sized for - dunno.  Yet.  The tractor forks?  Yea, you're not moving these beasts very far without them!

Did some routering my new router; first time job - please be gentle.  Added some of that "Grip It" plasti-dip stuff to act as buffer to deaden the sound of the anvil.

Not pretty but it fits:

And mounted:

Thanks for looking!

 

[George N. M.]

Merlin, they both look like very good anvil stands.  Good score.  In TN you have plenty of hardwoods available.  Out here it is pine, aspen, or cottonwood.

My only question is whether the "grip it" will be substantial enough to prevent the anvil from bouncing in use.  If it is not you can use chain or a couple pieces of angle iron and lag bolts to hold it down more securely.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Stash]

Looks good, merlin. Between the black goop and the bolted straps, that anvil ain't goin' nowhere! 

Steve

[George N. M.]

Didn't notice the hold downs in the last photo.  Looks good to go.  It would take a lot for that anvil to move.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Rojo Pedro]

Nice anvil and thanks for the pictures. 

[ThomasPowers]

I'd call it a HB stamped for a different dealer with that base.  Not a bad swale to the face; about what I like for bladework.  Round that edge off and you will have a great place for drawing on the edge of the anvil.  Good weight; though used anvils tend to be a couple pounds light compared to the stampings...

[Merlin05]

Ok, some more work.  Note the fore and aft (unseen) hold downs - in engineering school, I'm pretty sure there were no classes on the downsides of "overkill".  The yellow strap is to measure an anti-splitting and hanger ring.

Anti-splitting and hanger ring made and mounted.  It's 3/16"x2" flat stock.  I wanted to make it out of 1/8"x1.5" but I couldn't find a piece long enough.  Just as soon as I  finished this, I was putting away a piece of leftover 3/16" - and dang near tripped over an 80" long piece of 1/8".  Never fails.

Forged a couple 90 degree rebar brackets:

And used them to make a hammer rack:

Made a little 8x8" storage area under the horn for misc tools and to hold my current supply of tongs:

Thanks for looking!

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

That’s a pretty nice stump stand setup you built there Merlin05,

now you got me feeling lazy, I just bent over  spikes to hold my anvil on my stump lol

[Merlin05]

I forgot to mention that chain that's wrapped around the anvil waist.

It's a 5/8" forged logging chain I found deep in a swamp near the Orange/Seminole county lines in central Florida along the Little Econlockhatchee River.  It was abandoned near some 12'-15' Cypress tree stumps.  Huge trees, I wish I had pics.  It was probably 100 years old when I found it and I found it in the mid-70's.  I used to have it's twin but it got lost on my property a couple years doing my own logging. 

 

I thought you guys might be interested in that little story.  Seems appropriate to be installed on a probably 100 year old anvil.

[George N. M.]

Merlin, any thing worth doing is worth over doing.

GNM

[Frosty]

Nice anvil stand Merlin, not overkilled at all. I hang my hammers from my anvil stand and there's secure space for hand tools between the feet. I hang my go to tongs on the forge where I'll need them most.

By "go to" tongs, I mean the tongs I've selected to do the work I'm planning. For example 1/2" round or V bit bolt tongs are just in the way if I'm working 3/16" round. You want to select your go to tools all round as/per project.

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

Here is a video of the Wyoming Department of Transportation firing a 105mm howitzer.

 

[Frosty]

Cool. This link is to the Alaska RR shooting an avalanche chute. In the background is one of the gun emplacements the road maintenance crews shoot from. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKlNzalXUFI

The menus are full of guns and avalanche control videos.

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

Fun detail re shooting a 105 mm howitzer:  Notice when loading that the loader pushes the round in with his fist, not with open fingers.  That is to prevent fingers getting caught.  Also, notice that the loader's fist is pushed out of the line of recoil by the closing of the sliding breech block.  This isn't as big a problem with slow, deliberate avalanche control firing but can get to be an issue in combat with the maximum rate of fire.

"By hammer and hand (and explosives) all arts do stand."

[Frosty]

That looked like a good way for bad things to happen. Are there many one handed loaders?

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

Not more than once.

[JHCC]

I've noticed the use of the fist before, but the sliding breech block thing was new to me. Good design.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Merlin05, personally I would ditch the chain around the waist. I never have liked that look myself, plus it catches scale and blocks use of working/bending longer items down the side. If it was bedded down in caulking that would help a lot, or do what I do an put an old speaker magnet under the heel.  And then you always have a magnet available to test for nonmagnetic temperature.

[ThomasPowers]

I would expect that you would get few tailgaters when you are towing a 105...

[BillyBones]

Tailgaters? When i was in Europe people on the roads there liked to play chicken with a column of tanks. Weaving in and out, riding on our tail, etc. Sometimes a car would get stuck between 2 tanks. That is when we got our revenge. The M1 tank has a turbine engine. The exhaust comes out at about 1000*. The tank behind the car would slowly start creeping forward which would make the car have to move forward. When the car got within about 5 feet or so of the exhaust the front tank would go into tac idle. That raises the RPMs of the turbine and the temp of the exhaust to about 1500*. I have seen the paint bubbling on the hoods of cars and people have to get out of them becuase it was so hot.