The 9th AAF was a special tactical force that flew in support of ground assaults, they fought hand in hand with the British and American special forces. 

Your knife was made by Wilkinson Sword Company; to my inexpert eye, it looks like a second pattern. There's a pretty comprehensive site called fairbairnsykesfightingknives(dot)com that can give you a lot more information about these very interesting knives.

I have a third pattern F-S dagger, given to me by my ex-wife's father, who fought with the Free French Army, after being rescued from Dunkirk. 

That is a beautiful blade. I used to have a kabar with the bayonet type gun mount thing I found in an abandoned house as a kid. It now rests at the bottom of the Pacific. 

While on a quest to find 100lb+ anvil upgrade I came across this thing sitting on the premises of a shop. No one around to ask what it was. It would crush the truck behind it.

A hardy hole followed me home, so that’s nice.

It followed me home

 

To clean your very nice Fairbain Sykes blade I would use nothing more than bronze wool and oil.  Heavier rust spots can be scrapped with an older bronze penny (you can file a flat scrapping edge on it) and oil.  Any copper color that gets transferred to the blade can be dissolved with dilute ammonia (some rifle bore cleaner have ammonia to dissolve bullet jacket fouling).  NO abrasives!  Nice knife with history and provenance!

My new Pexto wrench for doing twist work. They dont make them like they used to. 

Will you be adding a handle on the other end?

Yes. Trying to decide if I want to weld it or drill and tap so I can make the handle removable.

I think all the ones I have seen and the couple I personally own have been welded; but of course that needs to be done correctly and not gobbed on with any old rod. I put a lot of force on my handles when doing larger twists, (or colder---I once used my large wrench to twist a RR spike which was at room temperature); but then a friend built a special wrench for hot twisting this large example:

I like the removable idea.

I have one I couldn't bring myself to put a handle on. I'll think about drill and tap.

If you're thinking about the future of the tool, remember that a welded-on handle can be cut off and the welds ground smooth, whereas drilled and tapped holes are forever. There's no value to a removable handle, unless you plan to continue to use it as a regular wrench.

Sitting in a guy's garage and hasn't followed me home yet. 250kg makes you stand up and think how on earth you're going to move that thing.

These are good problems to have right? plus some misc. hardy tools/vise, etc. don't know the final  price yet, will post when I do. no easily read markings.

Guessing Swedish, but the block is unusual, so maybe German.

She's a beautiful monster.

Pnut

When I bought my 212 kg Fisher we used a "cherry picker" (often used to remove engines from vehicles) to lift it and pushed it down hill to where could be loaded on my pickup truck .

At home I used rollers and pushed it off the tailgate to the ground.  Then I invited friends to a hammer in at my place and as part of that we stuck metal pipes through the two hardy holes and had 4 people lift it and carry it into the smithy.

If I had none of that available: Boards, rollers and levers!  I once loaded a powerhammer onto my pickup truck by my self that way.

5 hours ago, aaamax said:

250kg makes you stand up and think how on earth you're going to move that thing.

These are good problems to have right?

As a former co-worker of mine liked to say, That's a high-class problem!

There is usually a way to move things easily if you first start with a cold drink and a chair in order to figure it out. 

Tie a piece of 2x4 or 4x4 inch lumber to the top of the anvil to help in the tipping. Raise one end, crib, raise the other end, crib repeat as needed to rollers under the anvil.  To lower the anvil, reverse the process.

Keep everything out of harms way and expect the load to fall over. Always keep the load as LOW to the ground as possible and count your feet, and toes early and often.

If you have not seen the video it is definitely worth viewing. One man moves a 20 TON load all by himself, by hand.

 

Glenn, that was impressive! Thanks.

Where there's a will there's a way. Mechanical advantage rocks. Levers ,fulcrums, wheels, and inclined planes can move nearly anything. I seen some guys put a chevette in the back of a pick up with bumper jacks and logs. A cherry picker or hoist and pipe frame shouldn't be too hard to come by to move your anvil. A fortunately placed tree branch and some ratchet straps maybe?

Pnut

I found this at the library and since I've been looking for an easy way to cover my forge I borrowed it. I didn't realize it was written and illustrated by Daniel Carter Beard until I got home. Coincidentally I used to live just a couple of blocks away from his home on 3rd St. in Covington KY. and also was in the Dan Beard council when I was a scout

Pnut

Ah, another childhood favorite.

I was surprised. I thought I knew everything he wrote. D.C. Beard was a local historical celebrity in my hometown. We learned about him in elementary school and scouts. I think I mentioned above  my cub scout pack  and boy scout troop was in the Dan Beard council so we learned a lot about him there. I'm not sure how much time was spent on him in other parts of the country but we felt a special kinship with him as we grew up in the same place, I literally grew up just a few blocks away from his childhood home. He was a true believer in the capacity for activities in nature to form men with integrity.

Pnut

How much does it cost to rent an engine hoist (cherry picker) for a day? They're generally made to roll on hard surfaces, concrete asphalt, etc. but do fine on boards just cross brace them so they don't tip under the load. 250 kg isn't much of a load for an engine hoist and a cable come along and spike handles going up/down grades.

It's ONLY 550 lbs. and that's easy to move with a small tripod(fulcrum) and long lever pole. Place a 3' high tripod about 3' from the center of the anvil with 9' on the other end of the pole, that gives you a 3:1 lift advantage, about 83kg lifts the anvil. However the distance will be 1/3, you'll need to depress the long end 6' to lift the load 2'. A  knotted rope will let you increase the lift distance and allow a taller tripod. Once off the ground walk around the tripod, let it down and reset the tripod. You can get 6' distance per set. 

If you use a heavy pole for the lever it'll help you lift the load but you have to lug that heavy dang thing to reset. 

Lots of ways to move that beauty, heck put it in a tire and roll it. Find a worn out tire with a bead larger than the anvil and put an inner tube in the tire, slip it over the anvil and inflate the tube. Roll on. Just remember it's much easier to control the mass fighting it uphill than downhill. Momentum going up is on your side. Momentum going down is fighting you and the force increases geometrically. 

How about a travois with wheels? Heck it wouldn't have to be very long, terrain allowing. Trade shoeing for the use of a horse. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Or use a paring ladder to move the anvil.

Hydraulics on a tractor work really well too. I used a backhoe as a crane to set my anvil on it's stump.

I know it's cheating, but my back thanks me.