Haha, me too.

Yeah the national pike days along rt.40 are packed. Nice scores. Oh yeah, he will talk your ear off lol. Try the evaporust from HF. on the files. Worth the cost. Will make them like new overnight. 

I just stuck some in vinegar mixed with water. Gonna let them set for a few hours see how that does. If not I'll try the evaporust

With the Vinegar, try over night. Vinegar is slower than other acids. Evaporust is weird that it's safe but it feels soapy when you stick your hand in it.

gotcha, I need to go get more vinegar cause I didn't have much. I'm just glad they are all nice quality. If you want a few of those wrenches though let me know. I'm gonna get them all cleaned up and working and see which ones I definitely want to use and I'll take a pictures of the rest. That big one is heavy duty, all metal handle.

Update:

Two of the monkey wrenches don't work, I'm sure with some cleaning and fidgeting I can get them working though. The big ones needs some love to the threads to get it moving easier. The two middle size ones work real well. Gonna use one of them for twisting wrench, maybe turn the big one into one if I ever need that much leverage on a piece. It's about 16 inches or so long. All the pipe wrenches seem to work, just a little dirty. The Ford wrench and other two like it work, just need threads de rusted so they are smooth it looks like. There's only a few files cracked or have a piece broken. The rest are all good and have most their teeth with little wear except 1 or two are pretty done.

So at least 40 good files and all the good wrenches, I made out for $40 I'd say.

With all those wrenches you could make a plague of grasshoppers.

Friend of mine came by last night and dropped this off.  Said they are getting the other side done Friday and will bring them by.  I  know the price is right, but... what should I do with these?  I have no idea of what kind of metal I am using (other than an assumption it is predominately tool steel), and it will probably be a booger to work by hand.   

  I appreciate any help/information on what to do with these.

Axles are generally medium carbon, good for hammers, anvil tools, and the like. If you can bust apart the CV joint, the ball bearings can come in handy, and their retaining ring makes a cool bracelet. 

Thanks JHCC.   I forgot all about the bearings, and the bracelet idea is really cool.  I like that one.  So... guess I'll store this and the next one away until I get better at my hammer work.  First dry weekend in a long time coming up, and that means I finally get to play again.  Going to start building my shop next month, which will be a work in progress. 

Edited March 14, 20197 yr by Mod34
Excessive quoting

I use to have to turn in the old cv joints for the core charge. Don't miss having to change those out.

I cant for the life of me find one, but i used a couple of the cones from CV shafts to make bells out of. The end that goes into the transmission is usually "female" on at least one of the axles. That would be opposite end of the threaded end, just to make sure no confusion. Or if the threaded end has a hole for a cotter pin you can use it. In the female ends there is usually, but not always, a sheet metal plug. After disassembly clean out all the grease, i made a link with an eye on each end out of a piece of coat hanger. I attached a sting to the slpined end to hang it with. And a string on the other end to hold the clapper. I had the style that had three flat round bearings with needle bearings, so a 1/2" disc with a hole n the middle. I used one of these for the clapper then ran a string to a small square of wood so it would swing in the breeze. They also have a really nice tone and can be quite loud. 

Sorry i can not get a photo, hope i gave a good visual. 

I've had an anvil follow me home as a gift from an older farmer, can anyone ID it? Looks like it could, just might, just maybe, be a Hay Budden...

What does the bottom look like?

Are there any numbers on the front of the foot under the horn and if so what and on which sides?

Any trace of a weight stamp and if so; is it in CWT or pounds?

Clean it up with a wire wheel on an angle grinder to see if there is any Remanent of the makers mark or serial number on the front foot. Looks like a good anvil and I hope you have read about not doing any grinding, milling or welding on the hardened face. A picture of the under side of the base base will help.

Hope you are planning to make him something forged on that wonderful gift.

The feet do look like that of a Hay Budden to me, but there my also be other anvil brands that look similar.

Ok, pics...

you can see an A and an E in there and also a bit of what looks like plate de-lamination...hmmm. That's not good.

It's not really possible to tell if the face plate is de-laminating just from looking at it. Does the anvil ring nicely, or is it more of a short buzz? If the latter, then I would be inclined to believe it is de-laminating. Otherwise, there's a good chance it's fine.

It's got a pretty decent ring to it but I'm not an expert. Here's a quick video I did...
 

 

NOT an HB with the caplet indentation: Arm and Hammer or Trenton!

What does the underside of the heel look like?  If it shows the blows of the steam hammer---undulating---then Arm and Hammer.

blows of the steam hammer? I'm confused! haha

I'll try and find some more markings.

EDIT: ok I think I know what you mean, it looks rough-worked for sure under the heel. Reckon it's a 100#? I don't have a scale to tell.

Also, some markings I found on the foot under the horn, looks like a 1916 followed by a zero or something similar but it's slightly off.

Don't use a bearing ball to check for delaminations, use a light ball pein hammer and listen to it for dead spots. Just work a pattern over the face and don't ignore the spot with the visible plate body margin. Start tapping the pattern somewhere else and hopefully you won't realize it when you get to the spot you're wondering about. 

You don't want to expect to hear something, you want it to come as a surprise. Better yet if you have to go back and check again.

Frosty The Lucky.

Hehe you know Frosty I guess I'd almost rather not know. Not much I can do about it. I also didn't spend a dime on it being a gift so I'll find a good use for her.

Now then, the real question I know Irondragon is going to reach through the screen and smack me upside the head but are you guys sure I shouldn't try to fix the edges on this? That's a pretty huge and sharp gouge in the side there. Where's my magic metal filler that doesn't require heat to apply? It's 2019 don't we have hover boards and flying cars? :p

or better yet, is there an application I can use whilst forging that would take actual advantage of a big sharp gouge in the edge there?

12 minutes ago, cmoreland said:

are you guys sure I shouldn't try to fix the edges on this?

YES, WE ARE SURE!!!

Wire brush (or light wire wheel at most) and put it to use. Work around the gouge. In time, you may even figure out a use for it that will make everyone want to put a gouge in THEIR anvils!

The way I look at an anvil with damaged edges: as long as there are still a few good spots on the edge to use, it's pretty much just as functional as if the entire edge was perfect. When do you ever need more than about 1.5" of edge at a time, apart from making it look nice?