Built to Last

[WH308]

This morning, in between the showers I have set about my anvil and leg vice with a wire brush to give them a clean up.

My anvil is a big old lump, that came out of Shelton Bar steelworks in Stoke on Trent when it was demolished in 2005. It is a forged anvil and as it has a drilled pritchel hole, indicating a later addition it probably dates from the early part of the 19th century. While cleaning it up I found the weight stamp marks 2-1-20. Anvils were stamped in hundred weights, 1/4 hundred weights and pounds. So 2-1-20 is 2 full hundred weights (2x112lbs) 1 quarter (28lbs) and 20 (20lbs) so it is 272lbs. I don’t feel quite so bad at not being able to lift it anymore!

The leg vice is a monster, and was brought off ebay having been a garden ornament for near 50 years. It nearly weight the same as the anvil when mounted to its stand. It is stamped up LNWR Gasworks. Given the London North West Railway stopped being a separate entity in 1922 it must be well over 100 years old.

So near on 300 years of industrial history between them and they are still going strong.

The anvil is being treated to a new oak stand later this week.

 

[Demetrius]

Cracking bits of kit.....are you a blacksmith?

D

 

[Huntersforge]

Brilliant
Love to see old kit still in use. Back then stuff was built up to a standard not down to a price.
I use a bench vice in the workshop that was resurrected from a scrap pile that’ll be easy 50 years old.
HF

 

[WH308]

Cracking bits of kit.....are you a blacksmith?

D

Engineer by training, desk bound by force of mortgage, farmer by birth!

I was taught to weld and forge little by a very skilled chap who had done his time as a blacksmith / fabricator. I like to do a little forging as and when just because I like to make things! Sometimes function, sometimes not.

 

[Demetrius]

My car's 34 years old.....

D.

 

[mudman]

I found some Britains toy soldeiers in my parents loft. They have been there for forty plus years. The quality is brilliant. There was also a quantity of Tempo toy soldiers with them, they have gone very brittle. But the Britains are as good as the day they were consigned to the loft. It has given my great pleasure to hand them over to my 9 year old lad last week.

 

[bullet chucker]

My car is 65 ears old. Will run on unleaded now.

BC.

 

[Cyres]

I thought an anvil should be mounted on an Elm block?
D

 

[WH308]

I thought an anvil should be mounted on an Elm block?
D

No hard and fast rule really, general rule is the heavier the better for a stand. Some folk like steel/cast stands, but they are hard to get the correct height unless made bespoke. Some mount on softwood treated timber. I’ll be making the new stand from 8x4 oak sleepers. 4 lengths on end to make a 16” square block.

 

[Apthorpe]

No hard and fast rule really, general rule is the heavier the better for a stand. Some folk like steel/cast stands, but they are hard to get the correct height unless made bespoke. Some mount on softwood treated timber. I’ll be making the new stand from 8x4 oak sleepers. 4 lengths on end to make a 16” square block.

8 lengths, surely?

Lovely to see proper kit still being used when there's nothing wrong with it.

 

[WH308]

8 lengths, surely?

Lovely to see proper kit still being used when there's nothing wrong with it.

Yeah, 8.

 

[Bugsy]

I’ve been looking for an anvil for a few years now for general metal work and they ain’t easy got , and any I did find they were wanting crypto money for them , couldn’t believe when my son phoned me to say he had discovered one at his workplace that knowbody wanted £50 delivered to my workshop and they done the lifting , all I need to do now is give it a buff up and a wee coat o paint to brighting it up and .. apparently when metal was making big money a lot were scrapped for cash .

 

[Bugsy]

No hard and fast rule really, general rule is the heavier the better for a stand. Some folk like steel/cast stands, but they are hard to get the correct height unless made bespoke. Some mount on softwood treated timber. I’ll be making the new stand from 8x4 oak sleepers. 4 lengths on end to make a 16” square block.

Will you fix the anvil to the block or just allow it to sit free?

 

[WH308]

Will you fix the anvil to the block or just allow it to sit free?

I will sit it on a bed of silicone to act as a bit of a sound damper, then I’ll chain it to the block.

 

[WH308]

I’ve been looking for an anvil for a few years now for general metal work and they ain’t easy got , and any I did find they were wanting crypto money for them , couldn’t believe when my son phoned me to say he had discovered one at his workplace that knowbody wanted £50 delivered to my workshop and they done the lifting , all I need to do now is give it a buff up and a wee coat o paint to brighting it up and .. apparently when metal was making big money a lot were scrapped for cash .

I wouldn’t paint an anvil (again) as the paint smokes and sticks to the work of you are bending stock down the sides of the anvil, obviously the face and bick are never painted.

I have cleaned mine back to bear metal and then given it a coat of rust killer. This has made it a deep black, then I’ve just rubbed the whole thing down with some boiled linseed oil.

 

[Bugsy]

Cool .. I’ll not paint it then , just as well I found that out as I hate doing anything twice I’ve got linseed oil to . Cheers

 

[Hyperion13]

Shows how well they used to make em , I bet modern chinesium will give out before those ever do

 

[Bavarianbrit]

My car is 65 ears old. Will run on unleaded now.

BC.

Love the typo.

 

[bullet chucker]

Y ?

 

[WH308]

Y ?