[TheForge] big anvil

[Demon Buddha]

John Frankl wrote:
> 
> Nice. Are you using Chuck's steel and hardening it yourself, or do you
> have something else in mind? I'd like to hear your plans. If you check out
> Chuck's video ($25.00 and it shows each step that goes into making the
> anvil, worht every penny) you will see that there is a ton of work
> involved and a ton of high tech/high dollar equipment used to do that
> work. All in all, his anvils are a great bargain.


No, Marshall came into a load of large round stock and heavy walled
tubing.  I intend on machining two flats into the top 6 or 8 inches of
a 6" round, four inches apart and parallel.  This will give a 4x6 face.
I will round the edges (all four including the curved) with differing
radii for fullering tangs or what have you.  The bottom will be bored
out to accept a 20 or 30 ton hydraulic jack.  The anvil will sit into
a heavy walled tube which will be part of the base.  The jack will
enable a significant range of adjustability in height.  The parallels
cut into the actual anvil will also serve as a keyed mount for tooling.
The tube will have a cinch to seize the anvil and prevent it from
turning.  Releasing the cinch will allow me to swivel the anvil as I 
please.  I have also considered incorporating a thermal choked design
to keep the heat in the working face.  I'm not sure it is worth the
effort, though.  In the case that it is, I would make the actual face
of the anvil from a block of M2 HSS.  Hard and tough as hell.  The
design of the choke is evading me a bit, I must confess.  It's easy
if I don't mind welding the face to the body, but I would like to make
the anvil more readily maintainable than that, if practically doable.

For the record, I think Chuck's anvils are tops.  I'm one of those 
retentive loons that has to do it himself for certain things and this
is one of them.  It's perhaps more an exercise in design than anything
else.  I have not built a whole lot kf knives in the past few years,
though I'd really like to get back into it one of these days soon.

I did forge a LONG carving knife from D2 by hand.  Forging D2 SUCKS.
I won't be doing that again any time soon, I can promise you.