[TheForge] Anvil rework, Was reducing fuel costs

Fri Jul 30 21:11:54 EDT 2004

It took a fair bit of digging, but I found the thread from TheForge. 
Here it is, in most of it's glory.

Steve Smith

------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 09:41:36 -0500
From: Jim McCarty <jimmac at socketis.net>
Subject: Re: Anvil Meltdown

Clay Spencer wrote:
 >=20
 > At 11:55 PM 9/23/96, Bill Roberts wrote:
 > >Clay Spencer wrote:
 > >>
 > >> Hey BAMmers,
 > >> Is it true that about 10 lbs. of the anvil you were going to 
replate melted
 > >> and ran down to the bottom of the forge?
 > >> Hank and Todd were in California, so who would do something like 
that without their help?
 > >> Clay
 > >
 > >Clay-
 > >What are you stirrin' up? Was this one of those " I thought YOU were
 > >watchin' the fire" things?
 > >
 > >Bill
 >
 > That's what I'm trying to find out. I hear that about 10 lbs. of anvil
was
 > melted in a gas forge while they were preheating it to weld a plate on.
 > They thought it would take several hours to preheat and apparently didn't
 > check soon enough. Or they were into the BAMBOOZLE beer that Todd 
bottled a
 > few years ago.
 > I reckon McCarty's fingers are broke and he can't type anymore.
 > Clay

Now there you go with the negative vibes...everyone knows you can't
melt an anvil in  a gas forge. Now if you were to take the same
preheated anvil outside, for example, and maybe dig a trench in the
ground, and maybe put a piece of pipe in the ground and atttach it to
one of those Centaur blowers that don't work very well with rheostats,
and then just say for example that you were to put three bags of coal
over the buried pipe and light it and perhaps get a real hot fire
going by running the blower full blast, and if you were to (for
example) put your anvil upside down in the fire and maybe settle back
for some good stories and some good Free State brown lager beer
supplied by one Walt Hull from Lawrence Kansas (that's really good
beer, would recommmend visiting that place if you ever get to
Lawrence. Did you know that a bunch of Missourians once burned
Lawrence to the ground in the Civil War?) What were we talking about?
Oh yeah, Clay wanted to know if in theory you could melt an anvil.
What a funny thought, but then that's Clay. Always thinking of
things...so then say you got to drinking Free State beer and just
letting that big anvil simmer, and say you had someone really
knowledgeable like Jerry Hoffmann and Tom Clark tending the fire, and
say that this anvil had a little bit of the top plate still in place
so you know that if you get it too hot it will start sending showers
of sparks up into the air, WOULDN'T IT? Supposing all this happened
and in addition it was time for the autumnal equinox when everyone in
the world enjoys equal amounts of daylight and darkness. Did you know
that their is going to be a lunar eclipse soon? You should all try to
stay up late and see that. Anyway, yes, I guess it would be possible
at least in theory to burn the middle out of an anvil but certainly
not in a gas forge like John Murray has and you would probably burn
much more than 10 pounds out of the middle (more like 50, at least in
theory). If anyone would like their anvil repaired by BAM's excellent
team of strikers who have been practicing but have never had the need
to actually weld a plate on an anvil (not having one available at
suitable temperature and with enough metal left amidships) then let us
know and we will do the job for you.

No warranty.
--
Jim McCarty
Father Helias Forge
Taos, MO
Editor Rural Missouri Magazine
Newsletter editor, Blacksmiths Association of Missouri

Foolish consistencies are the hobgoblins of little minds
also see:
http://home.gvi.net/~dhoopes/canvil.html

Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 00:04:07 -0400
From: clay at grove.net (Clay Spencer)
Subject: Re: Anvil Meltdown

At 5:21 AM 9/25/96, brnzcast at sprynet.com wrote:
 >>>I don't know which was more spectacular, the burning of an anvil, or 
the look
 >on Tom Clarks face.<<
 >
 >Sounds as good as the acetylene balloons last year.
 >
 >--
 >Winston W. Harness

Or the time Tom instantly painted the inside of his shop black about 10
minutes after he set the spray paint can near the gas forge one cold day to
warm it up. Glad I wasn't there to witness it.
Clay

Bob Ehrenberger wrote:
> The anvil showed up at a couple meetings right after the repair.  I haven't
> seen it for several years.  I don't think that it was Tom's anvil, he was
> just in charge of fixing it.  It would have been real cool if things hadn't
> gone wrong and they really did forge weld a new face on an old anvil.  The
> problem they had was the forge wasn't big enough to bring that much steel up
> to welding heat.  So they put together a make shift forge by digging a pit
> and burying a blow pipe for the air.  It was just too hard to monitor the
> temp.
> 
> With a big enough forge and equipment to handle a hot anvil it should be
> possible. Any takers?
> 
> Robert Ehrenberger
> Shelbyville, Mo.
> 
> 
>>I was wondering how long it would take for someone to catch the mistake.
> 
> It
> 
>>would have been nice to let another group carry the shame for a while.
> 
> 
> Jeez Louise... how embarrassing... I never even noticed.  DUH.
> 
> I'll be down here in the basement eating worms, if anyone needs me.
> 
>>I'll never forget to look on Tom Clark's face when they pulled the anvil
> 
> off
> 
>>the fire and a third of the face was gone. His only comment was that we
>>might have to dress it up a little before welding the plate on.
> 
> 
> I'd have paid money to see that.
> 
> What ever happened to that anvil?  I'd be tempted to trade one of
> my good ones for that one.
> 
> 
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