where to find it....

Here it is *LINK*

Roy Anderson


>Well, depending on where you live and how bad you want it, here it is.


This is the stuff

here's the thing?!?

Gary B in Central NY


>I actually thought I had talked my local RR into giving me a piece, we have a small company here called fingerlakes rail....and everyone seemed ok with giving me a piece, but they always for got to cut me one.....I went back there like 10 times, quickly I became that annoying young guy that keeps showing up......Good luck to all in trying to find a piece....if your lucky enough to find it, let me know, as I've got Alexander weyers book, "the complete modern blacksmith" which actually shows how you could make an honest anvil out of it, (including the horn, hardening the top, everything) though honestly anyone interested should just buy that book because it's unreal the info in it.....especially the design of wood gouges to eliminate tearout! I know I'll find something that'll work...until then my to do list is long enough....

Re: where to find it....

ThomD


>I was looking for that stuff, and also some 1040 to make a cuttlers anvil. Never tracked down either. Eventually, a Peter Wright anvil showed up at my place free of charge. There are quite a few blacksmith types out here. and several of them are hoarding anvils. I also found a leg vise at the annual tool show. I'm out east at the moment. I think you can find an anvil in Pickering without much difficulty.

Free of charge or something similar is a good way to go, because if you have to pay the metal weight price you could just buy an anvil from that guy in St. Jacobs.

Re: where to find it....

Steve Kubien


>Thanks Thom. I'll start looking around in Pickering for one or the other.

Cheers,

Steve K

Re: Here it is

Steve Kubien


>Well, that's get kinda pricey when it needs to ship to Ajax Ontario. Thanks anyway.

Steve

Re: where to find it....

Jim Crammond in Monroe, Mi


>Steve,

Look in the phone book for Railroad Track Contractors, explain to them that you want a piece of rail to use as an anvil. If they ask tell them you'd like a piece of 132 lb. or 115 lb. rail about 18" long. Offer to pay for it (it is scrap to them so most likely they'll give it away or if you run into a track crew working on the track a 12 pack of beer can go a long way with a crew in the field). If your ever passing through Toledo, let me know, I've been saving pieces like that just in case anyone calls.

You do not want a piece of railroad track, that is the structural system that trains operate on. It is made up of rail, ties, spikes, tie plates, rail anchors, etc.

Jim

My brother

Bill Houghton, Offshore Flo's back! Sebastopol, CA


>in his early teens spent an entire summer digging the rail out of the ground from a train that used to run in the canyon over the hill from our house, only to find out that scrap iron prices that year were pennies per ton. I can't recall what they figured their hourly wage was, but it was low even for then.

If you don't have any railroad track contractors in your area, you might call around scrapyards for leads. For that matter, you might find some other material that will work - a section of super-heavy I-beam or some such.

Places other than RR`s

Bob Hackett


>Many large factories use RR cars to move things inside thier plants and must maintain thier own track so they will have short sections of rail they may let go.

Folks who sell or repair overhead cranes stock rail sections as that`s what most of the larger ones run on.

If you or someone you know lives near the coast or the great lakes then the larger boatyards that still haul out using a marine railway system will be a good place to check.

If all these leads fail ping me offline.

Mainely,Bob

Anvils and Weyers

Todd Hughes


>Anvils made out of rail road tracks are a very common and mostly cheap [$5-$15] flea market and auction staple even in the old tool hell I live in. Think they are common and cheap on ebay too if you don't like to go hunt for your own tools.

Is beyond me why anyone today would want to go to what seems to me would be considerable work to turn a piece of track into an anvil when you can buy one that is already made. I think most old ones you see where probably made on the job on the bosses nickle by slackers. Even though ocassionaly you come across a Track Anvil that is rather well made I think you will be better served by a real anvil for all but the most simple jobs. Even then just for riveting I would rather use just a square block of steel then a track anvil , I had a piece of scrap steel that was about 5 in. square with some small holes drilled in it that I used to use for lots of bench jobs and always liked it....and bear in mind I probably have 50 some anvils in all sizes from small to huge.

The weyers [or is it weygers?] book is entertaining, I know I enjoyed my copy when I bought it years ago but as a blacksmithing how to book it is pretty poor and is to be taken with a grain of salt.Is more of a book written on blacksmithing by a wood carver sculptuer or what ever the guy was instead of a book written by a blacksmith. Some of his instructions are just strange and leads me to think he never did any of it but instead just sat around and thought " You know I bet you could do it that way"...never a good thing for an instructional book I don't think. Like I said when I got my copy I enjoyed it but the more I knew about 'smithing the more goofy it looked.....well thats just my take on it....Todd

Bob,

Gary B in Central NY


>where are you in Maine? I'll be in Salem, Mass in two weeks...just curious

The mid-coast

Bob Hackett


>About 30 minutes north of Bath on RT 1.

MB

Re: Anvils and Weyers

ThomD


>I think you are probably right at least up to the point of saying he never did any of it. I know lot's of guys from his generation who could do a bit of something in the days before craft magazines, tv, video, how to book, internet, roving seminar givers and so forth. The guy lived in the tropics and just made do. It certainly isn't a bible for current practice.