Creating Your Space

I spent about an hour today sinking cinder blocks, placing found stone for my border and filling in my work area with gravel.

Let's start with the cinder blocks. I put them in the ground to act as a foundation for my NC Tool gas-fired forge. It has a handmade stand with four pieces of pipe for legs. Over time, with the coming April showers, these four pipes could begin to sink into the ground.

Luckily, I spent the hour prior to this, putting down a moisture barrier under my ma's house. Luckily? Yes, because the builders, when they put the house where it is on its block foundation, left quite a bit of debris under there. Included in the mess were a few whole blocks, some chunks and some sandstone.

You'll notice the tape measure in the photo. I had to measure the space between my legs to know where to place the blocks. In my case, about 21" on-center front to back and 24" on-center side to side.

I put the first block in level and the second slightly above ground level to account for the slope of the yard. Great! So, the position of the forge has been determined and it has a firm, level foundation.

Now, it's time to fill in my dugout border with some of the stone and rubble I found under the house. Some of the pieces were too large for my purposes so I broke them apart using the edge of a double face mini-sledge. Ideally, you would use a rock hammer, but any hammer will do. Just remember: Don't hit with the face. It's a waste of energy and can potentially damage the hammer face.

The importance of preserving the hammer face becomes clearer the more you hit hot metal with one. Any deformity in the face will show up on the metal you're working.

So, now I have a border most of the way around my working area. Rather than clear off the grass and have a dirt floor for my space, I decided to use gravel as my fireproof floor covering. Since this will be an open air work environment, I don't want the weather to turn my shop floor into a muddy mess. The gravel drains and my boots stay mud-free.

Historically, blacksmiths opted for brick or dirt floors for their shops. Whenever sparks or hot metal hit either, nothing at all interesting occurred. This was good. Had it been a wood floor, something very interesting might have happened. The end result possibly being the need for a new shop.

I left an area uncovered to allow the setting of another stump for my small, inexpensive ($23.41) bench top vise. You can find them at your local hardware store. While you're down there, ask them where to get gravel in your area.

If you're putting a roof over your workspace or you don't mind mud, a dirt floor is an excellent choice. Other options include: brick as mentioned above, sand (think of it as building a grown-up sandbox complete with wooden framing) or user-friendly concrete products. If you decide on concrete, you'll need to either dig down or build up to contain your pad. Patience while it sets will also be necessary.

Next time: Hammers and Tongs

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Quick Mount Anvil

This method of mounting an anvil is extremely stable and allows for quick and easy installation and removal. The hardware and tools we need today are:

- hammer
- (2) 60D 6" - 2 gauge nails               $0.35   (1.40/lb.)
- (2) 3/8" x 10 1/2" turnbuckles         $5.98   (2.99/pc.)
- (1) 3' length of 1/4" link chain         $4.50   (1.50/ft.)                    
Total cost: $10.83 before tax

This hardware can be found at your local hardware store. As a side note: make an honest effort to avoid big box stores. They may be cheaper, but often so is the product they provide. Besides, hometown hardware stores have more character and characters in them. And I have no doubt, the good old boys and girls at the store would be interested to know what you're up to. They won't sniff at the extra business, either.

When selecting nails, it's important to find a size that can be easily driven into your stump and can also serve as solid anchors for the turnbuckles and chain securing your anvil.

I used a 16 oz. hammer to drive the 60 penny nails about halfway into my piece of shagbark hickory. If it seems easier, use a bigger hammer.

My piece of railroad track is 18" long (it hangs over my stump face a little) and has three holes that are 1 1/16" in diameter. These received the spikes that secured the rail to the ties in its past life. We'll pass the chain through these to anchor the anvil. I measured these holes before selecting my chain size. That means less work for me when I get to mounting it.

Note: This piece of rail was a gift from a good friend and fellow blacksmith in the Appalachian community where I studied. I'll write more about where to acquire track and the necessary properties of a makeshift anvil in an upcoming post.

Once you have your materials together, drive the 60 penny nails into opposite sides of the stump within reach of your chain. Driving them in deeper will give you an extremely secure anchor. This is what we want.

The turnbuckles will cover some of the distance from the chain to the nail, but having too much chain is better than having too little.

Thread the chain through the center hole of the track. Open up/unscrew/lengthen the turnbuckles. Thread each nail through the closed end of the turnbuckles. This secures it and allows for easy hooking onto the chain link for tightening.

When the chain is hooked on both sides, tighten the turnbuckles as far as you can. Your anvil shouldn't be moving at all.

     And there it is:

Removal is even quicker. All you have to do is loosen one of the turnbuckles, slide them both off of the nails and your anvil is free.

Another simple option is to take a few large nails and drive them into the stump face. Then, you would bend them over the feet or foot of your anvil. I chose this method because I need to be able to install and remove my anvil quickly and easily since I travel quite a bit. This way, I can mount it quickly on any old stump at my destination and not have to fuss with bending nails back.

Next time: Creating your space

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Setting the Stump

Before I started digging today, I got out the rotary mower and rake and cleared the area I chose for my open air shop.

I'm fortunate to have a couple of uncles who live on a nice piece of wooded land. They happened to have some downed shagbark hickories back in the back. So, I eyeballed and cut a 5'6'' piece from one of them with my chain saw (which is not necessary, but extremely useful for this step). With my uncles' help I put it in the back of the truck.

I chose a piece of wood that turned out to be a bit less in diameter than my anvil. Ideally, you want the diameter to match or be greater than the longest part of the anvil base. However, this was found wood and it will do the job just fine.

Blacksmiths throughout history have used green (just downed or recently downed) hardwood stumps for anvil mounts. Hickory is a good choice because of its weight and density. It takes the blows sent from the hammer through the anvil well. If hickory is not available, other hardwoods will do: oak, maple, poplar, walnut, etc.

Traditionally, the blacksmith would set the stump between four and five feet into the ground after doing some careful measurement to make sure the height matched his own. For our purposes, we won't be sinking it that far.

The general rule for anvil height is to have the face of your anvil meet the knuckles of your clenched fist when it's held at your side. This prevents you from putting undue strain on your body while hammering. My measurement is about 33". Accounting for the 6.25" height of my piece of railroad track and the foot or so going in the ground, I had to cut my piece of hickory down some. A bow saw or any of the varieties of cross-cut can do the job just fine. Just remember, the ending height with the anvil resting on the stump needs to equal your knuckle to ground measurement.

Now I'm ready for the hole. I've already dug a perimeter down to mineral soil for my 7' x 8' working area. This is a fire precaution and also helps in visualizing where everything will go. Later, I'll be placing stone to act as an extra barrier to the potential spread of fire.

Using a post-hole digger and a shovel, I dug a hole a little over a foot down (over one-third of the total length of my stump for stability). The diameter of the hole is larger than the stump diameter (9.5") to allow for tamping after the stump is set.

Now that hole is done and I've saved the dirt from it for refill, I put the stump into it. The piece of hickory was much lighter after cutting it to size.

 After dropping it into the hole, I used a level to get a nice, flat working surface. I then used the dirt I set aside to secure the leveled stump, tamping and filling in stages.

There's no need for a tamping bar when you already have a shovel. The handle works like a charm for tamping.

And here it is:

To review:

-Clear off an area large enough for you, the forge, the anvil and a vise, if you'll be using one, that also allows you to reach everything within one step.
-Measure from your knuckles to the ground to get the height for your anvil. Cut the stump to size allowing for how far you want to sink it into the ground.
-Dig the hole.
-Drop the stump in. Tamp it.

Tools (If you don't have these tools, ask a neighbor or a friend. Blacksmithing is about community):
-Saw (power or otherwise)
-Tape Measure
-Level
-Shovel (this can be used instead of a post hole digger, they're just easier)
-A buddy to help you lift (blacksmithing seems like a solitary vocation, but an extra set of hands is ALMOST always useful)

NEXT UP: A simple, yet clever way to mount the anvil.

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Starting with a Purpose

Howdy, folks. My name is Terran if you don't know me already. I'm a brand new blacksmith trying to preserve a dying art in my own low-cost, highly mobile way.

I recently spent nine weeks at the John C. Campbell Folk School volunteering my time as a work/study for six weeks in exchange for three free week-long blacksmithing courses. My intention was not to learn a hobby, but to study and work toward mastering the skills of a vocation, a calling. Under the instruction of a few of the many fine blacksmiths who teach at the Folk School, I gained the skills and confidence necessary to strike out on my own. At the end of the nine weeks, I walked away with a new skill set, a few pairs of handmade tongs, a piece of railroad track for an anvil and an NC Tool gas-fired forge.

My intention for this blog is to take you all with me on my journey from novice to a mobile, self-sustained, frugal one-person blacksmithing operation.

So, if you're interested, let's take a trip. Tomorrow we're setting a stump for my railroad track anvil.