anvillls

Gehazi

Gehazi

Joined
Jun 30, 2013
Messages
3,994
im trying to link pictures but am horrible at this--- on HI website they are visiting master kami in villages, the one they detail a khukuri being made,by a master kami named nara.

Look at his anvil, obviously hand made , how old do you think it is? or am I just looking at a cut off rail tie or something?

also experienced knifery people chime in for me-- I want an anvil that will allow me to do simple repairs on blades, what do I need? I gotta maintain these knives for the future roaming bands of mutants that will populate the post apocalyptic earth.
 
For simple repairs you don't need the full meal deal anvil. A hunk or railroad rail would work fine. I have a couple hunks of solid steel axle like from a tractor a couple different diameters, for light or medium duty.

I'm not a knife maker though, don't make blades or pound red hot anything but these would work similar to Nara's anvil.
Him making a whole blade on that thing tells you it's doable although neither of us would probably ever be able to come close to his finished pruduct.

Most decent bench vises have a pretty decent anvil part behind the jaws. I use those from time to time hammering stuff too.
 
oh yeah , im not trying to be nara ! but I love his anvil, seemed very old , made me wonder how many rocks his ancestors piled up(and melted) to make that
 
Ah! Great thread! I found some possibilities for you but lets see what kind of info develops from this thread as well. From what I have read is that the good ones are tool steel or at least have a tool steel plate top. You can see this in some of the older ones. Note the seam about 3/4" from the top. the bottom is cast and the top is plate tool steel.
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The rail tracks like the truck springs tho have been worked hard for many years and if they have not failed (how does an anvil fail?) by now then they probably never will. I have read the rail tracks (and spikes) are higher in manganese (?) which makes for better strength and durability. Im not a metallurgist by any means but it makes sense because you know these tracks have been around for a long time and have taken a heck of a beating. These Kamis anvils i bet are pretty old as well as noted by the amount of mushrooming. I grew up with this ACME anvil and know my dad had it way before i was conceived of. Its the same one they used on "The Bugs Bunny Roadrunner Hour":D
 
its a great anvil , just need to use it more ! hmmm and yeah what would be better than rail road steel? probs not much , and very cool point on the age and mushrooming(on the old kami anvils) just a lot of tradition in those old things, are there any mighty european anvils still around from the dark ages or roman times? just medieval even? or did they all vanish in time?
 
What Kamis will normally use is a post maul head stuck in a small concrete pillar and/or just stuck in the ground.
Nara Kamis Anvil looks to be a piece of structural beam stuck into the ground. Possibly was his fathers before him.
 
Gehazi said:
its a great anvil , just need to use it more ! hmmm and yeah what would be better than rail road steel? probs not much , and very cool point on the age and mushrooming(on the old kami anvils) just a lot of tradition in those old things, are there any mighty european anvils still around from the dark ages or roman times? just medieval even? or did they all vanish in time?
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Yep I agree i need to use it more and i did. Im rebuilding my house now so energy is elsewhere. I have forged many tools on it but not yet a knife blade. This anvil was in my shop when it burned down and believe me i had to guard it from the bandit scrap metal recyclers after the fire. They would come by in the night and scrape peoples properties of scrap metals before sunrise without consent. I camped on my property while it was still burning to save what little was left after the fire and this anvil was one of the few items that survived. I do cherish it. Im surprised that they do all this forging on something as simple as a post maul. I would not have even guessed that. Knowing this I would not hesitate to pack it up and send them my anvil if they wanted it without a second thought. Dont know how they would feel about that? It would be a great honor to know it went to a good cause and appreciated! Otherwise im gonna forge on it a while and you can have it Gehazi when i get a bit older:D but i aint dead yet!
 
wow man I had a very very similar experience a few years ago, when my company burned down, we had tons of iron and copper in the burned down building, and they tried to raid the place, the guys we hired to clean up were quietly gathering all our stuff and putting it in their own trucks ;( I ran them off, and yeah im amazed by karda's post, the kami work with very spare tools in some cases , the shipping is all that would hurt you , but yeah Im all for trying to donate stuff to the kami, just hard to get it too them without paying bribes i think ;(-- lol by the time you are older ill be too old ndog, im getting up there now and trying to sputter out the last few useful years of my life :D ( im 34)--- so far though on the anvil a rail road beam seems the most promising, though you cant get by the usefulness of that traditional anvil shape for actually working.
 
Its sad that people actually listen for disaster declarations and travel the country to pillage people who have lost everything. First piece of iron I bought was a pistol. I have seen railroad rails go for $20-40/ft. Some even cheaper and strangely enough shipping was not as high as i thought previously. Maybe cheaper within continental US? Now shipping international may be different story. I have heard that some of the early English anvils were stockpiled up in ships as ballast to get to the US. Guess if you need ballast thats one way to do it. Man you are a spring chicken! Add about 20 years to that 34 and there I am.
Try to PM or email me if you like and I can send you anvil info I cant post here.
 
i need to become a gold member! will email you( if you guys want to explain to me again? i have looked cant really find where)--pictures of knife pile will be today, im putting some stuff up on gunbroker so I have the good camera ! also taking pictures of my old man's rare stuff for him, so sooooooon pictures
 
Hasn't even hit puberty yet, I'd love to be 34 again. Need to add 25 plus for me. I'm still waiting for that puberty thing too, heard it's a life changing event.
 
Gehazi said:
i need to become a gold member! will email you( if you guys want to explain to me again? i have looked cant really find where)--pictures of knife pile will be today, im putting some stuff up on gunbroker so I have the good camera ! also taking pictures of my old man's rare stuff for him, so sooooooon pictures
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Cool cant wait for the pics! Left click on my screen name at top of post and a box will open up. You will (hopefully) see "private message" or "email". Click on one or the other and fill in the blanks. If you dont see either then you may have to be Gold Member but im not sure about that?
 
I think its a puberty thing Gehazi:D Check the Rajkumar Fighting sword post. I put destructions there.
 
well im welsh descended ( who i hear have problems with spotty beards) so my beard grows in horrible patches and I look like a mental patient , also im bald on the right side of my head above the ear and look like i just got surgery
 
Gehazi said:
well im welsh descended ( who i hear have problems with spotty beards) so my beard grows in horrible patches and I look like a mental patient , also im bald on the right side of my head above the ear and look like i just got surgery
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I am also welsh descended on my fathers side, English on my mothers and do not have any problem growing a beard. My father couldnt get a beard to grow well and it wouldn't connect with a mustache or sideburns. On the other hand I went bald on top just before the age of 35.....
 
no wonder I like you karda ! "duw a ddarpar ir brain!"-- I think lots of welsh departed england just after cromwell in the early 1600s, im sure we are all over the east coast-- I was hoping I could blame the welsh for my crappy beard , but nooooooooo
 
I know all about the after surgery look. I had a little bump removed from my brain probably 10 years ago. Whoever prepped my head looked like they did it with a dull axe and only cut the spots they needed. I'm the first in my family tree to do the bald on top thing. No matter I wear my hair real short, if I need to comb it, it's way too long.
I am trying the chin hairs for a bit now, it's starting to look like something but I don't do well with beards either.
Now I'll run with anybody on a mustache, had one of those since I think I was 3. Wife says I don't have an upper lip if I shave it off which far as I recall only happened once or twice.
 
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