Subject: Re: Anvil Meltdown

From: [email-masked] (Clay Spencer)
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 22:22:04 -0400

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

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From: [email-masked] (Bill Roberts)
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 08:14:22 -0400

> I reckon McCarty's fingers are broke and he can't type anymore.

Something tells me that we may never hear "the rest of the story" back
in a moment with page two.
Bill

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From: Jim McCarty <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 09:41:36 -0500

> I reckon McCarty's fingers are broke and he can't type anymore.

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

³Foolish consistencies are the hobgoblins of little minds³

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From: [email-masked] (Bill Roberts)
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 18:05:45 -0400

Jim McCarty wrote:

> 
> Now there you go with the negative vibes..
big snip
 we will do the job for you.
> 3Foolish consistencies are the hobgoblins of little minds3

A, truely, wonderful story. Sounds like the stooges are hirin' help.!:o)
Now lets see what do I have around here that I can get you guys to
fix........hmmmmmm....This all reminds me of the saying, 
" That thar boy could screw up an anvil" which is normally meant in fun.
I mean, like you could really screw up an anvil!!!!!!! Not!!!! You  all
aren't workin' on any rockets over there are you? If so I'll just get a
head start and ah.......... maybe do a little packin'!:o)
Bill

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From: Steve Herrick <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 22:27:08 -0700 (PDT)

Hey I just picked up an anvil without a bottom, maybe we could put the two
of these anvils together and come up with a single viable anvil. I could
keep it's custody, and you all could have visitation priveleges every
other leap year.... Or maybe we could do what King Solomon did to the
baby...

Hrolthgar -   [email-masked]
           Steve Herrick

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From: Jim McCarty <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 10:07:05 -0500

> Hrolthgar -   [email-masked]

Missing the bottom? Wonder how my son did that?
-- 
Jim McCarty
Father Helias Forge
Taos, MO
Editor Rural Missouri Magazine
Newsletter editor, Blacksmiths Association of Missouri