Follow Me On:
The Adventurous Silversmith
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Portfolio
    • Metal Work >
      • Chasing & Repousse
      • Holloware
      • Jewelry
      • Other Wonderful Items
    • Fiber Arts >
      • Temari
      • Yubinuki
  • Resources
    • Library
    • Tools & Equipment
    • Links
  • About
    • Artist Statement
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • How it is Made
    • Contact

Save Time or Personal Satisfaction

8/11/2013

 
A few weeks ago I did some ebay trolling and eventually snagged an 18 pound vintage round table top anvil and a cone mandrel with removable hardy hole tang.  I am not certain but the anvil looks hand made.

I decided yesterday to start the refinishing of the anvil top.  The cone does not have pits like the anvil but will require just a small amount of surface sanding to clean it up. But as you can see from the first two pictures, the top of anvil is badly pitted. 

I went out to the garage where my new belt/disk sander is and fired that puppy up with an 80 grit belt to take down the top surface fast.  

The first problem was that the edge of the bevel does not blend into the main body, there is a thin step between where the be bevel ends and the main body. So I first round a thin piece of wood to support the body of the anvil thus allowing me to the face to touch the sanding belt evenly.  Of course this was not wide enough to support the entire body and so you had to "hold up" the body to keep it against the belt which was vertical.  I then tilted the belt back about 30 degrees from vertical so the weight of the anvil was directly slightly downward and away I (we) went.   My husband then took a turn at it and if you click on the pictures below, you can see the progress as we removed the pits. 

I used a level and laid it across the surface and there are no air gaps between the level and the surface even though the level tells me that the top surface is slightly higher on one edge and this could just be due to the bottom surface not completely square to the to body or parallel to the top. I did check my bench first and it was almost level so it is the anvil. Overall my working surface is flat just not 100% level to what ever surface it is sitting on. 

I post these images below, on my Facebook page last night and received some very nice complements including one from Kevin Potter of Potter USA  He said "I admire your determination laurie but I am more than happy to polish it for you" and then added "Spend your time making beautiful stuff let me do the dirty work."

Well I have thought long and hard about this. Ok, I only thought about it for 10 hours.  And I am very tempted to ship the anvil and the cone mandrel off to him. Just last month he modified some vintage stakes (the tangs) for me so they would fit in his stake holder and did a perfect job.  

Back in 2010 I scored a lot of  18 vintage hammer off of eBay but they needed work and I spent almost 2 months of weekends refinishing the faces.  Working on the anvil will require at least 10+ hours over several months and using the belt sander for the initial phase of pit removal took 1 1/2 hours alone. The long arduous work is still ahead of me with hand sanding. If Kevin did it, in his shop on his wonderful machines, it would take probably less than 5 hours and it could be as few as 2 or 3 to machine it down just a bit further and then working his way up to put a nice 600+ grit polish on it. 

But what would I get out of it besides saving quite a bit of my time??  And there people was the quandary.  

Saving Personal Time vs. Personal Satisfaction.  What you you do?? 

But the more I thought about it this morning over my Sunday cuppa; the more I realized I wanted the personal satisfaction of doing this vs. the time savings.    I want to say "Look what I refinished" and then be able to show these, and more, pictures off and hear people say WOW.  

Even if Kevin did do this job for me we all know people would say WOW.  PLUS it would help drive more business to Kevin which is a good thing cause he stays in business and continues to make great tools and equipment and then would be able to refinish other things for you and me when we really, really, really need it. 

So, sorry Kevin, I really do appreciate the offer but this time, this is one is mine to do.   Next weekend I will take a few hours and work my way through 100 grit. Each weekend I will then progress further up from 120, 220, 300 and when I reach 600 grit THEN I will decide if I want to spend more time for the extra WOW factor. 

Comments are closed.

    RSS Feed

    How to Aquire Your Own Shop Elf

    Archives

    October 2020
    August 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010

    Jan - Nov 2010 History
    File Size: 2272 kb
    File Type: pdf
    Download File

    Jan - Dec 2009 History
    File Size: 2332 kb
    File Type: pdf
    Download File

    Categories

    All
    42
    A Year Of Repousse
    Blacksmithing
    Blogoversary
    Box Project
    Business
    Chasing & Repousse
    Commission
    Education
    Embroidery
    Enamel
    Entries
    Entry
    Exhibition
    Facebook
    Filing
    Fold Forming
    Gold
    Holloware
    Hot Forging
    Hydraulic Press
    Jewelry
    Keum-boo
    Learning
    Leather
    Market
    Metal
    Patina
    Photography
    Polishing
    Publications
    Raising
    Sanding
    Santa Fe Symposium
    Shop Elf
    Sinking
    Social Media
    Soldering
    Store
    Studio Visits
    Superbowl Challenge
    Teaching
    Teapot Project
    Technique
    Temari
    Tin
    Tools
    Vessels
    Visiting Workshops
    Weaving
    Website
    Workshop
    Yubinuki

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.