THE FORGE

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NOW FOR AN ANVIL

If you follow country auctions you can often get a farm smithy complete with portable forge, anvil and tools for around $1,000. Centaur Forge sells English, German and North American anvils in all shapes, sizes and prices, ranging from an almost $3,000, 500-pound Vaughan-Brooks (British) smith's anvil to a $150, 35-pound version of the portables that farriers carry in their trucks and use in the stall.

The Outback Aussies make theirs from a 2' or 3' section of salvaged railroad track. In most of rural America you can still find steelyards that have plenty of old main line or trolley track lying around, Pick out a couple of feet of the most modern, carbon steel rail (rail that throws sparks under a high-speed grinder and that has the best ring to it).

The Aussies spike the rail to a heavy sawhorse and have at it. You can do the same, or, if you like, you can make a professional anvil out of salvaged steel rail. Have the yard cut the rail into a rough anvil shape; pick from the shapes shown in the Centaur Forge catalog or at their Web site: www.anvilfire.com/centaur/catalog/anvils/a nvils_O.htm . Back home, grind it smooth, drill pritchel and hardy holes and temper and anneal the body (harden to red-hot and brittle, then soften to straw yellow and a proper hammering elasticity) in two heats on a bed of coals and two quenchings in a washtub of water Fully illustrated directions will be found in Alex Weygers' essential three-part book: The Complete Modern Blacksmith (see Sources ).

The old-time skills are kept alive by a small army of teachers, re-enactors, skilled art smiths and the 7,000 professional farriers that shoe over 2 million riding horses in America today.

Till you gain the skill to make your own, you'll need to buy a set of wolfs jaw tongs (with serrated teeth that will grab anything) for $20 or so.

Set your anvil with its top at hip level on a section of whole, round log under a spreading apple tree, fire up the brake drum forge, and you are on your way to becoming a master of metalworking.

If you follow country auctions you can often get a farm smithy complete with portable forge, anvil and tools for around $1,000.

TYPES OF IRON AND STEEL

Pure iron is very soft so other elements are added to improve its strength, hardness and elasticity. Passing an electric current through a solution of ferrous chloride produces pure iron.

Pig iron is manufactured from iron ore, coke and limestone in a blast furnace. The molten iron is poured into a mold called a "pig". The pig is sent to a foundry to be further refined.

Cast iron is partly refined iron and contains up to 5% carbon. This makes it very hard but brittle. Cast iron is used in car and truck cylinder blocks.

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