It's no secret I been planning on adding in a small forge set up to the Small-Hold for some time now. Fortunately working with a forge is a skill I am not entirely unfamiliar with so I know at least a little bit about what I need to get yet and such.
At one time I had most of the equipment I need to replace but then due my divorce quite a few years ago it all got scattered to the wind.
There is also my passion for replacing my old equipment with old equipment. I just don't feel the new stuff these days has the same quality and metallurgy as the older stuff I had managed to scrounge together over the years.
The other main obstacle in my path to replacing my old lost forge stuff seems to be today's modern picker types. Man these guys (and gals) seem to be everywhere anymore. I used to work with some people in the restaurant business that actually became buyers for several of the chain brands. I don't think it would take much brain power for many of you to figure out where a lot of these old signs and tools you see on certain restaurant walls came from.It's a good job if you can get it going around buying stuff for a large corporate end user. I have noticed in that Pickers show they say "collectors" but I know where most of it goes.
But when I dip into the well advertised world of someone auctioning off a fairly impressive old forge and blacksmithing setup I should know better than to hope the pickers won't show up.
Yesterday I had a forge with hood and nice blower in my sights along with an old anvil. The anvil especially was a prime target and it was an old Columbus company anvil too made around the 1920's if I am not mistaken.
I knew I was in trouble when I looked around at the other bidders and saw some woman wearing a T-shirt that said "Never too many anvils".
I think I walked away when the thing reached the $500.00 mark.
This is just another hurdle I have been noticing lately in trying to embrace the older technology to compliment sustainable living. We still have to compete with the modern pricing and corporate or private collectors.
On the bright side maybe it will be somewhere and someone will get some use out of it in the future.
At least my super busy period seems to be coming to an end now and I can catch up on comments and posts.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!
I see anvils around now and then but you probably don't want to pay shipping. I have a forge and a piece of railroad rail to play with when I get things set up. We have lots of blacksmiths around and the state club has met here a few times. There are all kinds of anvils and I hear the experts bad mouthing some of them but I don't know enough to have a clue what they are talking about. The forge that I have belonged to a guy who got a divorce and well couldn't haul it around so left it.
ReplyDeleteSf - This was the first anvil I have seen at any sale here in years. I really miss my old anvil but well that's water under the bridge. I would have liked to have gotten that forge too.
DeleteNothing annoys me more than people buying tools with no interest in using them!
ReplyDeleteI was at an auction and some idiot in a pink dress shirt was buying up all the wooden planes for $100 each. I talked to him and he was a designer and was planning on having a table made with a glass top so he could display them inside. No plan on using them except as a display piece.
DeleteExile1981
I see so many of the guys buying to resell to corporations especially restaurants it makes me sick. I think they should just use reproduction stuff for their ambiance.
DeleteI have only been to a couple and I do mean a couple auctions here,,, no bargains here or so it seemed to me... I don't know who was buying for what reason but just no real bargains.. not like what you have run onto a lot! I am still trying to get over what you bought your square baler for! I was telling honeyman man if we could just run onto a deal like that!
ReplyDeleteTexan - Hell I over paid for my baler. There's an old John Deere 14T not 10 miles from me now with an asking price of $900.00 I would love to have.
Delete