ArtMetal

Geez, replying to my own post, that's a first for me. Probably the first sign of some impending mental crisis. Comes from working alone all the time, probably. :-)

I neglected to address you question about holding tapered stock, Brad. That's a tough one, as you know. Blasted tapers just want to slip out from under a clamp - unless you stop them somehow. One way is to use a pointed or cleated foot for the clamp, so it bites into the stock. Deforms the stock, though. That's usually a bad thing.

If you can set a stop for the stock opposite the clamp, it has no where it can go. For certian pieces, I suppose you could make a complex clamping foot that had an outboard arm that came down and acted as the stop. That wouldn't work in many situations, though. In the past, I've used a stop made from a piece of angle with a pin to drop in the pritchel hole, bu that only works on the Nimba, which has the pritchel hole at the other end of the face from the hardy. On my other anvils I've used a bar clamp across the face.

For mild tapers, say less than 1:8 or so, a clamping foot with an integral toggle pad like a Vise-Grip C-clamp would work fairly well. That will still slip loose under much force, though. The only really solid solution I've so far found to the problem is to tack weld a sacrificial piece on the taper to giveme a parallel surface for clamping and then cut it off after the work is done.

If any of you can come up with a good solution to this one, you can probably patent it and make some serious money. Just remember me when you're rich and famous, hey?

Rich