Man, that thing is in fine shape!! Hard to find anywhere at a decent price and when you do they are beat to manure
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Finally Found That Antique Anvil I Been Huntin'
- Thread starter The Appalachian
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There’s a large antique shop in Wesson, MS that my Wife and I like to go too. Always find something I can’t live without. I well remember going there 6-7 years ago and they had a whole section/room of blacksmith tools, don’t remember any anvils, but about any tong or cutter you could think of. And the average price per item was around $20. At the time I just wasn’t sure if I’d ever actually try any smithing so I didn’t buy any of it. This was just about the time that a resurgence in blacksmithing started. By the time I decided to dip my toe in a couple of years ago every tool was long gone.
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I would not grind it until you use it for a while. Much as Bnuberry said. You don't need a perfect surface. In fact, it is hard to straighten a blade on a perfectly flat surface.
appalichian hunter
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Hows the ring, when lightly tapping the surface with a hammer. I have a Peter Wright in perfect condition dates to the civil war.
I belong to a blacksmithing forum, The one thing all of the experienced blacksmiths preach is not to try to flatten the face.
Eutycus
Cannon
One of my great grandfather's was a blacksmith.My mother never got to meet him, he was killed by a horse's kick to the head.
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Last year I purchased a kit from Ken’s Custom Iron that would make 5 different tongs. They had to be drawn out, twisted, shaped, and riveted. I figured if I couldn’t make the tools I had no business going any further. Learned a lot of the basics from it.
The hole on the bottom side is for a porter bar I believe. The forged anvil is welded together in sections. Cast iron anvils are just that, cast. The Fisher-Norris anvil with an Eagle logo on the side is cast iron with a tool steel top face and steel topped horn. Darnedest thing I ever saw. I had to sell it. It drove me crazy..no ring. Was not cracked. It was completely sound. Just didn't ring. Of course, as an old man who wears hearing aids every day, it might have been a better decision to have kept it. There are also old as well as new cast steel anvils.
I wouldn't mill it Ap. I refinished one and just used an oscillating sander on the surfaces I pound on. I get virtually no anvil imperfections onto the piece I'm working on.
Nice fine, best to you!!!!!
Robby
Nice fine, best to you!!!!!
Robby
Eutycus
Cannon
I guess a person learns something every day. Are there really cast iron anvils out there? I always thought cast iron was brittle and a good whack from a hammer would crack it.
Very definitely there are cast iron anvils. That Fisher-Norris anvil was most assuredly cast iron with a steel face forge welded and the top of the horn steel faced. It was as I remember about 150+ -- pounds and I think it was dated 1858? An eagle logo was present on the side. I used it for a long while. But at outdoor demos, the lack of ring was undesirable. It was not cracked, but perfectly sound. The hammer was lively over the entire top. (I was young and could hear then.)
Crown_Pointer
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If it's old (square tong holes in the base?) there will be three numbers on the far side (hundred weight, stones & lbs - see pic 1) you can use to figure the weight. I found that holding it down with straps works very well. In pic 2 I have the straps bolted to a mobile stand but it could be to a wood base with big lags too. If you're doing light forging I found my mobile stand (pic 3) very convenient however if you are doing heavy forging you'll want something like a buried stump or wood base. In fact if you're doing heavy forging you probably want a tire-hammer (google it). As for your top unless it's bad it would probably be fine with just a clean-up. My anvil in the pic was saddled and had a deep torch cut into it. We spent a whole day with a big rosebud (red preheat for penetration) and a 300A MIG with .045 Ranomatic BBG Hardface and a cup grinder to bring it back. Not for the fiegnt of heart. Welcome to blacksmithing! Read the caption on pic 04. ;-D
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I have an old anvil that is iron with a steel face. It is moderately used in very good shape. Weighs 300 lbs. I will try to get a couple pics up this weekend.
Interesting story how I got it. I was a forklift mechanic and worked on the road. Every Friday I was at a local winery because they had a slow schedule on that day most of the time. This anvil had been there longer than anyone could remember, so at least 50 years. Most people had tried to get it out of there at some point. The maintenance guys were laughing one day and told me I could have it if I could pick it up. Being a good sized guy, 280 lbs, a Marine and reasonably young, 40's, I picked it up and set it on their welding bench. It got very quiet. They had to decline letting me have it, they had no authority to let it go. I saw them lifting it back off the table with a forklift.
Fast forward 2 weeks. They had a habit of using their expensive pallet attachments incorrectly and broke the cast steel arm on one, it wasn't the first time. They needed it desperately the next 2 days for a warehouse move. Usually they had to be sent out to a machine shop for repair. It was quitting time on a Friday when the Op Manager asked if I could do anything with it. I stayed late, took it all apart, ground out the joints, heated the forging and rewelded the arm. Reassembled the attachment with new pins and bearings and had it working that night.
Monday went to get the work order signed and the Op Manager was worried because he had exceeded their budget for repairs that month and this was a repeat of a stupid mistake. He was sure he would get a lot of heat for it. Told him I had an idea, trade all of the labor for the anvil, it hadn't been posted to the job at that time. He wasn't sure he could do that and signed the work order. About an hour later he came with the anvil on a forklift and asked if I still had the work order. Loaded it in my truck, he said to get it out of there and never tell anyone where it went.
There was speculation for months what happened to it. Someone finally figured it out and needled me about for a long time. I never admitted to having it.
Don
Interesting story how I got it. I was a forklift mechanic and worked on the road. Every Friday I was at a local winery because they had a slow schedule on that day most of the time. This anvil had been there longer than anyone could remember, so at least 50 years. Most people had tried to get it out of there at some point. The maintenance guys were laughing one day and told me I could have it if I could pick it up. Being a good sized guy, 280 lbs, a Marine and reasonably young, 40's, I picked it up and set it on their welding bench. It got very quiet. They had to decline letting me have it, they had no authority to let it go. I saw them lifting it back off the table with a forklift.
Fast forward 2 weeks. They had a habit of using their expensive pallet attachments incorrectly and broke the cast steel arm on one, it wasn't the first time. They needed it desperately the next 2 days for a warehouse move. Usually they had to be sent out to a machine shop for repair. It was quitting time on a Friday when the Op Manager asked if I could do anything with it. I stayed late, took it all apart, ground out the joints, heated the forging and rewelded the arm. Reassembled the attachment with new pins and bearings and had it working that night.
Monday went to get the work order signed and the Op Manager was worried because he had exceeded their budget for repairs that month and this was a repeat of a stupid mistake. He was sure he would get a lot of heat for it. Told him I had an idea, trade all of the labor for the anvil, it hadn't been posted to the job at that time. He wasn't sure he could do that and signed the work order. About an hour later he came with the anvil on a forklift and asked if I still had the work order. Loaded it in my truck, he said to get it out of there and never tell anyone where it went.
There was speculation for months what happened to it. Someone finally figured it out and needled me about for a long time. I never admitted to having it.
Don
In addition to holding the anvil down it is also really important to set it at the right height. Perhaps someone could explain it better than I. But I will give it a shot. Standing beside the anvil facing parallel to the line of the anvil, horn to heel, and grasping your forging hammer, the face of the hammer should lay flat on the anvil face, (not tilted!), when your arm is slightly bent at the elbow. Hyperextending the arm is bad. Also if the base is too tall the arm does not straighten out enough to deliver a flat blow to the hot metal. Too high or too low will cause the hammer head to strike the anvil at a slant and leave a divot on the anvil face, especially on a Peter Wright. Couple good reasons to apply the chainsaw properly.
I secured my anvils to wooden stumps by heating up say a round bar of mild steel tapered to a point to a good heat and long enough to give it some inches of length to be driven hot into the stump and right up against one of the feet of the anvil leaving enough to be bent over the foot to secure the foot. I think I have used anything from 3/8" bar to 1/2" bar. Hold the pointed pin with a pair of tongs as it will want to pop back up for a while till it cools some and can be driven a little further. The char around the steel pin seems to grip the pin very nicely. Do each of the four anvil feet, bending each down over the foot in turn. Not precise in any sense.
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Yes, mine is all cast iron. And yes it is brittle compared to steel, I have it secured very loosely with lag bolts steel the feet don’t snap off. But a big hunk of it can take a lot of beating. But since it’s softer too, you don’t get that good rebound effect like a steel anvil. The surface deforms quickly too. I bought mine a year or so ago at Harbor Freight for $70. So it’s about 1/10th the price per pound of a good steel anvil. I think mine is 50 lbs.
The only thing that it’s better than is having nothing!
And I repainted mine, I hate that HF blue.
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Antique English manufactured anvils were marked with three numbers on the side of the body. The left represented units of 112. The middle, quarters of 112. The right number indicated pounds up to a quarter of 112. It was a now obsolete system called English Anvil Weight
I'd bead blast and paint it only. Find a big hardwood round to sit it on!
alcessapiens
40 Cal
I’ve got a 126 lb Peter wright and a 226 lb hay budden. The rebound of the pw is far better. Nice find! Also a ~450 lb on my 50 lb Bradley power hammer ( fewer achy joints and far faster heavy work)
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