Show me your anvil

[Mlmartin15]

ooo sorry about that, was a little to much to roll over, but on the bottom there is a regular square hold right in the middle, but there are also two round holes about 2 in away from the normal square hole, one on either side, maybe 1in round, and about 1 1/2 deep, never seen something like that before, ill take a pic later, have it all packed up right now, moving on friday, I know that squair holes are pretty much put on all forged anvils on the bottom, feet, and the waist. but are any of the cast anvils ever cast with these holes?

[nett]

Fisher anvils have cast iron bodies and have those holes.

[Makoz]

Hi there,
Finally got to take some photos of my blacksmithing gear.
Here's my anvil, which is 1 1/4cwt ex-Army WWII vintage. She's a bit worn down and probably hit with a grinder, as there is very little step in it.
Its mounted fairly securely to a bit of bridge timber, and I lift it onto the base of my leg-vice for storage... having only a small workshop. I can use both bits of gear like this if I'm doing nothing too serious.
The spring hold-down device does well working single-handedly, found the idea somewhere.

Thanks for looking!

Makoz

[moya034]

I bought an anvil yesterday. I had placed a wanted ad on craigslist, and got a response the same day!

It is made by the "Trenton" company, which is stamped on the anvil. It also has the words "solid wrought", so I assume this is a forged wrought iron anvil.

I haven't had a chance to weigh it yet, but I think it's somewhere between 110-140 lbs. The only number I can find on it is "95" but I'm sure it weights more then that.

I picked this bad boy up for $50. I'm quite happy.

[Sabre]

is the 95 on the foot of the anvil?

[moya034]

Originally Posted by Sabre

is the 95 on the foot of the anvil?

It's near where the 2 curved portions of the anvil feet meet.

I'm trying to find a friend who has a bathroom scale so I can weigh this thing.

[Frosty]

Good score!

110 is a bit on the light side for the shop and 140 a bit on the heavy side for a portable but either end of the range will serve just fine. I would've jumped for it at $50 and danced a jig afterwards!

Frosty

[NateDJ]

Here is a look at what I have so-far:

The Anvil is made of forklift forks, I have no idea what it weighs but I can barely roll it over and in no way can i lift the thing. I do have a chain hoist I use to move it and even roll it over to work on it.

I had a little trouble with the Hardy hole, had a 1" round hole and with lots of advice from people on this site I tried several different things and finally settled on welding in a square tube and it now has a 1/2" hardy hole. If I find that is not large enough I can re drill it and put in a larger square tube I guess.

I left the eye on the fork to be used as additional tooling, if I find it gets in the way I will simply remove it.

The horn is still quite unfinished but I have already found it to be a little thin, will vibrate like crazy when hammering on it. It also needs the bottom cleaned up and rounded over as well as about 1/2 of the top will get rounded over. I think I will leave the back half of the horn square faced though as I have found it works nice for small stuff when I want to draw out something very small like a nail.

This anvil rings like a huge bell and almost hurts my ears and the rebound is good, especially if I am using my 2.5# hammer and hitting hard. Will have to develop some bounce control as I almost hit my self in the head last night from the bounce. No idea if that is good or bad but it is what I have so-far.

I have also included a picture of some of the things I have made my wife while learning how to make things, as well as a picture of the hardy tools I have made so-far.

I still have to get some steel for the feet of it so I can mount it to a good stand. I am going to build a 3 legged stand for it as has been suggested by many on this site.

Would be very interested in hearing your comments as to how you think this anvil will work for the long hall, I am likely to not get another anvil unless it is almost free as I hope to use this one. What changes would you make if it were yours and why would you make those changes? What additions should I make to it? Should I make a shelf on it? should I drill a pritchel hole, and if so what size should I drill it to?

[Aeneas]

Hey Frosty,
You know anyone looking to buy an anvil in Alaska?
The Alaska Juneau gold mine is selling a monster 375# Peter Wright anvil for $700.00. That's an unbelievable bargain, but a bit too far from Hamilton Ontario to ship. Just thought some people may be interested.

Peter Wright #375 anvil

Aeneas

I still have to get around to taking pictures of my anvils. I lucked out this year, a collegue of mine was getting rid of the anvils in his class so I scored 2 110lb london pattern anvils for free. The tables have seen a bit of abuse and have some chips, but they still have a lot of life left in them. I lent one to a friend of mine and I lent the other to my 2 students (they're brothers) until they get their own.

[ThomasPowers]

Nate looks quite usable to me as to the long haul down the long hall, that pretty much depends on *you*. If it fits your needs then you're good. If over time your needs or wants change then not.

I would suggest that if you ever get rid of it you pass it on to another beginner as it looks like a great anvil to me!