8 replies to this topic

[otisdog]

Considering a possible purchase. Can any one give me the companies background, and opinions on it's quality? Thanks.

[Sask Mark]

Apparently they are high quality cast steel anvils made in England.

I'm hoping to get a nice one in the next month myself.

[bruce wilcock]

i bought a 2 1/2 cwt anvil from brooks direct from the works in 1964-5 the price was 28 pounds sterling ,around 3 weeks wage ,my dad went nuts ,for spending all that money ,when we had a shop full of anvils i wanted a smaller anvil to go out shoing ,all the anvils at home were in the 5-6 cwt range, it was a fine anvil ,the only drawback for a shoing anvil is the heel is thick and not good to pull shoe heels out on, i gave it to a young lad wanting to start up a year or so back ,and it had held up well .

[Mike Lambiase]

In my opinion, they are the best London pattern anvil ever made...

But I am biased.

560#, 140#, 56#...

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Mike Lambiase

[mat]

what steel are they cast from ????

[otisdog]

bruce wilcock, on 11 March 2010 - 04:03 PM, said:

i bought a 2 1/2 cwt anvil from brooks direct from the works in 1964-5 the price was 28 pounds sterling ,around 3 weeks wage ,my dad went nuts ,for spending all that money ,when we had a shop full of anvils i wanted a smaller anvil to go out shoing ,all the anvils at home were in the 5-6 cwt range, it was a fine anvil ,the only drawback for a shoing anvil is the heel is thick and not good to pull shoe heels out on, i gave it to a young lad wanting to start up a year or so back ,and it had held up well .

Where were the works? Do you know the years that they were produced?
Thank you.

[Rob Browne]

Do they have any other markings than the weight? That small one looks exactly like my 28kg one but mine has nothing but the weight marked on it.

[Sask Mark]

Apparently Brooks have been made since about WWII. They used 2 different foundries to do the casting.

They are still being made (as of 1995) under the name Vaughn. They are handled by Vaughn's (Hope Works), Baker House, King Street, Lye, Nr. Stourbridge, west Medlands DY9 8UT.

http://www.anvils.co.uk/

All of this information is from Richard Postman's 'Anvils In America'.

[Fe-Wood]

I helped a friend on a Bronze job and we used his newly purchased 300 + pound John Brooks. Really nice anvil. Good hard cast steel. A little loud though. There were several on Ebay last summer.... I really wish I ended up with one....