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I Forge Iron

show me your destroyed anvil!


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so, we all have seen an anvil with a cracked faceplate, broken horn or heel, gouges in the face or body, chisle marks beyond repair and bad weld fixes, so lets put them all in one place! here is one i saw, a guy tryed to sell this 169lb peter wright to me for $385

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A welder, not a very good welder, TRIED to fix that poor old anvil, made it worse likely. I do not think any welding can fix the face of an anvil if it is so badly damaged.It seems to me there was a period where the old guys just lost faith in the craft and did not care what tools were mushroomed or destroyed and damage to anvils was accepted. It was all going to be obsolete anyway.....then ..us

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I'll see if I can get my apprentice to take pictures of my wall of shame---all *MUCH* worse than that anvil!

Peter Wright? Missing everything above the waist! (weight stamped so we know it was once "whole" and ID'd by Postman

William Foster (1828): Missing heel and 90% of the face

Vulcan: worn through face---ridgeback! Horn broken off showing major casting flaws.

I do have a Powell missing the heel but I don't consider it destroyed as the face is still in quite good shape and the horn is fair---it's my loaner anvil for students.

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Hi folks. Thought I might add to this thread for my first post here. I was told that this one had been hit hard early on a cold morning an the horn just dropped off. The price was right however ($0), and at least it had hardy and pritchel holes, unlike my other similarly priced lumps of steel.

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Hi folks. Thought I might add to this thread for my first post here. I was told that this one had been hit hard early on a cold morning an the horn just dropped off. The price was right however ($0), and at least it had hardy and pritchel holes, unlike my other similarly priced lumps of steel.


It looks like that break happened a long time ago. The failure of the forge-welded components of these early English anvils appears to be not too uncommon.
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And I wouldn't consider that a "destroyed" anvil at all. Still quite usable, face in decent shape and as mentioned it has the hardy and pritchel.

I often suggest new smiths look for "damaged but not destroyed" anvils as the prices can be a LOT cheaper for a usable anvil. My Powell cost me $40 and is still over 100 pounds a great starter anvil! (The "destroyed" William Foster I paid $5 for at a fleamarket as I told the dealer that for $5 I'd put it in my backpack and walk off with it and he said for $5 he's like to see that!)

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The first anvil, although damaged, is actually the one I use the most (the edges look TERRIBLE in this picture but they're really not that bad). It is a 1918 Fisher with the heel completely broken off. The rebound is great and it is quiet as a mouse...if I need a hardie or pritchel hole I just use a different anvil. The second one is an unidentified old English anvil that I just picked up at a local flea Market for 20 bucks. The horn is broken off and the face is banged up really bad. Someone did a terrible job of "fixing" the face and used bondo, yes BONDO, to try to rebuild the horn! 015.jpg001-1.jpg

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Fe-Wood, I agree with everyone else...looks like a Fisher. If it's old enough it could be a "Southern Fisher". According to "Anvils in America", after the Civil War the southerners didn't want to buy Fisher anvils because of the union eagle on the side. Fisher removed the eagle from the anvils they sold down south. Postman says they may have done this as late as the the begining of the 20th century. I would love to have an "eagle-less" Fisher!

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Frick that is a Fisher logo on that first anvil and it has the Fisher mounting lugs, aare you sure that's a picture of your "Trenton"?

The second one would still hold a hardy tool---or a shop door, NM is windy especially in the spring and any swinging door has to be solidly held open...I usually use a large screw press and a large house jack...

Anyone want to see if SOFA would like to put a "Destroyed Anvil" display on at Quad-State this year? I probably can't go but then I've drug most of my bad ones out there before...

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Interesting story about the logo being taken off. I was figuring a Fisher because of the lugs but then I've never seen one before... Not that that means to much. I've had all kinds of ideas for that anvil. Use a water jet machine to cut in a new hardy hole, cut the heal end off cleanly and fix the edges, use it as the anvil for a treadle hammer.... It weighs in about 200 pounds so it seems worth doing something with. For now it sits on a pallet with the hoist in the picture on my loft.

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