Fisher

[Frozenforge]

Picked this up a while back and finally got around to getting it set up. Rebound seemed low but I have always wanted a sawmaker just cause. After cleaning it up rebound is 50%. I dont know if sawmakers were treated different when it comes to hardening the face. I doesn't make sense that they would be but I don't know.

[njanvilman]

6 hours ago, Frozenforge said:

Picked this up a while back and finally got around to getting it set up. Rebound seemed low but I have always wanted a sawmaker just cause. After cleaning it up rebound is 50%. I dont know if sawmakers were treated different when it comes to hardening the face. I doesn't make sense that they would be but I don't know.

 

Fisher sawmaker's anvils were never intended to be hit with a hammer, or be used with hot metal.  Their use was under a circular saw blade, used when the saw master was tuning the blade, done cold.  Their faces were hardened when made, but never had to be as hard as a regular anvil.  However, in time, the face did work harden.  I have some saw anvils that have faces that are around Rockwell 58.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

A friend was just given a large Fisher Sawyer anvil. Would it be adversely affected if hot metal was hammered on it?

[njanvilman]

On 10/13/2016 at 5:26 PM, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

A friend was just given a large Fisher Sawyer anvil. Would it be adversely affected if hot metal was hammered on it?

Fisher saw anvils were designed to be use with a cold circular saw blade.  The technician would tune the blade according to many factors: hp driving the saw, left or right, # teeth, and type of wood usually sawing.  The blade was always between the anvil and the hammer.  You can use hot metal on the anvil.  It will not affect it.  Just remember that the face of the anvil is usually very hard, somewhere around Rockwell 60, and can be prone the chipping or cracking.  Be sure to aim you blows carefully. 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

OK, I will let both of my friends who have one know. 

[njanvilman]

I recently add this CUSTOM Fisher anvil to the Fisher & Norris Factory Museum collection.

Specs:  640 lb         43" long          Horn  20", it is over 8" diameter where it meets the body   Made in 1900    

There is very little use on the anvil.

Second photo shows the anvil on display at the entrance to the museum.  #10 Fisher Chainmaker's on the left, and this Custom on the right.  And lots more.

 

[notownkid]

now there is one man who doesn't need to go to Gym all he has to do is go "play" in his museum.  I've got to come see it. 

[njanvilman]

1 hour ago, notownkid said:

now there is one man who doesn't need to go to Gym all he has to do is go "play" in his museum.  I've got to come see it. 

I moved over 3000 lb of iron last week.  And spent yesterday sawmilling logs.  But I still work out when I can.

[Lou L]

On 10/16/2016 at 8:35 AM, notownkid said:

now there is one man who doesn't need to go to Gym all he has to do is go "play" in his museum.  I've got to come see it. 

If you feel like stopping by my house on the way down I'll pitch in gas money!  

[njanvilman]

8 hours ago, Lou L said:

If you feel like stopping by my house on the way down I'll pitch in gas money!  

Just message me here or at njanvilman@gmail.com.   Easy trip...80 minutes from the Tappen Zee Bridge.

Open by appt. most times except weekends in December, unless you are here for a Christmas tree.

[notownkid]

1 hour ago, njanvilman said:

Just message me here or at njanvilman@gmail.com.

I will do that but it will be after the first of the yr. as I have to finish our move north in the next few weeks and then a short hunting trip 

Will keep that in mind Lou L but guessing we will be on the way to Fl. when I get there but not sure at this point.

[Lou L]

On 10/18/2016 at 7:41 AM, notownkid said:

I will do that but it will be after the first of the yr. as I have to finish our move north in the next few weeks and then a short hunting trip 

Will keep that in mind Lou L but guessing we will be on the way to Fl. when I get there but not sure at this point.

While I might enjoy Florida in the winter I think I would have to pass on that trip.  It would be one-way as my wife wouldn't allow me back home.

[264booking@gmail.com]

Beautiful find and restore job

[swedgemon]

About 1977 I worked for a major oil company...one of my accounts was Delaval Turbine in Trenton, NJ.  I was talking about blacksmithing with a few of the folks in the plant one day and asked whether any of them knew where I might get an anvil.  They immediately referred me to Crosley Machine, a few blocks away.  I went to the plant and met with the plant manager at the time, a thin wiry man about 80+ years old.  After discussing the ethics of him selling directly to me, he agreed to sell a 100-lb Fischer Norris.  He took me out to the foundry (closed for some years at that point)...stacked in the back corner there was an impressive pile of anvils.  He said most of them were made to US Navy/Coast Guard specs.  I picked out a 100-lb piece and he said to come back for it in a week or two...it had not been "dressed" yet (the table had square edges).  He said the older fellow who dressed the anvils only worked periodically. I don't recall the price.   Anyway, I have had the anvil ever since.

The two numbers cast in the base are "100" on a front foot and "11/9" down under the hardie hole.  The anvil stand came from somewhere out of the fog in my mind...I like being able to move the anvil, as required.  As can be seen, I have had to reinforce the 2X12's a few times.  Some day, when I grow up, I'll get a larger anvil, but I really like this one !!   

[ThomasPowers]

Wonderful story!

[Tommytaptap]

No pictures here apart from the top two! Suddenly and mysteriously just all appeared! Some beautiful American anvils there. Particularly that custom F & N. The classic body lines on it remind me of a classic racing yacht hull-truly beautiful.

[njanvilman]

6 hours ago, swedgemon said:

About 1977 I worked for a major oil company...one of my accounts was Delaval Turbine in Trenton, NJ.  I was talking about blacksmithing with a few of the folks in the plant one day and asked whether any of them knew where I might get an anvil.  They immediately referred me to Crosley Machine, a few blocks away.  I went to the plant and met with the plant manager at the time, a thin wiry man about 80+ years old.  After discussing the ethics of him selling directly to me, he agreed to sell a 100-lb Fischer Norris.  He took me out to the foundry (closed for some years at that point)...stacked in the back corner there was an impressive pile of anvils.  He said most of them were made to US Navy/Coast Guard specs.  I picked out a 100-lb piece and he said to come back for it in a week or two...it had not been "dressed" yet (the table had square edges).  He said the older fellow who dressed the anvils only worked periodically. I don't recall the price.   Anyway, I have had the anvil ever since.

The two numbers cast in the base are "100" on a front foot and "11/9" down under the hardie hole.  The anvil stand came from somewhere out of the fog in my mind...I like being able to move the anvil, as required.  As can be seen, I have had to reinforce the 2X12's a few times.  Some day, when I grow up, I'll get a larger anvil, but I really like this one !!   

Are you sure of the timeline....I have all of the artifacts from Crossley in my Fisher & Norris Factory Museum.  When I was given the material in 1999, they told me they actually cast anvils until the end of 1979.  They were ordered to close the foundry by the end of the year due to EPA regulations of the open furnace.  You state you got your anvil in 1977.  I am wondering about this two year gap.  

Also, could you tell what the initial and number are under the horn?

If you are on Facebook, check out the "Fisher & Norris Factory Museum Page" to see more about Fisher anvils and where all of the artifacts ended up.

[swedgemon]

Anvilman,  I looked thru my records, did not find a receipt, but I did find a 1979 list price sheet and a 1979 distributor price sheet for F/N anvils and double screw leg vises.  When I went thru the foundry that day all the usual casting, melt-metal handling, copes, drags, etc., were all there on the floor and against one wall...I do remember the plant manager saying the foundry was now (then) shut down and that they had cast a large number of anvils ahead (the large stack in the back corner of the foundry) so they would be able to fill Navy and Coast Guard orders as new ships were built.  That would make my purchase date some time in 1979 or 1980, instead of 1977.  He did  charge me the distributor price ($215).  I sanded the black paint from the throat of the anvil and could find no initial(s) or date under the horn (I had stamped my name under the horn  shortly after I bought the anvil).  Down under the hardie hole the numbers "11/9" are cast, but I found no initals.

A bit of topic drift, but still in the F/N thread, I also have a #4 F/N double screw chain-drive leg vise...got it in the tailgate section of the ABANA confrence in Ashville, NC, many years ago.  The screw had been broken just ahead of the handle and welded back in place...it wanted to follow me home.  I'll forward copies of the F/N price sheets for your reference.  I found a few receipts for hammers and a hardie from Manhattan Tool Co, Newark, NJ...I stopped by the plant several times in my NJ travels - nice follks.  On one of my visits they were forging lift hooks for Coast Guard rescue helicopters...it was a "rush" job.

 

[njanvilman]

1 hour ago, swedgemon said:

Anvilman,  I looked thru my records, did not find a receipt, but I did find a 1979 list price sheet and a 1979 distributor price sheet for F/N anvils and double screw leg vises.  When I went thru the foundry that day all the usual casting, melt-metal handling, copes, drags, etc., were all there on the floor and against one wall...I do remember the plant manager saying the foundry was now (then) shut down and that they had cast a large number of anvils ahead (the large stack in the back corner of the foundry) so they would be able to fill Navy and Coast Guard orders as new ships were built.  That would make my purchase date some time in 1979 or 1980, instead of 1977.  He did  charge me the distributor price ($215).  I sanded the black paint from the throat of the anvil and could find no initial(s) or date under the horn (I had stamped my name under the horn  shortly after I bought the anvil).  Down under the hardie hole the numbers "11/9" are cast, but I found no initals.

A bit of topic drift, but still in the F/N thread, I also have a #4 F/N double screw chain-drive leg vise...got it in the tailgate section of the ABANA confrence in Ashville, NC, many years ago.  The screw had been broken just ahead of the handle and welded back in place...it wanted to follow me home.  I'll forward copies of the F/N price sheets for your reference.  I found a few receipts for hammers and a hardie from Manhattan Tool Co, Newark, NJ...I stopped by the plant several times in my NJ travels - nice follks.  On one of my visits they were forging lift hooks for Coast Guard rescue helicopters...it was a "rush" job.

 

The Letter and numbers are on the other end, under the tail.  I can see them in your original post, but cannot read them.

 

After Crossley shut the foundry down, them scrapped all of the tools used there.  All of the iron Flasks, clamps, boards all went to scrap.  When I explored the building in 1999, I found the remaining patterns, and whatever else was laying around in the dirt.  Everything I recovered is in the museum.  The Crossley building was demolished in 2001.

[swedgemon]

I photoed the area under the tail...there are 4 numbers/letters cast in the base, but I could not find any stamped numbers/letters.

I worked for 35 years as a field engineer for a major oil company, calling on major industrial accounts (the ones that used a lot of industrial lube oil).  I watched the de-industrialization of the US (1971 to 2006) as companies frittered away, moved south or moved out of the US...sad, sad, sad.  There were several bright spots, but more typical was the Baltimore area - when I first started calling on accounts in and around Baltimore the lubes volume was over 300,000 gallons, not including Bethlehem Steel, Sparrows Point...15 years later, when I moved to a territory in KY, the Baltimore volume was less that 50,000 gallons.  Companies like Grumman Aerospace, Koppers, Beth Steel, etc., were gone, either closed up or moved out

.

[njanvilman]

The 79 represent 1979, the year the anvil was cast and the final year of production.

I cannot make out what the other letter are.  Maybe II?  Do not use a sanding disc in the future.  I wire brush will do fine.

[swedgemon]

I used sand paper...the disk grinder marks were under the thick coat of black paint.  The 2 parallel letters/numbers could be "II" or "11" or lower-case "LL".  A quick coat of rattle-can black is in the anvil's future, as soon as my shop warms up a bit (it was 12F last night).

[njanvilman]

There is usually just one letter ahead of the year numbers.  Looking carefully, can the mark be a M?  I can barely see the V between the I I?

Crossley was know to try to be as efficient as they could be.  It is not surprising to see grinder marks appear under the paint.  They did the grinding to quickly clean up any iron flash on the anvils.  The anvils that Fisher made back in the 1880's were of a better finish overall.

For the few anvils I have repainted, I find that John Deere Blitz Black paint to be a good color.  Not gloss, not flat.

Yes, the demise of American Industry is sad.  If we ever had to tool up the way they did for WW2, we couldn't.  Even if we had the tooling, we do not have the manpower with the skills needed.   

[swedgemon]

Josh, I looked pretty hard but there is no evidence of a dogleg crossbar between the two vertical lines.  If there are other 1979 anvils with the letter "M" on them, this one would be a brother or sister (are anvils gender-sensitive??).  I appreciate your responses and wish you the best with the anvil museum.

[njanvilman]

13 hours ago, swedgemon said:

Josh, I looked pretty hard but there is no evidence of a dogleg crossbar between the two vertical lines.  If there are other 1979 anvils with the letter "M" on them, this one would be a brother or sister (are anvils gender-sensitive??).  I appreciate your responses and wish you the best with the anvil museum.

I will see what is in the museum.  I believe I only have one anvil from 1979.