njanvilman

Rainy day, browsing CraigsList this morning. Found a listing for a 30 lb anvil. Called and got directions. 60 mile rainy drive. Turned out to be a Fisher, only a couple of edge chips. Bought it and a few other items out of the garage for the museum. Great deal for everything. Sometimes you just get lucky.

$225 would be on the top end for a Vulcan of that size. It is in good shape though. Maybe you could make an offer of about $150. As said above, be careful about heavy pounding near the edges.

For $50, that NC farriers anvil would be good trade material. Not too good for forging anything much bigger than horseshoes though. It would be good for small work or easy to bring to demos. If it was offered to me for that price, I would grab it.

Fisher cast their last anvils in the Spring of 1961. Crossley took over at a foundry about one mile away and continued making Fisher anvils until December 1979. They had to discontinue using their iron furnace due to EPA and DEP regulations. I now own the rights and trademarks to Fisher & Norris. I obtained these in 1999 from the owner of Crossley Machine shop. I hope to have swage blocks cast using original Fisher patterns soon. I probably will not make any anvils due to the complexity of the casting/welding/heat treating process, unless I find a foundry that can do them in the proper steel. So in a way, Fisher is still alive.

Blacker Numbers The numbers on my two big Blacker anvils are: 12470 Very clear to read. 81260 The 1 and 2 are very faint. I think this is the actual number. What is the number on your anvil Tom. And does it have a year? I could not find a serial number on my smaller Blacker.

I actually have three Fisher Blacker anvils, two of the 515 lb style, and one of the 355 lb size. I will check tomorrow for any numbers.

Hi Tom. I still have the Blacker. It is still "rust frozen". It is a good display piece to show how the Fisher Blacker Anvil was used. Someday I will get to Quad States perhaps in the same year you make it and will finally meet. Future of the Museum: Great question. I really do not have an answer. I would hope that the patterns and ephemera could somehow stay together. I have other artifacts unique to the history of the company that should stay with the patterns. Hopefully my health will enable me to keep this going for many more years, and eventually complete my book on the history and products of Fisher and Norris. Perhaps one of my children will take it over, but that is unlikely. In the meantime, it has turned into a great collection, and I invite all interested to contact me to arrange a visit. Contact me whenever you are in the NJ area.

AIA book list that serial # from 1908. Size? Condition? HB anvils are great anvils. Have fun.

New Addition to the collection: 100 lb Fisher, Absolutely MINT! Never been hit, with most of the factory paint still on it. Found on CraigsList, 80 miles from home. Brought home Sunday night. This is a late model Crossley made Fisher, from the 70's. This is the best unused Fisher in the collection. It will be preserved as found.

Our thoughts are with you here on the East coast.

Vulcans used the Fisher patent idea after 1875, but their anvils were always considered to be poor. That anvil has had a rough life. It would work, but the price is about double what it is worth. It would make a good door stop. My opinion.

70 lb Fisher got to my museum, courtesy of a move by a friend from Quad States. Neat item...the FISHER logo is on the anvil upside-down. That anvil will go on display with the one with the upside-down Eagle, and the one with the FISHER on backwards. Even with Fisher's aim for quality, some anvils with defects still got out there.

I have an ACME anvil, with the letters inside the a diamond, just like on a marked TRENTON anvil. That one looks very similar to mine, just bigger. Mine is about 90 lbs. I will check the serial number later.

Was at a farm auction Saturday in NJ that sold a 160 lb HB, serial # 211,??? for $250. Not perfect, but not destroyed. A good user anvil. I did not buy it.

In the last two weeks, I have added a 200 lb Fisher, made in the 1850's(earliest style), a 70 lb Fisher with a major identity defect, and a pre-1800 170 lb. Continental style double church window anvil(not Fisher) to the museum. I hope to get them cleaned up and on display in a few weeks. I wish I could go to Quad States, but I just missed 10 days of work with a broken leg, and have to go back to work this Friday. Maybe next year?

You have a Fisher anvil, made in Trenton, NJ, in 1914. The 10 on the leg indicates a 100 lb anvil. The 50, 100 and 150 lb anvils where the most common sizes Fisher made. Value: worth whatever someone will pay for it. Yours in in decent condition, although not mint. I would only clean it with a wire wheel, no grinding. You will learn to work around any chips. The horn nicks will not be a problem. Really no need to grind away any of the hard plate unless you want to put it on display and never use it. If you do insist on "cleaning up the nicks" use only a flap type sanding disc on a small offhand grinder lightly. Fisher anvils were typically painted black on the base area, not the working surfaces. Of course, it is yours. Do whatever you want with it. And enjoy working with a great anvil.

Monmouth Country. Please PM to set up a date. Got to get off crutches first. Thanks.

All Fisher anvil were painted black on the base. The tops were not painted. The only ones that were a different color were pictured in the July 1952 issue of National Geographic Magazine. The photographer complained that everything was gray, black or dirty. So they painted three of them orange, green and silver. But it is your anvil; you can do anything you want with it.

I finally decided to give this forum a go. A few friends on here urged me to get in on the fun. I am the curator of the Fisher & Norris Museum. Some of you out there know of the story of how I got involved with saving the archives of the factory. I had a story published in the Anvil's Ring in 2001 about the beginnings of the quest. More information can be found in a Google search. It would take too long to repeat it here now. My museum houses all of the remaining pattern for the Fisher anvils, the remaining paperwork, and a lot of anvils. The count is in the tons. I believe some photos were posted here in the spring of the museum. I love to talk about anything Fisher. I am working on a book of the history and products of the company. My museum is open to the blacksmithing community. Just PM me. I am in central NJ. This is not a full time venture. I teach wood and metalworking. Home this week recovering from a broken leg. OOPS. My quest out there is to find 600 lb and 700 lb Fisher anvils. They are the only missing ones from a complete line of all of their standard anvils. The search goes on.