Robar

I picked a local farm pretty hard. I was answering a craigslist ad for a champion 400 blower The guy said she turned nice and the gears were shiney he wanted 100.00 Well in the end I paid 75.00 and did a few other deals total for the day was 105.00 I think that was 4 weeks ago. Robar

The anvil is still mounted to oak block it came with so I couldn't get pics of the bottom. I'll see how my dad's back is feeling next time I'm over. I'll also get more and better pics next time. Robar

Some other things I thought of. It has a 1/4" round hole mid body on the oposite side. Maybe on purpose or maybe someone got bored I'm not sure. It has a nice ring as well as excellent rebound. I tried a couple different hammers on it and they bounced back up to where they started or real real close. As I'm not set up for forge work at the time I am storing it in my dads barn. I'll have to look for more marks next time i'm over. Robert Added.... Okay went looking and found on page 2 Iron Striker has pics of a 190 lb Hay Budden after comparring side by side they look strikingly simular! Sorry about the pun by it was in excellent taste!

Okay fellas we figured out what my Hay-Budden was so I thought I would pose the next question... Who made this Guy? I swapped the hundred pounder plus some cash for this one. I was out scrounging around on an old farm buying some things and the guy showed me his dad's old anvil. NO he didn't want to sell it, but he thought I'd enjoy seeing it. Well a few weeks later (Last Weekend) I finally nailed him down on the Mandrel I found in his shed and when I went to pick it up he told me he might consider swapping his anvil for my smaller one plus 200.00. He said all he needed was something to beat soft steel on and knew I love to have the bigger anvil. He Was RIGHT!! The info I can give is it is 29.5" from heel to horn tip the face is 4.25" across Sorry I didn't measure the hight. The makers name looks to be ground off with some extreamly shallow stamp over the bare spot or possibly still showing after the grinding. It has no handling hole under the horn Nore any number up there either. I can't remember if there was a handling hole in the back under the heel, but it tickles my brain that there may have been. Here are a few pics that clearly show the weight and serial number as well as over all shape. Thanks for all the help guys. Robert

After knocking off some rust and looking the anvil over I’d say its not to bad for the price I paid. It’s got a couple pits that I can live with, but mostly the face is smooth. The main thing is the anvil wasn’t beat to death doing to heavy work on to light an anvil with a monster sized hammer. There is only the slightest hint of a saddle in the work area which won’t bother me. Rebound is about 45% with a 1 cm bearing. Not the best, but it will work well enough until a better opportunity comes along. I still can’t make out the name on the side. It looks as though we are only seeing the bottom half of the letters as I can’t faintly see the upper half of an “S” making the last letter in the name an “S” I also wouldn’t be surprised if a the first 1 or 2 letters are missing from the name as they are missing from the word below. Solid is missing it’s “S & O” so it could be the same with the name. Numbers… As can be seen there is a “3” up on the left side of the handling hole. On the foot I’m not sure what all the numbers are. For sure the first is a 7 the next might be a 7 a 9 or possibly a 1, third is clearly a 5 forth possibly a 1, and fifth is clearly a 3. 77513, 71513, 79513?

Of course like a first timing dolt I never asked about fire. I was starry eyed and hardly able to contain my excitment enough to keep from just trading my wallet for the anvil. You all remember what your first time was like? I doubt fire though, just based story behind the anvil I'd guess no. I was also thinking along the lines of the belt sander as my first atempt at cleaning up the face. Going to swing by and get some aluminum oxide belts for the sander. This weeked will be all about wire wheels on the body and working on the face. I want to thank everyone for there input and comments. After I get it cleaned up I'll post some more pics and hopefully the numbers on the foot. Thanks! Robar

Okay got my anvil. It does have numbers on the front foot but I can't make them out as they are very rusty. The face is not as smooth as I had hoped. It appears that a lot of chiseling has been done one face's sweet-spot. Anyone ever have their anvil's face ground? I'm thinking a 1/16th of an inch would make a measurable difference. Anyway it's my first real anvil and it's cool, but I'm not tossing my 3"x4.5"x22" piece of cold rolled steel to the side just yet.

Thanks Guys I thought it looked like a Hay, but couldn't make it out. I had wondered if it was made for a hardware store or some other distributor as well. Thanks for the info, that just backs up my assumptions.

I've been watching Matchless for off and on for 4or5 years now and that is the third I've seen.

Tomorrow I am picking up this anvil I bought over the phone based on the pictures. Not sure who made it, but for 200.00 I told the guy I'd take it. Can anyone tell me who made it or anything about it? I'm not even sure what it weighs. Just that he said it was around a hundred pounds. Any information would be great. Thanks guys! Robar

I've either seen this one before or one xxxxxx close to it from the same seller about 3 years ago. I've been watching his auctions a long time and was as impressed back then as I am now. The only problem with it is it's probably too small to do much on. Pretty none the less...

Hmmmm That is something I hadn't thought of. I wonder if I could get a foundry to do a one off? I know where there is one foundry less than an hour away and I know others exist in the area though I'm not sure if the others are still open. Either way it's a good idea that I shall check into in the future.

The rail was owned privately and was used in a fab shop for a trolley from the back to the front of the shop where they received deliveries. The grandson of the original owner was tearing down the building and had it for sale. It was old and I do believe by it's appearance it was wrought Iron. I doubt highly that the scrap yards around here would give a rats tail section about buying R&R steel from an average Joe. Within a fifty mile radius of me there have been hundreds of miles of track ripped out and the rail beds made into public paths, as well as CSX track constantly being maintained. There is no real shortage of track around here if one looks. I drove right to a CSX yard and asked about buying some rail. The road master asked me how much I wanted as he had a couple thousand feet that was just going to go to the scrap yard next door. I bought a 13' piece of 130lb rail that cost me $35.00 However I am currently using a piece of steel that is 3"x4.5"x20.5" up on its end, its 70 lbs of mild steel, but is working fine for now for making blades. I decided to try and save up some money and buy a real anvil to go along with my above mentioned piece that I been hammering blades on and use the 13' of rail for making tools and what not out of. I would also like to try some blades out of the flat base part of the rail. Currently I been making some blades out of some mystery steel??? It's aprox 5/8 square stock and I know its spring steel of some type. They are mud flap hangers off of a semi tractor. My dad was a truck mechanic a lifetime ago and had a few laying around. Something else I want to give a go to is making a hammer or two. I been studying hammers a bit and would like to make a couple. One because I think it would be a great learning experience and because I can't think of a better way to make tools and knives than with tools I make myself. For these hammers I have a couple options the afore mentioned r&r rail or I have an axle shaft that roughly 2" in dia. that came off an old bull dozer my grand dad had years ago. The shaft is probably a bit softer steel than the rail, but I would think either would make serviceable hammers. Well anyway I have rambled on long enough. Thanks for the input.

Well not the kind of help I had hoped for, I decided to pass on the rail. Thanks anyway.

If I could get enough out of it I may have considered it, however the best anvil deal I have been able to find was a 150# peter wright for $350.00 Considering I'm paying a buck a foot or 3.00 for every hundred pounds and scrap is 187.00 a ton I can't even get close. the whole works is worth about 260.00ish, but would cost me 116.00 while a profit could be made its a far cry from buying an anvil I'm afraid...

I have seen about everything on the net (including here) as far as railroad anvils go. I have sure seen some dandies too, but how would you guys that have experience already tell a newb to build an anvil if I had lots of Rail to use? I have access to about 100' of rail and an old Lincoln arc welder, but sadly no torches. Torches I may be able to borrow if I check with the extended family, but don't have my own. Pictures or diagrams of course are great, but description would be fine. I'm just a newb that wants to build a nice anvil with what he has available- LOTS of RAIL! So please feel free to frivolously use up my steel and help me design/build an anvil. Thanks! Robar

Signed up a few weeks ago, but this is my first post. Hello:) Been wanting to beat on hot steel for a long time now and finally decided its time to quit thinking and start doing. So far the tools I have are a hammer and some files and a chunk of loaner R&R rail. Everyone starts somewhere...