CTaylorJr

Thomas, I trust your judgement. I've been a member her for many years, but only started posting recently. Your posts are usually on target The thing is, when this anvil left me, it was pristine. Now, when I see the marks, it just makes me mad. The face is t salvageable. It laid in the mud for a "couple of years", according to a cousin. I just want to make her look good...

Does anyone see an issue with me grinding and sanding the horn and shelf on this anvil? The marks are making me crazy and it pi$$es me off when I see them.

That's an amazing piece of work!

That make perfect sense! Thanks folks.

That's the plan. I have a couple of weeks worth of work on the shop, and then it's game on!

Not sure if it's superstition, but after wire brushing and lightly sanding the face of my recently reaquired anvil, I rubbed a little Crown and Coke into the face.... I've always done that to smokers I made, so I figured it couldn't hurt...

I just got this anvil back, and I'm certain I never paid enough attention in the past to spot these. Both of these holes are on the ends of the anvil base, what are they for?

This is great information! All my life I've heard that the "perfect" spot for the face was knuckle height with a closed fist, this makes much more sense! thank you!

Thanks for the words of support folks! I plan to hang out here and POST this time around, been lurking for quite a few years. Well, I've learned a bit more about the abuse this girl suffered. According to a cousin, she laid in the mud for quite a few years, and now that I've wire brushed and hit the top with a sander, I can see that the rust hid a LOT from me upon first inspection. Luckily, I'm right handed and my "side" of the anvil face is in decent shape. It looks like a hatchet was used on the shelf and the horn, but it'll still work for me I have quite a bit more to do to her, but I'll do it a little at a time. Right now I need to get the shop back in shape and finish a good stand. As I progress, I'll post pics...

Feels great to have this thing back! I'm just thankful that the only abuse it really got was sitting out in the weather. I did a rebound test on it this afternoon. I used a 1/2" ball bearing and dropped it from 10". Bounced back to 8.5-9" each time. I'm happy. Now, tonight I have to build a stand for it. The footprint for this one (11"x11") is much larger than the 70 pound anvil I have now.

When I was 15 my grandfather gave me this anvil after I had made a few knives from farm steel. At 26, my grandfather passed away and this extremely possessive uncle decided he wanted it and came and got it. At that point in my life I was getting married and not really making knives and didn't put up much of a fuss. Well, when I got back into making knives 6 years ago, I inquired about the anvil and was told it had been sold many years ago. I was a bit irked, to say the least, but once again dropped out of knife work in late 2014 due to a shop fire Fast forward to December, the uncle passes away and I'm asked by my aunt to come out to his farm and get a few tools. Sitting behind the barn was my anvil... According to my aunt, he put it behind the barn when they moved to the place 10 or so years ago. She had no idea it was mine until I mentioned it in passing when she asked about my getting back into knife and metal work since the insurance company finally settled. Now, the questions, looking at the marks and reading online, am I correct that it's 177 pounds? Also, any idea on age? i have a LOT of clean up and rebuilding to do in the shop, but I'll be here getting back into the swing soon!