Fatfudd

G-Man Bart - You are incorrect. Hay Budden did experiment with solid steel anvils and as Lou said collectors would be all over that anvil. There have been several sold on Ebay in the past year for a fairly healthy chunk of change. Sometimes it best not to offer an opinion if you have only read a book. Many of the folks on IFI have developed a considerable knowledge base from actual experience.

Pictures help!

Good for you! Now get to making nice things to sell and it will pay for itself.

I'm making a set of new keys for my little giant/Murco power hammer and I have a question that some of you may be able to answer. The discussion provided on the Little Giant website for fitting new keys is excellent but it seems to me that this process of grinding and filing would be prohibitively time consuming for the original manufacturer. I have found several references on IFI for fitting keys using heat. One discussion suggests using a rose bud to heat small sections of the key and upsetting those portions of the key to fit the dovetail until the whole key is solid. Another thread mentioned just heating the key and driving it in the dovetail as long as the sides are straight. It would seem, as I said, that the process of grinding and fitting each key in new machines would have been terribly time consuming. It also seems that many of the machines had pins in the bottom of the dovetail and in the dies. I may be wrong here but wouldn't it have made more sense to just put the die in place with the base pin and then pound in a well heated key? That assumes the key would be premade nearly to the correct size but would upset into the dovetail. Once its cooled and has shrunk a little, a couple of more hits on the key would drive it in securely. Since the heated key is going to be a whole lot softer that the base or the ram there would be no danger of breaking. Has anyone used heat to get their keys to final shape??

A little searching on IFI would reveal this-

Glad you didn't take offense to my kidding!

Whoa Now! Hay Budden was making anvils in 1985???

Actually Frog is right, I didn't focus on the size and shape of the horn. It does look Columbian-ish.

Actually my anvil is slightly shorter about 15" tall, that anvil may be 500+ lbs.

A little more info and more pictures would help. It looks very much like a Hay Budden anvil, does it have a number under the horn next to the square handling hole? My 433 lb arm and hammer anvil has about the same measurements.

I picked up a Murco Power Hammer from a small town here in NM. I can find some of the evolution history from Little Giant to Mayer Bros to Moloch to Murray but not much else. I could use more information regard the brass bearings, grease requirements and in general some more info on its parts. The hammer doesn't appear to have been used much and is just dirty from having laid on the ground for the past few years. Every thing looks to be in excellent condition and it turns freely. Clutch works as it should. If anyone has one of these machines let me know. I attached a few photos.

Here is a nice video that shows a fellow's favorite anvils and tools-

The cost of used anvils has gotten so silly that they have way eclipsed new anvil prices for example there is a 225lb Fisher anvil just listed on Ebay for $2000. It looks to be in nice shape even tho it is painted. Then take a look at at the papa rhino anvil 242lb for $1250 which are incredible quality anvils. Some how the word needs to get out to the newbies that the old anvils are being overpriced by speculators and collectors. We owe it to the newbies that come on here and ask for our opinions to tell them the truth. Don't fall for a beat up anvil just because it is a Hay Budden or Peter Wright or ?

I think Black Frog has nailed it. I have had and used many many anvils over the years. I like a large anvil and currently use 3 anvils over 300lbs in my shop. That being said the one I use for everything requiring detailed work is my 330lb Refflinghaus(south German style). The reason is pretty simple; the flat horn and the side shelf make detail work so much easier while having a broad face and really nice round horn. As you can see from the picture it resides in between my much larger anvils which also have their purposes but if I had to only have one anvil it would be the Refflinghaus.

Kinda hard to tell but it looks like a colombian anvil. Pictures that are a little clearer would help a lot. The only other manufacturer that used a triangle was West manufacturing.

Thomas Powers is right, I would try to mount it so it could be used in either direction, As mentioned most anvils smaller than about 250lbs have a face that is narrower than 5in. If the rebound is as good as you indicate I would like to be able to use the horizontal face for laying out and working on longer pieces plus you have holes already drilled which could used as pritchel holes. I don't know that there is a right or wrong way.

Sisco anvils were made in Sweden by Soderfors and are solid cast steel. They are very fine anvils probably some of the best ever made. Transporting it depends a lot on how big it is. I would imaging if the anvil is below 200 lbs your car could handle it about as well as it would a 200 lb human. If it is larger your problem still isn't the ability of the car its the problem of loading and unloading it. I have loaded and moved a 350 lb anvil in the back of my wife's subaru and the only real problem I had was convincing her that it wouldn't ruin her car,

Southern anvils were ASO cast iron. Most looked like that one in a few hours.

As Frog said that is a reasonable price given today's market particularly for the condition. I have seen Arm and Hammer anvils of smaller size go for a lot more.

From your pictures, I can't really tell if the top plate is there or has been lost. What kind of rebound do you get using a ball bearing?

Actually a belt sander works far better than an angle grinder. It helps keep the face more even.

Hmm - It looks as if the top plate is missing? I have never seen a Hay Budden with that much sway.

I have seen Fred's collection and there is no cutler's anvil in his HB's. As well I have never seen one in any other place. It is undoubtedly very rare.

American Star anvils were only made for a short period of time in the 1800's. They are constructed like the Fisher anvils with a steel top plate on a cast iron body. It wouldn't really be advisable to try to fix the top but they are good anvils and yours should work quite well as is.

JHM are ok anvils but if I were going to spend that much money I'd look at the Rhino anvils http://www.incandescent-iron.com/rhan.html I'm not a salesman for them or related to them but I was super impressed with the quality and rebound.