George Geist

Knowing that there are great many fakes of things nazi German, If this thing is in fact authentic it leads me to wonder what it was used for. Machinists and Mechanics of tanks maybe? Their Horse Cavalry was the 8th Waffen SS Florian Geyer. Obviously this one wasn't used by them. I'm going to ask around and look into this a bit. Interesting piece. George

A Big Tex is a nice one. I haven't seen one in years. I kinda wish AP had continued making them in that style as most contemporary horseshoers anvils leave a lot to be desired. All the other shoeing stuff (with possible exception of any rasps he might have) I don't see much use for unless you want to shoe some horses. Try to see if you can get about $200 knocked off and just take the anvil. That wouldn't be a bad deal. George

Also wish I could be there. Do you guys do this every year? George

No repair necessary. Go ahead and use the thing as is. It's a good one. George

Tell me about it. Is starting to remind me of the investment insanity surrounding class III weapons. Have patience. It's a crazy bubble that will surely burst. George

No other Fisher's have those markings? What markings? I believe we may have to get Josh to take a look at this one. George

Sulfer content doesn't matter worth a hill of beans for Blacksmithing. Not sure why it's even listed on there but can only guess maybe is for the benefit of factories and power plants who burn tons per hour as opposed to tons per year as Blacksmiths do and need to worry about pollution and such. As to Anthracite, go ahead and give it a try. After you're done I think you'll agree that the stuff just generally sucks. George

Any chance you can find a waterfall someplace? That would be effective if possible. George

Uh, yeah, what those guys said. Also, get rid of that anthracite. It's ok for heating your house or whatever but is totally unsuitable for blacksmithing. George

Appears you answered your own question. It's a Mousehole from 1914. Is possible it might have the weight stamped on it near the base in 3 numbers of the British stone weight system. Baby or Talcum powder rubbed into the writing might make it easier for you to see than charcoal too ;) George

Yes, you can make them fit (I'd opt for grinding in order not to mess up the temper) if you want to or........... Whatever doesn't fit in your anvil will most assuredly fit in your vise. That wouldn't require any reworking at all :) Decision is yours B) George

Excellent comment Mr Powers. I gave you a thumbs up for it. Should be interesting to see how long before those numnutz delete all the comments. George

That one was painful to watch and hear. Added my comments as well. Some people shouldn't be allowed to touch an anvil :angry: George

Used to be a guy on e-bay who sold a lot of tools. "Poor Boy" Blacksmith tools I think he went by....... The guy is dead now but was a pretty prominent individual in the trade. This individual thought it some kind of a civic duty of his to contact sellers of anvils and things and explain to them that they were selling the stuff too cheap. He would quote a lot from Postman's book and encourage people to get the prices of these things up. The guy was a nosy meddlesome PITA that felt it necessary to interject himself into things that were none of his business for whatever cheap thrills it gave him. I've recently seen people on this website doing the same thing lest you think I'm singling that guy out. I guess I'm fortunate I was able to make my best deals before the advent of the internet. As long as we have people out there trying to boost prices of things for their own misguided sense of fairness justice and the American way, stuff will continue to be way the heck overpriced. George

I've been using mine for 30+ years. It still works. DON'T waste money on expensive turning hammers. Nordic and Diamond are every bit as good as any $200 hammer more suitable for General Dynamics and Gov't contractors than working folks. ;) George

I'd say first of all a better hammer. You'll get tired of that one pretty fast. Mount the head on a wooden handle (preferably unfinished) or get yourself one already mounted on such a handle and use it instead. That one looks like something you found at Home Depot meant for yuppie homeowners not for any serious work. It'll give you blisters and never feel right. George

As far as contemporary anvils go, Emerson is one of the better ones. Value is whatever somebody is willing to pay for it. IMO an anvil is a tool. period. They are not investments, collectors items or anything else that justify price gouging. They are tools meant to be used, nothing more. Try to keep that in mind. As far as collectibility goes for those into that kind of thing, try to remember a Hay Budden, Trenton, Fisher or whatever are out of business. Thus, there are a finite number of those anvils in the world. Emersons OTOH are still being produced and rolling out of the factory every day. Is no shortage of them so even less reason to pay more than market value. George

Hate to be one to bust anyone's bubble but 1723 was some time before Napoleon was born: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon Nice anvil though ;) George

Without taking anything away from the many other fine places you could go........ I'd wholeheartedly recommend Mr Turley's :) George

Majority have no problem with it. Being as not every Blacksmith is a Horseshoer but every Horseshoer is a Blacksmith. "Farrier is a term that didn't enter into common American parlance until around the late 1970's mainly through the efforts of the AFA, and has escalated since then. Some of us prefer that word, others detest it as Orwellian newspeak. The place you'll never see or hear that word is around racetracks where guys are still called Blacksmiths, Horseshoers and around Thoroughbreds-Platers. Personally I prefer Blacksmith or Horseshoer. George

For someone to be considered a Journeyman Blacksmith I really like the 26 points listed by ABANA that we talked about on the other thread. http://www.abana.org/resources/journeyman/index.shtml Is a good guideline. George

Is a good one, buy it! You'll be glad you did ;) George

Count me in ;)

Good job, nice work :) George

A Horseshoers model :) Nice one! Good score B) George