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well, looking more attentively at the marking, it seems that's not S&S, but S&Cie (S&Co. in Frech), so it's an original French one.

In which country do you live? 

 

BTW, those feet on the "pig" anvils aren't so tiny. I have a "pig" anvil and is very stable. I think that pattern is the most demanding to forge from all the anvils. those who forged them were really masters of the craft. 

The pig feet are pretty and I don't doubt that they are very difficult to forge. I just like the solid base as it seems a more practical solution.

I live in Latvia btw.

S&S stamp doesn't quite match the marks on my S&S.

You are right, the marks are not that similar. Perhaps it is a French made anvil after all.

S&S = Sichelschmidt & Schlasse
German anvils that were advertised as "unbreakable".
The ones I've seen were top notch.

Interesting... German maker seems more likely than French. It could've been brought back after either of the world wars as spoils.

There looks to be a similar model somewhere further in this pamphlet, perhaps made for export - '>

Hard to tell though.

a French pattern German anvil?... interesting. it's true that I saw even a Swedish made French pattern anvil.

that interesting feature that some of the French anvils have, is the horns convexity that continues over the face. you have a surface that evolves from convex to flat. o some used ones you have even a slight dished area. 

 

so, congratulations, nice anvil. I'm a big fan of the French anvils. (un)fortunately I am some 2000 km far from France...

 

French anvils are generally of very good quality. you can find a lot of them in very good condition. or maybe the smiths used them the right way.

 

if you want to get really sick, just visit http://www.leboncoin.fr/annonces/offres/ile_de_france/occasions/?f=a&th=1&q=enclume

and scroll down trough tenths of pages full of anvils. from time to time (quiet often) you can see fantastic occasions. at any time you can buy very nice anvils to prices up to 150 euros.

Wow, that link can make a man crazy... So much choice and the prices are not half bad. I'm glad that I am also more than 2000 km away :)

Found a few that are very similar to my anvil.

It rings like steel (no cast iron thunk) but not as obnoxious as the soviet one. I guess that's because the shapes are thicker and there are less thin/corner areas for high pitch sounds. The face is hard and rebounds very well.

The top lettering is very weak, almost unreadable, it might say S&S or it might be S and a bunch of numbers. I can't really tell.

Is S&S a german anvil maker?

Finding a deal like this is actually quite simple, just keep checking the classified ads in 500km radius 3 times a day for 6 months and snatch it up a couple of hours after it's put up for sale... Now that actually sounds like something a crazy person would do :) but I guess i am a bit 'nuts'

I've always wanted a a stubby, massive anvil with thick waist and slightly convex face. The closest pattern that matches would probably be a french 'pig' anvil. If only it had a solid base instead of those tiny feet...

Well whatd'ya know, here's what i managed to score yesterday :)

She comes in at 105kg (230 lbs) and cost me an even 100$. Great condition, with no major damage and nice rebound.

In our country 95% of all anvils are soviet standard models, they're cheap, plenty and ugly. About 4.9% are pre-soviet era eastern european cast iron with carbon steel face... they are ok, but the quality is not the best, most of them has issues with face delaminating or missing big chunks. The remaining 0.1% are the exotic foreigners (germans and swedes mostly).

So imagine my surprise when I saw this french babe up for sale!

The guy who sold it said he found it tearing down some old barns, he thought it was a regular piece of soviet junk.

I can't even imagine how it got here considering how far away France is and how little connection whatsoever we've had with them.

Any European guys know anything about the age/make of this beauty?

And here is the regular soviet chunk of steel for comparison (97kg cast steel). Seems that is wasn't hardened, so rebound is XXXX

So I went to pick it up yesterday.

The good news is that the seller's estimate for 70kg was way off. I would say it's about 120kg - It was quite tough for 2 guys to handle.

The bad news is that it's not in that good of a shape. The face is pretty thin, especially on working side, there also seem to be some slight cracks along the edge on the worn side. Anyway, I think if I flip it around (horn on the right side) there's a pretty decent flat/solid area to work with.

Should I grind away the cracked section so it can't spread further, or just avoiding that area should be ok? When banging on it with the hammer, it seems like the crack extends about 2-4mm from the worn out spot.

Thanks for the advice!

I arranged a sale and will be taking this puppy home on saturday :)

Hi,

I'm looking to purchase my first anvil. There is not much choice in my country, so this is the only thing I've found so far.

It's about 70kg and supposedly made in 19th century.

I'm really just looking to get into blacksmithing, so don't know exactly what to look for, any thoughts will be appreciated!

Btw, it's being sold at 200$.