madwing

here is a nice link that describes the intertwined nature of anvil production in Columbus ca 1911: http://books.google.com/books?id=QDkvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1043&lpg=PA1038&ots=U_TdYIhBFY&dq=1911+sweden+anvil&output=html_text

I found it looking for info on Swedish anvils...

here's my fisher sawyer's anvil, picked up for a $20 song back in 2004.  i've used it for small metal work, peining rivets, that sort of thing, as well as cold chiselling, drawing out copper, etc.  based on the "65" stamped on the side above the fisher logo, i assume that's its weight in pounds.

cheers, frosty.  thanks.  i fixed my location.

i plan to mount it on a plum stump, or an alder stump, or maybe a big piece of douglas fir.  is there anything in particular i should be thinking of when choosing the wood?  also, how much bigger than the feet should the stump be?

i'll check the other side, but i didn't see any evidence at all of other markings.

i'd seen your posts and re-read them while i was getting my head straight about whether i wanted this one...thanks!

best,

bill

felton, ca

On 5/13/2013 at 1:50 PM, Foundryman said:

About the bell, it's actually cracked twice! The current liberty bell is a replacement cast by Pass and Stow, the original, made by us, cracked in shipping, at least that's our story and we're sticking to it!  My boss has been known to say he'll be happy to replace the Liberty bell, free of charge if you should return it to us with the receipt and in the original packaging! 

*rummaging around independence hall*  xxxx, i can't find the receipt.

cheers, michael, you're a slope greasing monkey good friend...thanks for the help :P

as i posted in the introductions forum, i just bought my first anvil with a horn (i bought a 65 lb fisher sawyer's anvil about 8 years back for $20, but that's another story, to be found in the oldtools archives...).  note that some of the pictures are the same from that thread.

here's how it was presented in the ad:

it was dull (from the concrete, i imagined), and seemed to bounce ok, so i bought it.

here it is in the truck...well strapped, i wasn't interested in having it slide all over the place.  even as it was, it rolled a bit from side to side, and coming home from work on fairly windy roads it was moving me around just a bit:

when i got it home i decided to take it off its base, as it was too heavy for me to hoist about by myself...which is what's needed for the time being.  and the WAF of the anvil alone is an order of magnitude higher than it would be on its base.  i salvaged the iron rods that were set in the concrete, for tool holding, i assume.  i then wirebrushed it, and hosed it off.  when i get it on its stump i'll put some atf fluid on it (to keep the sides from rusting any more), and use the heck out of it.  btw, it rang like a bell once it was out of the concrete!

it came with this bottom fuller (i believe that's what it's called), which i have since evaporusted:

it was advertized as a "swedish" anvil, and lo, it is:

a soderfors, marked at 125 lbs.  i am considerably happy B) there are some marks on the front foot, under the horn:

makes me think it was made in 1911.  maybe in december, or the 12th anvil of the year, or model 12, or...

it does have some chipping out of the table:

but michael (who looked at the pictures, and greased then pushed me down the slope advised me to buy it) suggested those weren't too much of a problem.  to that end, what advise can be given here to me about how to treat those edges?  leave them?  grind them to a radius?  have them welded up?

so, i am feeling pretty good about the $200 I spent, and look forward to learning how to do things a blacksmith does (since i can't ever see me calling myself a blacksmith, per se).  first thing i need is a forge, and that will come as it does...

best,

bill

felton, ca

foundryman, nice anvil.  i've just gotten one about 1/4 the size of that, and am feeling pretty chuffed...i can imagine how you're floating (though tethered to that thing, maybe not as high as you *could* be).

as for your foundry, i think y'all owe us a refund.  that thar bell cracked... :D

good morning!  my name is bill, and i hail from the great state of california.

i was turned onto these pages by my friend michael (aka michael here on ifo).  he and i started banging hot metal the same day back in '04 or so, but he was bit deeper than i, and now has a fully-running forge setup in his backyard.  i have a fisher sawyer's anvil in my shop :)

long story short, michael is helping me forge some pintle strap hinges for the new garden gate i'm building.  he posted them in the blacksmithing general discussion under the thread "big hinges".  needless to say, there's still a lof of work to do on them, and i look forward to having the time to get them finished.

what the visit to michael's forge did, you see, was rekindle my desire to beat hot iron.  to that end, i need some equipment, and so i started looking for an anvil.  my little 65lb fisher would have sufficed, but i decided to go for something larger and more anvil-shaped.  craigslist became my boon companion, and for a couple of weeks we travelled fruitlessly around the electronic bay area and beyond in search of something suitable.  michael was a prime enabler, as well.

last week i found an ad for this:

the seller and i talked, and i decided to try to buy it.  drove an hour to his place at lunchtime, and checked it out.  i was a bit scared because of the lack of ring (in my excitement i neglected to bring my ball pein, my 1" bearing, and my moving dolly!!!) when i hit it with a plain hammer, but the bounce was decent.  i decided the lack of ring was because the anvil was embedded in the concrete, and pulled the trigger.  we got it in the truck, and i strapped it in for all it was worth:

i didn't have a chance to do anything to it until saturday, when i knocked the anvil off the cement base, salvaging the iron rods.  it was too heavy for me to move around as i might need to until i get my forge set up, and too big to easily introduce to the wife.  midday sunday i hit it with a wire brush, then hosed it off, and found this:

thus do i now have a soderfors 125 lb anvil in my garage!  there are some chips out of the table edges:

but all in all i feel happy to have paid just a scoche more than $1.50/lb. for the dingus. B)  it even came with a bottom fuller (i think that's what it's called, michael told me it was a fuller, not a hardy):

that's my story, at least for now.  craigslist and i are currently spending time searching for a coal forge in relatively nearby locales, and hopefully soon this will be mounted on a stump and being used for its intended purpose...maybe even the finishing touches on the big hinges!

thanks for listening...

best,

bill

felton, ca