Sask Mark

Very nicely done! That vice looks great.

Very nice anvil you have there. I think that Peter Wrights only had the wrought iron bodies with a steel face. You might be thinking of Hay Buddens that had the top half made entirely of steel starting in 1908. Peter Wrights tended to be finished very nicely which is probably why you can't see the seam between the body and the face plate. If I remember correctly, the author of Anvils in America believes that the U.S. manufactured anvils didn't have this high level of finishing done to them so they could be competitively priced with the well established English anvils. That is why you can generally see the seam on U.S. made anvils.

I have a an article from Knives Illustrated from the 1990's where a smith from Califronia made pattern welded knives from 3 different stainless steels (I think CPMT-440, ATS-34, and 304). He used a 50 ton punch press to weld and work the billets.

It's actually a nice looking anvil. See if you can swap it with someone that has a high quality anvil sitting in their garden as an ornament.

Nice design! He can use the hospital meatloaf as an anvil!

You guys aren't making the impending coming of winter any easier to take... We have already had a couple of decent snowfalls.

Great news! Thanks everyone for posting updates when they are available.

Dragons Lair, Yeah, I noticed that too. It does ring nicely, so it is steel. You can see the mould lines and the words on the side (which I can't make out) are raised, so it is cast. I don't think it is Columbian as it has very poor finishing (large mould line running down the horn). Perhaps it is one of those Mexican bootleg anvils that ThomasPowers mentions from time to time. It's possible a few made it up to Canada. If anyone has any ideas as to the manufacturer, please let me know.

Here's mine. A 102 pound Trenton, A 100 pound Hay Budden (Lakeside that is sn and weight stamped in the same fashion as Hay Buddens), an 88 pound Peter Wright, a 128 pound Buckworth (looks a lot like a Peter Wright), an unknown cast steel anvil with the heel broken off, and a 150 pound Vulcan that I sold a few months ago.

Snow in Victoria? You should have been in Saskatchewan working on our legislative building last winter. It was.....fun. By the way, if you want someone to look after that new hammer while you are working in Victoria, ship it about 1000 miles east. I'll do my best to help you out.

YouTube - Forging Blacksmith Tongs This seems like a pretty good tutorial on making your own tongs.

Awesome! I'm loving that railing too.

My sincere condolences Mr. Carroll.

If you get the book, you will have a hard time putting it down.

Aren't these what used to be known as Rat Hole Forge anvils from Wyoming? http://www.ratholeforge.com/index.htm They are good-looking anvils.

Your anvil was made around 1907. Great score for $30!

Incredible!

I think many anvil owners would like to know dates just out of curiosity. Personally, I am quite fascinated by the fact that I am using 100 year old tools in a modern throw-away society. I don't plan on selling any of my anvils any time soon, but I still want to know as much as I can about each of them.

It depends on which place the number is in. If the number is in the ones, tens, hundreds, or potentially even thousands place, it probably won't make any difference in determining the approx. year of manufacture since Mr. Postman provided a range of serial numbers manufactured each year. For example, sn 204318 would have probably been manufactured the same year as 204818. (Disclaimer - Before anyone breaks out an AIA book and tells me I'm wrong with these two serial numbers, please note I just made this up as an example)

I would personally consider that an excellent deal.

My feelings exactly.

Very nice anvil. Congratulations!

A lot of times Trenton had both the serial number AND the weight stamped on the front of the foot while Arm and Hammers (and Hay Buddens) usually had only the serial number stamped on the foot with the weight being stamped on the side. The serial number provided doesn't seem to fit the scheme of HB, Trenton, or Arm and Hammer. Arm and hammer sn's never exceeded approx. 52000, Trenton never exceeded approx 225551, and Hay Budden never exceeded approx 250000 before resetting back to 1 with an 'A' prefix.

Our office has the "7 P's Rule". Proper Prior Planning Prevents P**s Poor Performance I work in construction where we have multi-year, multi-million dollar projects on the go. It's amazing how much can be accomplished (financial, schedule, safety etc.) if you follow the 7 P's rule.