Metalmark

That's awsome Andy Thank you Mark

Thank you for answering I thought that I posted it wrong . Since no one had said anything to the post.

My brother picked up his first anvil yesterday we are trying to figure out who made it or an age if possible actually any info would be great. All we know is that it came a out of an old blacksmith shop in Austria and it weighs about 520lb. And help would be appreciated

Thank you quint , I really didn't have a clue when I was buying whether it was in good shape or not, but the guy I bought it off said for the age that it is he has never seen one in such a good shape . His wife made him clean up the barn so that's why he was selling it. He got it from an old Austrian fellow that was moving up country and he couldn't take it with him and he was in his 90s. It's kind of funny, when i went to look at it he gave me a hammer and said i could try it out which i really didn't know what he meant so i taped it lightly , like i was going to brake it . Always thought that you shouldn't hit the anvil almost like you shouldn't dry fire a gun. He took the hammer from me and said listen... when he hit it it sounded like someone just hit a big bell. The sound rung in my ears i really didn't know what that was supposed to show, but it sounded good. Honestly when I brought it back home I thought I made a mistake because I thought the edges had to be sharp and they weren't . When I put a straight edge on the top there was no space along the whole face so at least it had that going if no sharp edges. Like I said this is all new to me and I don't quite know what is right or wrong and what to expect when buying blacksmithing tools.

My first anvil that i just got in oct for my birthday. I'm new to blacksmithing and the only thing that I smacked on was my thumb when I was cleaning it . the anvil definitely has good re bound my finger nail is still all black. The anvil is a 243# Peter Wright. It looks in good shape to me but like I said this is all new to me . I just can't wait to get my coke I ordered and get going on things.

I can't seeing being any issue I really don't think you will get enough heat to do anything with the zinc Coating especially that its a nice and big diameter . We have a fire pit with a chimney over it and we make huge fires in it that you can't even stand by it six feet away and we have a spiral pipe like you want to use and we never had any issues with the zinc .

You wouldn't happen to have a cross section of a side blast froge by any chance would you ,I would love to see wants going in there?

But buy putting it on a soft surface don't you lose some of the energy transfer int the anvil because the substrate gives in .

Why do people put chains around an anvil and I have also seen a lot with magnets in the side ?