Matt Tenson

I bet some chains and those thick rubber tie downs would work well with dampening a loud ring, or mounting the anvil on top of a thin bed of cork, sand, or modelling clay. Any other tips? I forged on it a little recently (some brackets for a friend's workbench project) and I've fallen in love with this anvil but still plan on returning it, my uncle who lives with my grandpa to take care of him does more metalworking and woodworking than me, and he expressed interest in having it officially installed in his shop for use, he even made a nice corner spot for it and a side draft forge, and has invited me to come over whenever I want, to have a proper place to do some work.

Okay, thank you very much!

Okay got some more pictures, my apologies for the misleading info, I should have done some more looking into details and preparing before I posted this thread. I've only wire wheeled the anvil and its base, and applied some lacquer on everywhere but the face and horn for now, to preserve my progress while I wait for more information to come in through here. I'm hesitant to remove the anvil from it's 10" pipe base, as that was assembled by my late grandma's father, and may have sentimental value to my grandpa. Thank you for all of your input, I want to do this the right way as I've decided to simply return the anvil to my grandpa, restoring the anvil for free being a Christmas gift to him. Someday I'll either inherit it, or buy it from him. Hopefully you'll take a look at the attached photos, and understand why I mistook the manufacture date to be 1823, instead of what is probably 1923. The face is remarkably flat and smooth despite being outdoors for the better part of 50+ years, I have Bakersfield's astonishingly dry climate to thank for that. Aside from some little raised spots that appear to be leftovers from a welding or torch operation done near the anvil, which I can take a stone to and gently bring back down level with the surface or as many have mentioned, forge on it. It's in a lot better shape than I had originally made it out to be. Thank you again for all of your valuable insight, this project has been really fun for me thus far. Here are the pictures:

Hello, This will basically be my first post on here, and I had a question: I've acquired a Trenton 152# anvil made in 1823, from a family member for free. I can use the anvil only if I refurbish it to function and look like brand new, if not better. I would like to clean ALL the rust off of this anvil, and build up and clean up come chips off the tool plate on top. What is the best, most efficient and thorough way of going about this? My budget to restore the anvil is around $300-$400, I have plenty of connects with machine shops and fabrication shops around here, I have an angle grinder and various tools of my own as well as some common sense and patience. Any pointers are welcome, here is a picture I took for reference, forgot to take more detailed photos.