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I Forge Iron

Show me your anvil


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Thanks for the info Thomas!

I will have to take a wire wheel to the cast steel one to see if I can discern a maker or any other info because there is definitely some script cast into the side. You are right about the seem on the horn. It is a quite a large ridge.

Do you have Mr. Postman's email address? I haven't bought a copy of AIA yet (I hope to soon, it sounds like an incredible resource). Feel free to PM if you have it.

Mark

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The small anvil is a 100# Peter Wright the big boy is a 527# columbus tool arm and hammer.


That big Arm and Hammer would be the ultimate shop anvil to me. I find the lines of the Trentons and Arm and Hammers the most aesthetically pleasing, and a big 527 pounder would be large enough to do pretty much anything on. Very nice! Congratulations!
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Thank you. The anvil is a beast, it will suck the heat out of anything that touches it immeditaly, not as bad in the summer but in the winter you dont want to try welding on it untill you have worked on it for a couple of hours. I bought a magnetic engine block heater to use this winter, hopefully it will do the trick. I found it in my friends barn, his dad got it out of a steel mill in ohio. He was only using it to straighten his sickle bar on. I had a firearm he wanted and a deal was struck. I am very fortunate to have found it. The far edge is a little chewed up, I think I am going to try working the on the anvil backwards (horn to my right) to compensate. I am still new enough to the hobby that I can switch, and if it dosent work out I will break down and fix the bad edge.

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Here's a link to mine--- a 112lb english unknown maker, (it'd be great to find that out if anyone knows) and my 280lb Fisher that was found in a neighbor's garage--- it was hard not to drool when I saw it! LOL

[http://http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/8810/ppuser/2616

Having trouble w/link--- photo in my gallery as 07-07-08_1610--- there are others there of the Fisher as well. My apologies for the inconvenience

Edited by jwmotley
can't get link to work
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Thank you. The anvil is a beast, it will suck the heat out of anything that touches it immeditaly, not as bad in the summer but in the winter you dont want to try welding on it untill you have worked on it for a couple of hours. I bought a magnetic engine block heater to use this winter, hopefully it will do the trick. I found it in my friends barn, his dad got it out of a steel mill in ohio. He was only using it to straighten his sickle bar on. I had a firearm he wanted and a deal was struck. I am very fortunate to have found it. The far edge is a little chewed up, I think I am going to try working the on the anvil backwards (horn to my right) to compensate. I am still new enough to the hobby that I can switch, and if it dosent work out I will break down and fix the bad edge.


Those big ones are very rare around here. There hasn't been much industry in the area that would have used large anvils in their shops (rail yards, mills etc.). There's quite a few smaller ones (100 pound range) as many of the farmers and rural blackmiths in the area used/abused the smaller ones.
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This is my primary anvil.

I've been told it's a Peter Wright, but I don't know for sure. I haven't done any research. It weighs around 300 lbs. I like a tree stump (white Oak) for an anvil stand. I cut slots (all the way around) near the top and bottom so I can "bind" the block with steel bands. I make the bands so they can be tightened into the stump. I also put hardware on the sides so I can hang a swage block and a number of hardies on the block. The "Z" that can be seen on the front of the block swings up and locks for a "helper" with holding.

I used a chainsaw to cut the stump into shape. The bottom of the base is slightly wider than the top, so it's shaped like a pyramid with a flat top.

8184.attach

Edited by djhammerd
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I've found that the anvils I like to look at and the ones I like to use the most differ.

My primary anvil is a 500+# Fisher, but I have a 400+# Trenton(?) near by with it's heel towards the work area for things where the fFsher's thick heel doesn't work. (and a 91# Arm and Hammer for things where the 400+# anvil has too thick a heel).

When I worked with the swordmaker we would hang paint cans from the horn and heel of his 400#'r and build a fire in them of wood scraps to preheat the anvil in winter---and then fight over who got to sit on the nice warm anvil in between heats.

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A friend of mine made a plywood cover box that would fit snuggly over the top and horn of his anvil, lined it in sheetmetal, and attached a light socket to the top with a 100W light bulb on the inside of the box. He basically made an "Easy-Bake oven" for his anvils. :o
In the winter he puts the box covers on his anvils at night and switches the light inside on. A 100W light bulb can create a lot of heat and it warms up the anvil really well, making winter forging easier. :D
I thought it was a great idea ... I plan on copying it when I get my shop eventually finished.
Electric anvil cozies ... gotta love it.

Aeneas

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My shop anvil
1245 lb refflinghaus

Mike Tanner


HOLY MOTHER OF @#%& !!! :o

That's not an anvil - it's an aircraft carrier !!!!

If I posted what I really was thinking I would get another email slap on the wrist for inappropriate language (... SEE ... I'm being good ... honest ...:))

I honestly didn't think they made anvils that big.
That is a half-ton of sweet-anvil-goodness ... WOW ...
I am stunned ... gob-smacked actually ... :o

Aeneas
(I think I need to go lie down ...) Edited by Aeneas
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