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I Forge Iron

Show me your anvil


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Though the pattern seems familiar I don't actually recall seeing one like yours. I can think of a number of handy things to use the curved side for. While I use the step on my anvil quite a bit for upsetting and yours lacks a step the feet have the same feature so that'd work for me.

Not having a Pritchel (round) hole would be a minor inconvenience as I most frequently use mine for a hold fast but other things will work instead and a bolster plate is actually handier for punching holes.

Isn't Skoda a large manufacturer that makes lots of different things? Cars, trucks and guns I'm familiar with but seem to recall other machinery and tools. A quick search shows a Czech, Skoda making steel, weapons and working in the nuclear industries.

This article seems to be about a Skoda Industries in Hungary. Škoda Works

Thanks for sharing the pics they lead to some interesting reading.

Frosty

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here are some pictures of my newest anvil. Picked it up at an antiques market in St.Jacob's, Ontario. It weighs around 110lbs and is in pretty good shape - a bit of rounding along the corners, a wee touch of swayback in the table but nice and solid. The hardy hole seems to be around 1" (maybe 7/8). I paid $197.00 Cdn for it (after taxes). It wasn't a super-deal but at a bit less than $2.00/lb (actually around $1.78/lb) it was a good deal I think.
There are some markings and numbers on the side and along the base (a bit fuzzy in the pics) but I don't know who made this anvil.
I'm happy with it and can't wait to use it.

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  • 5 months later...

i guess i'm a little late to participate in the majority of this thread but i'm got a nice 130lb anvil thats been in my family for 3 generations. unfortunatly there's too much rust on it right now to see any seals or writing on it...i'll get a picture up when i can.

by the way those are some nice anvils you all have...(rather new to blacksmithing)

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That's a Soderfors Bruks, Falun, Sweden. I've got one a little larger, 131 pounds, it was the second anvil I ever bought. Used it twice, loaned it to my father 15 years ago and now I just get visiting rights! Good hunk of steel though.

Cheers,
Paul

Here's my Swedish anvil. I don't know a particular maker. Maybe someone else does. It weighs about 117lbs.
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I still think the PW's are the best anvil you can get dollar for dollar (here in Aus anyway), so good score I say. Yours looks to have had a few years in the service of a right-handed smith who made a lot of chisels!

Cheers,
Paul

Here are some pictures of my newest anvil. Picked it up at an antiques market in St.Jacob's, Ontario. It weighs around 110lbs and is in pretty good shape - a bit of rounding along the corners, a wee touch of swayback in the table but nice and solid. The hardy hole seems to be around 1" (maybe 7/8). I paid $197.00 Cdn for it (after taxes). It wasn't a super-deal but at a bit less than $2.00/lb (actually around $1.78/lb) it was a good deal I think.
There are some markings and numbers on the side and along the base (a bit fuzzy in the pics) but I don't know who made this anvil.
I'm happy with it and can't wait to use it.
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This Peter Wright has travelled a wee ways with me. Its condition is good it weighs in over 350lbs. The base (Ash) I traded with a saw miller in denmark for a bottle of snapps.
Aparently the more weight under the anvil the less dispersal of energy hence less work.
As a student I did travel with a 2.5cwt from Ireland to England by boat and train as a foot passenger. But them were the days when they built a strong bag..

12355.attach

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These aren't mine but I find them useful to illustrate some points:

CIMG0154.JPG
Block anvil probably of mild steel, as one might find in a scrapyard or in the scrap bin of a heavy engineering firm for little or no money. Yes it has slumped after many years of daily use but it is still usable.

CIMG0169.JPG
This anvil is probably over a century old and is missing most of its face but is still used daily to produce very fine work. Put that hardfacing rod away, grab a hammer and start smithing!

CIMG0164.JPG
One of my inspirations, an anvil improvised frm what was available. The body seems to be form some large vehicle and the inset is a lump of bloomery (wrought) iron. Note the multiple punching/tooling holes around the edge and the convenient mounting options available at the bottom -- this has the potential to be an excellent anvil and something similar could be found in many scrapyards for pennies per pound!

CIMG0221.JPG
A cheap and very practical silversmithing setup that can be scaled to ironsmithing proportions. Note that a block anvil and bickern were the 'default' equipment for thousands of years before the anvil with integrated horn became fashionable. For ironsmithing the hammerhead can be replaced with a larger one (20lb is not uncommon and people don't generally want them) and the bickern can be one of your first projects, as can a stump hardy.

Edited by matt87
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  • 2 months later...

i would like to know if a anvil has only the english weight indicated by having a 1 1 24 stamped into the side and only having a number 9 stamped into a front foot what is the maker or origin or date of my first anvil what english makers would have used this weight method?

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229dog, let me be the first to welcome you aboard. Amend your profile so we know where you are. That way we can help you better.

Your anvil weighs 164 pounds. All English makers (and other industries) used that system for marking weights. So, for example, until the change to metric Chubbused to strike the same weight markings onto the top edge of safe doors. In British schools we used to be taught the system although it is now, obviously, obsolete with the use of Kgs in UK.

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DSCF0583.jpg
This is my Anvil, a Arm & Hammer, 191 pounds. Belonged to my Father in Law and handed down from his father. I believe that they were the original owners. Does anyone know about how old this is? Edited by Square Nail
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DSCF0583.jpg
This is my Anvil, a Arm & Hammer, 297 pounds. Belonged to my Father in Law and handed down from his father. I believe that they were the original owners. Does anyone know about how old this is?


If you provide the serial number, I can look up the approx. manufacturing date in my copy of 'Anvils in America'.
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