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I Forge Iron

Show me your anvil


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5 minutes ago, Bigmatt said:

I bounced a 1 inch ball bearing on it and bounced back to my hand. The guy I got it from said he had it for 25 years and never used it.

That's good. Bounce the bearing over the entire surface and see if the rebound is consistent and if the sound rings the same over the entire surface. If so, you're good. If it changes from "ping" to "thwap" or "thud", that's not a good sign.

1 minute ago, Reeltree said:

 rebound is good,, I will say the horn and shelf area has noticeable dings in them from usage, and the top and edges shows very little

That's part of what worries me. You wouldn't expect to see that clean and flat a face on an anvil whose saddle and horn were so dinged up. It's possible that someone ground the whole thing flat at some point, which could have significantly reduced the thickness  (and durability) of the face plate.

 

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So I went out and bounced the bearing all over it and it sounds identical except past the Hardy hole then the sound changed. I paid 250 bucks for the anvil two pairs of tongs and a hot cut Hardy tool. Figured it was worth a shot! I upgraded from this

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On 9/10/2017 at 0:08 AM, RobS said:

Middle anvil looks like a Columbian.

Yup, sure enough, I looked it over and looked it up and its a Columbian. Thank you for that input, at least now I know if someone asks... Though I''ve wondered about people desperately needing to find out the make and year of their anvil, it doesn't really change anything, still an anvil, naming it doesn't give it magical properties... I can see wanting to know if its all cast iron, all steel, or iron with steel face. Or maybe to sell it to someone that has a 'need' to know... but for using it,  either is an anvil and works for you, or its not. I'm perhaps ignorant when it comes to these things... just thinking out-loud, with my keyboard.

I tried hammering on the new big HB and I have to say I think prefer it over the other. Seemed like I got more work done per hammering time put in, but may just be excitement at trying out the new hardware.

Also I took a wire wheel on a grinder to the little hay budden , actually stamped 50-something pounds, and it did have a steel plate on the top, its so unused that it didn't show up with all the dust and whatnot caked on the surface.  Decided to do the right thing and wire wheel the whole anvil and rub it down with BLE. Probably will do the same with the Columbia, at least get that awful silver paint off it, whoever decided to do THAT?!?!?!?

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33 minutes ago, the iron dwarf said:

an anvil I have and researched a bit turned out to be made by the ancestor of someone here, some members of his family left England for the US a couple of hundred years ago.

even found a business card from the anvil maker on sale on a certain auction site

Ok thats neat!

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Here is the Anvil I just picked up.  went to a farm sale and was asking if they happened to have an anvil.  They didn't, but an older gentleman next to me says, 'I have an anvil'.  gave him my card and I got a call from him a couple of weeks later.  I can't find much about it or the company that maid it except that Gardiner MFG co. was founded in 1944.  So I know it's no older than 73 years old.   If anyone knows anything about it, I would love to know if it was a good find.  Seems to be in great shape. What do you folks think? 

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I've never heard of one but solid cast steel ain't a bad thing. Have you done a rebound test on it? Dropping a ball bearing and estimating how far it bounced back. You can do it against a scale if you want to be ore precise but a good eyeball estimation is  usually plenty. You can do a rebound test with a light smooth faced hammer too but it's harder to interpret. A forged or cast iron anvil with a steel face can delaminate where the face late is welded to the body. Not an issue for a cast steel anvil, worst would be going through a big enough fire to draw it's temper down too far.

That one is in excellent condition, nearly mint. There's hardly ANY chipping on the edges and that's about all the wear I see on her. She's going to have your grandkids telling their kids about Grandpa's blacksmith shop while they teach them to forge on it.

SWEET DEAL! Oh and you discovered the TPAAAT without anybody telling you! Use it for search terms it's a valuable tool and equipment acquisition technique. Really. ;)

Frosty The Lucky.

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