What do you think of this bridge anvil?

[cpirtle]

I have a chance to get this bridge anvil, the guy said it was 300# but I did not try to pick it up.

Looks like it may have been customized for a specific job, or is this a normal configuration to see? The split sections in the top look deliberate to me.. what do you think?

Anyone have a guage on what these are going for these days? Not even any recent sales on eBay to go by..

I would probably be selling it to fund the purchase of a larger anvil for my shop, so I want to be sure the price is decent.

Thanks!

[arftist]

That thing is hurt bad.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

I would pass unless it was inexpensive - like less than a buck a pound, as it will need some work, and in my opinion they are not very useful for blacksmithing due to not having a horn. In other words, you may have a hard time reselling it. An anvil of that type can be fabbed up at scrap prices with scrap steel plate.

[ThomasPowers]

That's a pretty standard configuration for a bridge anvil, they were used a lot in the old cable tool drilling rigs fro repointing drill bits and so are often found like that one with severe damage!

Mine tested out to be cast iron too. I wouldn't give more then US$50 for it and not expect it to be very easily resold either.

Another owner of one flipped it over and used the large flat base to true up plow points.

The one I found for a metal arts instructor is if anything worse though not having that central crack---we use it for when the students need to do heavy crude pounding instead of letting them use a good anvil.

[cpirtle]

Thanks for the info, I passed on the bridge.

I did pick up a couple of beautiful anvil's from him though.. 150# Trenton and a 130# Hay Budden, now I don't know which to keep, one of these or my 120# Peter Wright.. not a bad problem to have I guess..

[ThomasPowers]

Well you need a big anvil for the shop and a light anvil to carry to demos. I like having several anvils set at different heights myself and with different "features" Since they are all close in weight I'd go with the ones with the best face (thickness, smoothness, etc) on them.

What did they want for that trashed bridge anvil?

[cpirtle]

He wanted $400 for it, after researching I thought it was steep even if in better condition.

The Trenton and HB are both in better condition than the Peter Wright, even though the Wright is in great shape. I'm probably going to hang onto both of them and sell the PW to pay for the 2 new ones. I gave him $350 for both and they are great. I can probably get close to that for the PW on eBay.

Only problem is the Trenton must have had a rusty bottom at one point because it's a little uneven, any suggestions on the best fix for that? I tried searching but didn't find much, maybe just didn't use the right terminology..

[irnsrgn]

just set it on your stump and go to any hdwe store and get some door installation shims and shim it with those, and after its shimmed drive a nail in the shim close to the base to keep the shim for wiggling out and cut off the excess about an inch from the base.

[Avadon]

I love bridge anvils they are aesthetically pleasing, aren't they. Very beautiful and simple construction. The problem with them is that the physics involved in blacksmithing is counter intuitive for a bridge design. We want a bulk of mass, as much as we can get directly under the hammer face so that the hammer see's as much of the force the hammer exerts as possible. A bridge anvil is just a few inches thick. That usually puts it at the bottom of the pick for blacksmithing. Even if you don't think you need a horn or don't care about a horn i'd still go for a block of steel or one of those sweedish horn-less/heel-less anvils before I went to a bridge. I imagine the ring on a bridge is probably pretty significant compared to something like a Nimba, or Hofi Anvil.

[ThomasPowers]

This is when it's AOK to mill an anvil, You can turn it upside down and mill the base to make it parallel to the face! *Never* ever let them try to do the reverse!!!!!!!!!!

[irnsrgn]

Many want a perfectly flat face on their anvils and grind or mill them down, a good wrought anvil only has a very thin layer of hard face and to mill or grind it away will result in the face cracking off,

Lots of old Anvils were sway back right behind the cutting block or step from constant use there, usually an anvil used for plow work is this way, if you look closely you will see the sides bulging in this area from the soft wrought under the hard plate crushing and spreading, if the anvil had a good weld between the face and body there will be no damage to the face.

Also many an old anvil is crowned in the center directly behind the cutting or step and about half way along the face. Many anvils were made this way or modified by their owners as this was thought to help with drawing heavy stuff, it was actually a selling point at one time.

Neither of the above conditions will be a problem to the user, if you want a flat place, move toward the heel to a flat place and finish the work there. Just don't bugger up as the Aussies say a good anvil because you think it won't work for you.

[cpirtle]

Thanks all.

The Trenton just rocks a little, I have no intentions of modifying the face. My buddy can mill the bottom at work, I'll talk to him about doing it for me.

Here's my Trio.. The Henry just needs paint stripped from the previous owner. The side of the Trenton was hit with a scotch-brite by the guy I got it off of to expose some pretty extensive stamping from the original owner.

Both the HB and Trenton have much larger faces than the PW which is why I am elaning towards keeping them. The HB is very quiet compared to the other two which I really like but I would rather make the heaviest my primary..

I'm going to post these in the Anvil prices thread but forgured I'd show them here as well.