A few days ago I received an anvil from a non-blacksmith friend as a retirement gift. Unfortunately it had been sandblasted and painted. I know only that it is a Wilkinson approximatly 100#. Except for the Wilkinson name and crossed ovals much of the other markings are covered by the paint (and I hope not obliterated by the sandblasting). I want to examine the manufacturer's marks for its history and as I understand that the heels and bicks on Wilkinsons are prone to breakage, to check for hidden damage before I use it. In searching the forum it appears that paint stripper is the preferred cleaning method but I haven't found anything about whether one stripping compound is preferable over another. I suspect any good formula would take care of the paint but is there any that could harm the metal and should be avoided? Any information would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Bill

Bill,
I've had the best results using citrus stripper. Brush it on, wait 30 minutes and wipe away with 000 steel wool.

We are talking about an anvil here not a Porshe, anvils are fairly robust and hard to damage, especially with paint stripper.

Jasco gel works really good.

To check for damage just tap it with a hammer all over, if it doesn't ring, or has a dead sound it may have a crack/delaminated. No need to strip the paint for that.

I would leave all non working surfaces painted otherwise your next post will be "How do I keep my anvil from rusting?"

The only history a couple of my anvils told me was when they were made, some don't even have date info. It is an anvil, a large chunk of metal, it is a tool, get using it ;)

We are talking about an anvil here not a Porshe, anvils are fairly robust and hard to damage, especially with paint stripper.

The "fairly robust and hard to damage" part hits the nail squarely on the head. I know that much about an anvil. If they were indestructable I would not have asked the question. I just got to thinking that this anvil was made a long time before the first chemical paint stripper. There is a history behind my signature line

Thanks for the replies everyone .

Bill

If you are not worried about any potentially toxic dust from the paint, a knotted wire cup brush on an angle grinder works well. That is the method that one of the more well know anvil dealers uses to clean his anvils, even the highly collectable ones.

The first chemical paint stripper was probably lye and predates the iron age by a long long time!

If you follow the directions it won't hurt the anvil...where people go wrong is going off and forgetting things and then you start getting into issues.

Remember after being stripped it will start to rust---this can help pinpoint small cracks BTW

How about before and after pictures? That would be kind of you to do that for us. :D

How about before and after pictures? That would be kind of you to do that for us.

If anyone is interested I intend to do just that. When my wife and I get caught up with ourselves I will get moving on the cleanup and B&A photos. Since this is my first retirement I didn't realize just how much work was involved in getting things wrapped up after 32 years. I will know better next time. Thanks to all for the info.

Bill

If anyone is interested I intend to do just that. When my wife and I get caught up with ourselves I will get moving on the cleanup and B&A photos. Since this is my first retirement I didn't realize just how much work was involved in getting things wrapped up after 32 years. I will know better next time. Thanks to all for the info.

Bill

I got it stripped. Here is a before photo. I hope it got resized properly.

If this works I'll be posting more. Hopefully someone can tell me something about this anvil.

Well, I got the link to the photo but no thumbnail. I'll keep trying.

Let's see if this works -

I guess I'm confused. I got the photo to the gallery and the gallery url's to the forum, but for some reason there is no thumbnail appearing in the forum. Glenn's instructions on posting photos seems to say the thumbnail should appear automatically. Can someone help?

I got it stripped. Here is a before photo. I hope it got resized properly.

If this works I'll be posting more. Hopefully someone can tell me something about this anvil.

Paint didn`t help it much did it?That`s still one ugly anvil!
Looking forward to seeing the after pics.
The link got me to the photo fine,at least for now.

Think it's ugly dressed up? Wait till you see it naked.

2 Very sharp points of light here. It was free so don't sweat hurting it. If ya strip it and it falls apart
Just gorrilla glue it back and use it in mommas garden.
Ken.

2 Very sharp points of light here. It was free so don't sweat hurting it. If ya strip it and it falls apart
Just gorrilla glue it back and use it in mommas garden.
Ken.

Thanks for that, Ken. It's stripped and still intact but looks even uglier than when painted. I hope I can use it but it does have some damage. My friend was so proud to have found it and carried it from BC to Wyoming on the plane. I'd hate to have to tell him it's a good garden ornament but not much use in the shop. I'll post all the pictures in a day or two and see if I can get some info and opinions. If all else fails I guess I can use it until it fails or falls apart and then go from there. I think I know about how much he paid for it and I'm afraid he may have been taken for a ride. On the good side it does have some rebound and while it doesn't sound like the bells of St. Mary, it does have a ring to it. We'll see.

Bill

There is something relaxing about working with a tool that has been terminally abused---you no longer have to worry about what you may do to it! At the Fine Arts Dept that I teach a smithing class at we have a large old bridge anvil that was used in the old oilpatch for re-pointing cable tool bits and as such is beat nearly to smithereens. It is the one that new students have to use when they want to sledge some heavy stuff on as they can't mess it up any worse than it is!

Also if you want to try to fix it up you are serene in the knowledge that it was pretty much a zero before!