June 17, 201015 yr Any thoughts on the maker of this anvil? It is 3.5 hours away and the owner isn't sure. This is the only picture I have at the moment. Any help is greatly appreciated. Mark
June 18, 201015 yr Author Thanks Phil. I will have to keep that in mind. The current owner says he bought it from a state surplus sale from one of the old State Hospitals, which had a blacksmith shop. If that is true, I would think it would have to be older than that. Being freshly painted like that concerns me right off the top, but I'm willing to take a look at it. I might be able to get my brother-in-law to swing over and take some good pictures of it to send me if I'm lucky. Mark
June 18, 201015 yr Definately cast, but it looks like it has a steel top welded on. Looks like it may have been done after its manufacture, if you look near the heel it has a chip or something similar. Maybe was bought and used before they realised it was not worthwhile and then they put the steel top on. Hope this helps.
June 18, 201015 yr Procede with care. I have a cast anvil with a steel plate welded on top. The plate is hard but the anvil has NO rebound worth speaking of. I can't use the anvil for forge work simply because it wears me out because of the lack of rebound. Check out the rebound! Now if it's cheap (mine cost $10.00 in trade,) cast anvils make a good riveting/punching anvil and if your regular anvil (that's if you have one,) doesn't have sharp edges, then one of these are nice to have for making clean steps in metal. But not for general forge work. My $0.02!
June 18, 201015 yr Author Thanks for the food for thought guys. I was able to get back in touch with the owner and he was not able answer any of my questions. I'm not willing to buy something that isn't a known quantity. Appreciate the help. Mark
June 18, 201015 yr A lot of folks seem to think that painting an anvil will raise the price---they seem very surprised when I tell them that I automatically *drop* the price I am willing to pay for an anvil if it's painted, substantially; as it is sometimes done to hide defects and will often hide the maker info.
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