Craigslist does have its uses. I nearly missed it, it was hidden at the end of a description of a bunch of other things. It's a bit rough, but hey, $75 for a 93 lb. anvil isn't too bad.



Not sure of the make, not even sure it isn't a cast iron ASO. It has some rebound, and compared to the piece of rail I have been using it has about 4x as much rebound. A little ring to it, so can't be that bad. The face is pretty scarred up, but I'm just going to use it as is. No half-a##ed repairs, it's good enough for my level of expertise. I might touch up the edges. The only thing that I did to it was take a wire cup wheel to it to clean it up a bit.
The only marking I could find was a partial number on the side, and I think it may just be the weight.

3/4" hardie hole, no pritchel hole, and if it's a casting at least it's a halfway decent one. I'm wondering if it was perhaps somethinhg like a Sears and Roebuck farmer's special or something similar. It seems to have had plenty of use.

Craigslist does have its uses. I nearly missed it, it was hidden at the end of a description of a bunch of other things. It's a bit rough, but hey, $75 for a 93 lb. anvil isn't too bad.



Not sure of the make, not even sure it isn't a cast iron ASO. It has some rebound, and compared to the piece of rail I have been using it has about 4x as much rebound. A little ring to it, so can't be that bad. The face is pretty scarred up, but I'm just going to use it as is. No half-a##ed repairs, it's good enough for my level of expertise. I might touch up the edges. The only thing that I did to it was take a wire cup wheel to it to clean it up a bit.
The only marking I could find was a partial number on the side, and I think it may just be the weight.

3/4" hardie hole, no pritchel hole, and if it's a casting at least it's a halfway decent one. I'm wondering if it was perhaps somethinhg like a Sears and Roebuck farmer's special or something similar. It seems to have had plenty of use.

Looks like an old english Mouse Hole anvil and that is of course a forged anvil

It looks like an older English forged wrought iron anvil to me. Well done!

Very nice Mousehole, congrats!
I have one about the same size but mine has no shelf, just a horn (and a couple of cold shuts).
I love how these anvils have such wide faces :)

Thanks guys, Mousehole eh? I thought it looked like an older one, the face is about 10"x4 1/2". Oh, yeah, the hardie has a taper to it as far as I can tell. The horn is a bit smallish, but hey, A horn is better than NO horn.
Here's a question, if it is wrought, would it have a steel plate on the face, or is it solid wrought through and through? If so, how much would it damage it to level out the face a bit?

Thanks guys, Mousehole eh? I thought it looked like an older one, the face is about 10"x4 1/2". Oh, yeah, the hardie has a taper to it as far as I can tell. The horn is a bit smallish, but hey, A horn is better than NO horn.
Here's a question, if it is wrought, would it have a steel plate on the face, or is it solid wrought through and through? If so, how much would it damage it to level out the face a bit?

I don't think you can be sure that it's a Mousehole unless you can read the stamp as there were many English manufacturer's producing anvils that looked a lot like that in the 1700's and 1800's. Mousehole continued to produce anvils that looked like that after all the other manufacturers. However, the fact that there is no pritchel hole would probably make that an older anvil.

It would have a steel plate fire welded to a wrought iron body.

Thanks guys, Mousehole eh? I thought it looked like an older one, the face is about 10"x4 1/2". Oh, yeah, the hardie has a taper to it as far as I can tell. The horn is a bit smallish, but hey, A horn is better than NO horn.
Here's a question, if it is wrought, would it have a steel plate on the face, or is it solid wrought through and through? If so, how much would it damage it to level out the face a bit?

Do Not weld or grind on that neat old anvil. It is about 200 years old it is an irreplaceable antique and a part of our nations history.

I'll stick with my initial statement and leave it alone. I'll see if I can flatten it through overuse. Sas Mark, what you see is all the markings I could find. It could be the bottom of a 9, and you can make out the 3 almost.

That is a nice looking anvil, older than Nakedanvil by the looks of it too, hard to tell he may be just a little older. About the only thing cleaning wise I'd do to it would be wire brush but that isn't really necessary, it has a good patina on it that isn't going anywhere. Nice price for a nice anvil. :D

Minor update, it now has a new stump to sit upon.

White oak 20" tall by 18+" diameter. Not quite as old as the anvil but pretty close. Probably heavier, though.It's a piece of a tree that used to be in my front yard, the state took it down when they widened the road, and I convinced the tree crew to leave it. My kids and I counted the rings and came up with a rough guesstimate of 1895 on the tree's age and that was about 6 years ago. I knew I wanted it for a reason. I still have about 20 linear feet of log left, I'll get it sawn up eventually. On a practical note, there's a reason that lumberjacks don't use electric chainsaws. Somehow I managed to cut this chunk off with a 14" bar electric chainsaw. Only took two days worth of work, and just about killed the saw. Don't laugh, it's all I had to use and was much better than a handsaw. Not reccomended.

Minor update, it now has a new stump to sit upon.

White oak 20" tall by 18+" diameter. Not quite as old as the anvil but pretty close. Probably heavier, though.It's a piece of a tree that used to be in my front yard, the state took it down when they widened the road, and I convinced the tree crew to leave it. My kids and I counted the rings and came up with a rough guesstimate of 1895 on the tree's age and that was about 6 years ago. I knew I wanted it for a reason. I still have about 20 linear feet of log left, I'll get it sawn up eventually. On a practical note, there's a reason that lumberjacks don't use electric chainsaws. Somehow I managed to cut this chunk off with a 14" bar ele and it'll take about ctric chainsaw. Only took two days worth of work, and just about killed the saw. Don't laugh, it's all I had to use and was much better than a handsaw. Not reccomended.

Hey if you want to make that log into usable planks, look up a local woodmizer owner, their saws are portable and it'll take about an hour to cut it into what ever size planks you want. I have a beautiful stack of red oak planks that I had milled to 2" thick and range from 16" wide to 20" wide. I also use alot of the cut off ends to make my hard wood charcoal. It cost me 100 dollars to have it cut, but well worth it.