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Hay-Budden anvil catalogue from 1914/15


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I was the guy bidding against you. Congrats for outbidding me! I couldn't believe it went for so much. I also couldn't believe that I was willing to bid so much on it! Because I am addicted to hay buddens, I felt compelled, lol.......thanks for sharing!


So you know what I paid.:unsure: I'm a bit embarrassed but when I really want something I go for it. I own a few Hay -Buddens my self. Im out on Long Island every other anvil I run across is a HB. My grandmother grew up near the factory from what I understand. She was polish as were most of the workers were. I bet my greatgrandpa knew some of the workers at that factory. He was a tool head like me I have a bunch of his hammers and other tools. Im glad you like it. I posted it so everyone could enjoy the info. I also have a few old bridle irons as seen in the catalog on pg 20 they were taken from an old factory nere me I wonder if they were HB brand Ill have to look for marks now.
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I visited the buildings on Henry Street in Brooklyn a few years ago. The building numbers are still the same as are listed in the catalog. The left section was occupied by a welding shop. The back area was where the hammers were. Nothing there, except a curved track along the ceiling that was for a hoist to hang the anvils from as they were being forged.

The right building was occupied by a travel bus business. No other remnants. Not suprising since they have been gone from there for 80 years.

Copies of the photo I took were sent to Richard Postman. Maybe they will be in his next book.

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Very generous of you to share this with the community. I wish more folks would share these sorts of things in the public domain, rather than selling copies, or worse, just sticking it on a shelf for a few more decades. I would still love to get images/copies of the 1930's Boy Scout Blacksmithing Merit Badge book.

I recently acquired a 211 lb Hay-Budden with half the face missing to repair. Now I have some extra incentive. Timing is everything.

Thanks again.

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I have two Hay Buddens; one about 112 pounds and the other about 163 pounds(I weighed them on the bathroom scale). Of course they have different sized hardy holes, how inconvenient. The heavier one has two pritchel holes. The smaller one has a lot of small pits on the face but is otherwise in good condition. The larger one has seen a lot of use but is still in good usable condition. Very happy to see the catalog here.

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I recently bought this on ebay for more than I care to say. I wanted to share this with all of you. A good friend was nice enough to scan it for me. I hope if is of help to those of you that are interested in the history of this company and its products.


Thanks so much for sharing. My partner's a HB guy, laid up after back surgery. I'll print this out and take it out to him this weekend.
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Nice catalog! Thank you.

I got my first anvil, a Hay-Budden, from a San Pedro, CA, ship salvage yard in 1963. I was traveling with a farrier, and it turned out to be a farriers' pattern with the clip horn. It weighed 158 pounds. It had two pritchel holes but no swell to the horn. Another HB farriers' pattern came to me many years later. It weighed 213 pounds and had a good 5"D swell to the horn. It is very sleek looking, one yard long and one foot tall. It has a narrow face, a clip horn, and two pritchel holes. Again, many years later, a 140 pound HB farriers' anvil came to me. It had the clip horn, no swell and only one pritchel hole.

I often wonder whether the differences were because the company was transitioning from blacksmiths' to farriers' anvils, and it was making changes little by little. For instance, my little anvil had one pritchel hole because perhaps someone on the staff had not yet thought of two pritchel holes. I had the clip horn but no swell, because perhaps the swell had not been thought of yet.

Now I see in the catalog that HB took custom orders. It could be that my anvils were simply custom forged with some features left in and some left out. Food for thought.

http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

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I am sure you both made the seller happy. I am sure the scans make everybody on IFI happy! It sure brings things into perspective historically.

I am surprised that almost all anvils below 175# were 3/4 inch hardy, and ONLY the 175# has a 1 inch.

Phil

Don't know what to say about that except. My 142 has a 1" hardy and my older 88
has a 3/4. Mayby the last model was differant?
Ken.
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I hoped people would reprint this and pass it around. The more people know about the tools they use the better.

When I get the time I will convert it to a pdf file as we talked about in the private messages.
That will make it easier to print out the whole thing.
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When I get the time I will convert it to a pdf file as we talked about in the private messages.
That will make it easier to print out the whole thing.

AWESOME!

Knowing how big .pdf files get, you may need to contact Glenn to handle the file if it gets too big for the standard uploader.

Phil
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