Duke of Nada Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 Forgive me if this is dumb, but shouldn't it the kinetic energy stored in the hammer from the swing to anvil mass rather than hammer mass to anvil mass. A 2.2lbs hammer moving 15 mph ( i guessed at speed) gives 16.59ft/lbs or 200 inch/lbs. If the other equation covered that than disregard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LouisFarkovitz Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum. I recently bought a 250# Anvil for $150 at a junk shop. My wife is now eyeing it for an art installation for a guitar show. But, when she saw that you were discussing 1000# Anvils, she started thinking of looking for something bigger to use for the art installation. She's wondering what the dimensions are on a 1000# Anvil? She wants to know if you know of anyone that would let us rent or borrow one? Our small one would "do" but, a larger one would have a better impact in a large doublesided window space and it would bring up the metal/forging aspects of my project. She's also looking for 13 different "antique barn pulleys" to suspend the art guitars on. We're in Brooklyn, New York and the installation will be in Manhattan (once approved). Can anyone drop her a line on this topic? Liora at liorafarkovitz@gmail.com. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njanvilman Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum. I recently bought a 250# Anvil for $150 at a junk shop. My wife is now eyeing it for an art installation for a guitar show. But, when she saw that you were discussing 1000# Anvils, she started thinking of looking for something bigger to use for the art installation. She's wondering what the dimensions are on a 1000# Anvil? She wants to know if you know of anyone that would let us rent or borrow one? Our small one would "do" but, a larger one would have a better impact in a large doublesided window space and it would bring up the metal/forging aspects of my project. She's also looking for 13 different "antique barn pulleys" to suspend the art guitars on. We're in Brooklyn, New York and the installation will be in Manhattan (once approved). Can anyone drop her a line on this topic? Liora at liorafarkovitz@gmail.com. Thanks! Do you have a way of moving anvils that are over 300 lbs or more? Can you provide bulletproof insurance for the iron? Anvils 500 lb and more are very valuable and hard to move without the correct equipment. What is the time frame involved? Contact me via PM or my email on my profile. I might be able to provide some of this material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metalsmith21 Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 Your probably better off with a hallow sheet metal anvil shaped object, would be as big or little as you like while being 100 times lighter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Ivan Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 A lot of discussion around the efficiency of moving metal here. I would say that the more mass under your hammer WILL move metal more efficiently, BUT, at what point does your 4 lb hammer stop being more efficient on a bigger anvil? With a striker or two or four swinging 14 lb hammers (because lets be real, no average joe can swing a bigger hammer with precision) I would think that maybe 350 lbs would be the cut off. after that, the only benefit you would get is the added working face size. Even with power hammers, most debate on the anvil size I see have to deal with a 10-1 or 20-1 ratio of anvil weight to hammer weight to be ideal. In all honesty though, I would not say no to the biggest mother of an anvil if it came my way and I could get it to the shop :) . My 2 cents on this. -Crazy Ivan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basher Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 well my personal stash of big anvils has just gon up..... took delivery of an 866lb london pattern today..... my previous biggest one is 800lb..... I have a lump turning up next week that could well be more but I shall have to see , its not exactly one anvil..... piccies next week!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basher Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 and as to the why......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Good for you! It's nice when a smith will open a home for anvils that have fallen on hard times to allow them to live out their uselife in dignity. I myself offer a facility for wayward anvils in need of some hot iron and hammer discipline! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basher Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I am still blown away that I belong to a craft that made tools 100 to 200 years ago that are still going strong. I wonder the tonnage of metal that an anvil of this size has seen in its life. I would imagine that my 3 or 4lb lumps of damascus (and 2 to 4lb hammers) are a gentle retirement work out for an anvil of this stature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Forge Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 About 18 years ago I had a chance on a BIG anvil. $1 a pound at 1500 pounds. Guy over near Philly had it. It came out a shipyard. We were travelling and no room in the truck. As soon as I got home, 6 hours away, I called him and it was gone......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 My hundred year old tools get used all the time by everyone, my 200+ year old tools are reserved for *my* use! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 I currently have 2 anvils, a nearly 400 # peter wright and a 1050# pound double horn I made myself. I'd have to agree that in general, I can do most of what I do on anvils smaller than both of these, and the drive to have extra large anvils was driven by envy. However, I will point out that I've never had my anvils anchored to any kind of stump set in the ground or other permanent installation. I found that when working on the horn or side of the PW I could make that anvil walk across the floor. That doesn't happen with the big anvil, yet I can still move it if I need to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Geist Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 I think there's something you guys need to remember about power hammers. Yes they're a great tool. Those of us who don't have one wish we did but..... They only strike straight up and down. Strikers can hit from all angles and directions. Power hammers don't take lunch breaks, call in sick, pay Union dues or make an issue of overtime. Strikers don't increase your electric bill when they work or quit when power goes out. Is pros and cons to each be it human or machine power but if using strikers it's certainly better to equip them with as big an anvil as possible. The ultra big 1000#+ anvils that Fisher and H-B made only one of.... they weren't really using anvils as much as a company show off advertising thing. The one made for the Columbian exposition was made just for that. Sort of a competition amongst manufacturers type of deal. George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 Though the large fisher noted above was an exposition piece, I've seen enough period anvils in excess of 500 lbs to conclude that there was in fact an industrial market for these large anvils at one point in time. It seems that most of them were made in Europe rather than the USA and I assume that is for a few reasons: 1. Heavy manufacturing has been going on much longer in this part of the world than the US. 2. Countries with a strong manufacturing culture based on hand labor (such as England) seem to have maintained that hand work approach much longer than was done here in the US. As examples, chain, barrels and knife blades were all made by hand in England up into the 1970s, while in the states, these activities had been done by mechanized methods for decades. Another example of this approach is that the book "A Blacksmith's Manual Illustrated", one of the all time best books on open die hammer work, was first published in 1930 and again in1944, 1949,1960, 1970, and 1978. Many examples of the work in this book are can actually be made much more efficiently by fabricating and machining, rather than from forging from 1 piece. This book was first written and published in England with a focus on railroad related forgings, but you can see from the publication dates that up into the 1970s there was a market in England for this information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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