Very First Anvil

[singletree]

After 3 years looking, or more, have just purchased my first anvil. New to the trade and not fully educated about anvils. The anvil is marked "PJ" and 302, but other that figuring the weight to be 338#; have no idea what I have bought. Will post pictures when I have suitable ones. Appreciate any input to figure more out, or ideas to get the best pictures.
The anvil is to go into my 'all around' shop mostly for farm/auto, but open to the idea of exploring the art of blacksmithing. thanks for any replies.

[David Einhorn]

If you wish to prevent damaging your anvil:
1) Only put hot metal between the anvil and your hammer. Straightening cold steel stuff on the anvil is a sure way to damage it by putting dents in it.
2) As much hammering as possible should be done over the supported center of the anvil so that you don't break the ends off.

[DanieltheFarrier]

youll enjoy blacksmithing. congrats on the anvil. i havent been on the forms for long so i dont know if its a blacksmithing thing or not but a month or so from getting my first from my grandad i went and bought another one. dont ask why... im not sure yet eather :)

[singletree]

Thanks for the tip to prevent damage to my anvil, as I am just beginning to learn about their use. Should have some pictures up in a day or so, as I want to get some 'good' shots of it. My estimation is that it is in 'good' condition. Looking forward to who may know about its maker as the previous owner was unable to identify (them). Plan on learning alot from this forum as my interest has been excited about blacksmithing.

[singletree]

Well, these aren't the "good" shots that I wanted to put up but maybe allow some input and suggestions for better pictures after some time with a wire brush/wheel and better light and set up. Some of you surely can tell me more than I know at this point! thanks for the replies also.
(hardie hole is 1.25")

[philip in china]

Plenty of people on the site are turning out good stuff on anvils in worse condition than that one! So don't do a thing to her except get hammering! There is plenty of life left in her. A good size as well.

[Jason @ MacTalis Ironworks]

Anvil faces vary tremendously in hardness. My Peter Wright would be hard pressed to get dented by any hammer I swing at it, while my buddy's PW (we think it was poorly refaced at sometime) dings as if it were made of lead. You might want to take a medium swing at it near the hardy hole with your hammer tipped a bit to see if it dings or just laughs at the hammer. If it dents easily, I highly recommend using a softer treated hammer on it at least until you have hammer control well in hand as it is WAY cheaper and easier to reface and replace cheap hammers than it is to resurface and anvil.

[singletree]

Will try the tip about the hammer at the hardie hole Mac and thanks. Only hit it with a tiny hammer and what I notice is that the 'ring' is different at different parts of the face. Is this to be expected with any anvil? Feel very good about the piece and its condition and got it for a very good price, barely above a buck a pound ! Appreciate the encouragement to get hammerin' also, as that is what is in the plans.
Does it look like a particular maker's work or another? (not that it matters at this point, just curious about it)

[Sask Mark]

Does it look like a particular maker's work or another? (not that it matters at this point, just curious about it)

I personally can't discern too much from your pictures. Sometimes putting a light coat of boiled linseed oil on it will reveal a lot more details.

[ThomasPowers]

The fat waist and feet---though a couple look like they were trimmed at some point and the CWT weight marking seem to indicate "English" to me. It doesn't have the flats at the front and back bottom edge as the later PW did. Postman has said he has found over 200 different english makers so far so it may be hard to specify one.

As to ring, the loudness is often location specific---horn and heel are the "loudest" on my anvils that ring---however there should be no "dead" areas or worst ones that "buzz"---indicates delamination of the face in that area.

[Jason @ MacTalis Ironworks]

I was just gonna mention the dead and buzz rings, but you beat me to it Thomas. Keep in mind for future anvils though that ring isn't the end all be all determiner of quality/fitness. Alot of the cast and composite cast anvils will have little to no ring.

[ThomasPowers]

well the cast steel anvils tend to have a quite piercing ring to them. But the cast iron body/steel face ones like Fisher and Vulcan are quite quiet

So it's one of those smithing secrets "anvils that should ring should ring and anvils that shouldn't ring shouldn't ring" and you have to know enough to know which are which...

I personally thing that for today's hobbyist smith a Fisher should be worth more than a PW as sound is often a big problem in suburban smithies.

[singletree]

thanks for the comments, got a few more pictures today and was able to get a friend's opinion who is familiar with anvils, and very suprised when he quite strongly wanted to buy it from me. hope he doesn't stay peeved that I wouldn't consider it!
the one side has very faint lettering " C I P P " seems to be all and all that I can make out
other side has (initials?) "RJ"
when I first saw this anvil sort of figured that it was from one of the small makers which understand, if correctly, there were many for a period of time. origin is another matter; finding it hard to believe that it came over on a ship long ago, but stranger things do happen
seems to have a nice bounce when hit with a brass hammer, all that I have as yet, probably 1 1/2 -2 # weight. the ring varies on the location struck, but is appealing to my ear
did lightly hand wire brush and wipe some linseed oil into the sides
the downside is that the face seems to have had some work done on it at some point and there has been some filing that is apparent in many locations, but, still very happy to have lucked onto it after several years of searching
appreciate all the input from everyone and looking forward to learning about the trade here

[Jason @ MacTalis Ironworks]

Face and edges look to be in pretty good shape. I'd take a body grinder to the face and work out the dings in the face and smooth off the nastier dings in the edges. Don't worry too much about the face being perfectly flat, as an anvil isn't a precision reference tool. Better for it to be a little wavy than to be transfering all them divots into your work. If you want to flat it up after that, I find 60 grit on a belt sander works well to smooth out the grinder marks.

[ThomasPowers]

I'd suggest you hold off on cleaning up the face until *AFTER* you make your beginner's mistakes---conserve your face thickness!

It's well within tolerance for using as it stands.

[Jason @ MacTalis Ironworks]

bah! double posted

[Jason @ MacTalis Ironworks]

I'd suggest you hold off on cleaning up the face until *AFTER* you make your beginner's mistakes---conserve your face thickness!

It's well within tolerance for using as it stands.

Good point Thomas... wasn't thinking of the "no hammer control yet" aspect.

[arftist]

Anvil faces vary tremendously in hardness. My Peter Wright would be hard pressed to get dented by any hammer I swing at it, while my buddy's PW (we think it was poorly refaced at sometime) dings as if it were made of lead. You might want to take a medium swing at it near the hardy hole with your hammer tipped a bit to see if it dings or just laughs at the hammer. If it dents easily, I highly recommend using a softer treated hammer on it at least until you have hammer control well in hand as it is WAY cheaper and easier to reface and replace cheap hammers than it is to resurface and anvil.

Sounds like your freinds anvil got anealed in a building fire at some point. Peter Wrights, while not the best anvils, are not generaly known to have soft faces. Often they are actualy a little too hard.