jgg48 Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sask Mark Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 Very impressive Mr. Greenwood! I wish I could get my wife as interested in anvils as she is in shoes and purses. When she complains that one of my anvils costs 5 times more than a pair of shoes, I challenge her to show me a pair of her shoes that will be around in 50-100 years and will hopefully be worth as much or more than she paid for them today. Please continue posting pictures and information of your collection. I enjoy learning about the German anvils as much as I enjoy learning about the American brands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgg48 Posted March 29, 2011 Author Share Posted March 29, 2011 Very impressive Mr. Greenwood! I wish I could get my wife as interested in anvils as she is in shoes and purses. When she complains that one of my anvils costs 5 times more than a pair of shoes, I challenge her to show me a pair of her shoes that will be around in 50-100 years and will hopefully be worth as much or more than she paid for them today. Please continue posting pictures and information of your collection. I enjoy learning about the German anvils as much as I enjoy learning about the American brands. Thank you very much. Wives and anvils don't always get along. You have the durability and investment arguments. You could try the cost per pound argument. Used anvils can go for $2 on up to $6 a pound for something good. A lot of junk food costs more than that, and that weight gets added to your waist. Um...how much per pound for a purse or a pair of shoes? Lifting anvils is good exercise. Oggling anvils (rather than other stuff) stimulates endorfins! For me it was a long haul. I'm just lucky for now. My wife still doesn't understand why I need 9 power hammers. Thanks again, Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utaholdiron Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 My German anvils have arrived. There were discoveries, question marks, and a few major thrills which I will try to describe. I have several of them cleaned up and documented to add to my collection on Anvilfire. I will probably make videos for selling some of them on Ebay. Most important is that my wife has taken an interest in them, and has staked a claim on the little 50 kg Peddinghause. On the other hand my dog is a little jealous of all the attention the anvils are getting. First is an anvil with weight stamped (153 kg) and an unknown logo. Second is a 221 kg anvil with weight stamp and unknown logo. I have worn my eyes out studying German logos from the Ruhr region trying to identify anvil makers. If anyone can identify either of these please let me know. I was able to identify the third anvil from the logo which is 3 squares (top right of last photo). The 3 squares are the geometric image of the Pythagorean Theorem. The weight stamp (282 kg) has the 2s as beautiful scrolls, made by the firm of H.W Holt in Dahlerbrueck, Westphalia (Hermann Wilhelm Holthouse (trans: wood house)- born 1776). Holthause and his progeny were evidently deeply steeped in the classics, as am I. The anvil date is faint but readable, 1885. The whole business has been a thrill for me but this last anvil is one of the highlights, a near Mint Soeding and Halbach with the best "Forget me not" logo I have ever seen. This anvil is probably spoken for. I just have to work out the details. More later if you all are interested! Any questions, drop me a line: joshandingrid@hotmail.com Thank you, Josh Greenwood Josh, nice looking anvils, but impossible to get a GOOD look at them because when I click on them the resulting pictures are too large (in megabites)! I use "photobucket.com" to resize pictures and from that site it's easy to post them in this forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgg48 Posted March 29, 2011 Author Share Posted March 29, 2011 Josh, nice looking anvils, but impossible to get a GOOD look at them because when I click on them the resulting pictures are too large (in megabites)! I use "photobucket.com" to resize pictures and from that site it's easy to post them in this forum. I will have some time this evening to reduce the size of the images and repost them. Sorry for the inconvenience. Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 When I was looking for a wife one of my criteria was that she have a craft that she was passionate about---and it not be blacksmithing! She understands why I need another anvil or powerhammer just like I understand why she would buy another spinning wheel or more fleece. Yes our money for hobbies is split but having her hobby different means that we never have tool contention for using it and we both have our own spaces to get away from *everything* in. 27 years so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron J. Cergol Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 very nice Josh! I am quite jealous of them, and I appreciate your offer on the 152KG one. If I had more money now, it would be mine. I am still quite curious to see the CW's you brought over, if any. any unexpected surprises on this load? How many did you bring over on this one? Ciao Josh, Aaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaughnT Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Excellent stuff, hoss. If I was closer, we'd definitely have to talk some! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgg48 Posted March 30, 2011 Author Share Posted March 30, 2011 very nice Josh! I am quite jealous of them, and I appreciate your offer on the 152KG one. If I had more money now, it would be mine. I am still quite curious to see the CW's you brought over, if any. any unexpected surprises on this load? How many did you bring over on this one? Ciao Josh, Aaron Thank you Aaron, There are 3 great Church Windows anvils, and yes there were some surprises, as in great and spectacular. I'll try to post them soon. Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkunkler Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 That S&H is a real beauty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbruce Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 I wouldn't leave em so close to the ground with a jealous dog around ....they might wind up smelling like fire hydrants...... One thing I couldn't help but notice is the lack of chisel and punch divits on the sides so common on American anvils.....I suspect that was VERBOTEN and heaven help the apprentice who did such a thing ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arftist Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 Josh, thanks, and please do post as many more pictures as you can. The german anvils are very interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 The one anvil did show a few chisel cuts but they were on the upsetting step. I guess that I missed it somewhere but are you importing these from Germany? If so they are as bad as we are in selling of their heritage but then again better that then sell it to the scrappers and have it turned into re-bar. Nice anvils every one of them! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgg48 Posted April 6, 2011 Author Share Posted April 6, 2011 The one anvil did show a few chisel cuts but they were on the upsetting step. I guess that I missed it somewhere but are you importing these from Germany? If so they are as bad as we are in selling of their heritage but then again better that then sell it to the scrappers and have it turned into re-bar. Nice anvils every one of them! Thank you for your interest and your compliment. I am importing anvils from Germany on a very limited basis. I sold my first batch a few months ago, then I got the urge to do it again, and then I had extraordinary luck, as you will see. A couple points were mentioned that I can respond to in a very limited way. When I was in Germany 20 years ago it was very diffficult to buy my first anvil. The older Germans treasured their anvils for their utility and their history. The new generation is a different story. The horrendous role Germany played in WW2 and their crushing and humiliating defeat deeply scarred this generation. They want to leave that past behind, and some of them are abandoning their own wonderful traditions and selling or trashing their heritage. Then there is the new wave of hungry Eastern European immigrants. The people here who bought German anvils from me love and treasure them much more than the people who sold them. The condition of anvils I have seen in Germany is comparable to here. Some have suffered unimaginable punishment. Others have been abused. One has to consider the lifetime of an anvil. In the professional shops I have seen, the equipment is generally clean and beautifully cared for. However, when the shop closes the anvil goes to a welding shop or a farm and anything goes. Then you have to try to imagine the pressure and chaos of the 2 wars. In such desperate times all the rules get lost. The term "Jerry rig" came from the war when Germans were forced to improvise with what they had. Germany went through hell on earth. I'm sure protocals in the shops and anvils suffered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sask Mark Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Hmm, very interesting. I have heard from friends that have traveled to Germany that the wars are not really spoken about over there. The wars are not 'swept under the rug', but they are not spoken of either. I find it interesting that this passes all the way down to traditional tools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 There are actually laws about certain things---like the swastika cannot be displayed so at fleamarkets you find old family pictures with tape over the men in uniform's decorations. I found a 1939 edition of one of Kuhn's books by *asking* about old blacksmithing books (kunstschmiede) at a used book dealer at the fleamarket. It was not on display cause you can guess what some of the pages had on them. The new reprints don't have those pages. I did warn a smithing friend of mine about it before he looked through it as he lost a lot of his family in the camps. It's a tricky dance between ignoring and maybe forgetting history or glorifying bad parts of it. Oh well as Tom Lehrer wrote in MLF Lullaby: "We taught them a lesson in 1918 and they've hardly bothered us since then!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgg48 Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 There are actually laws about certain things---like the swastika cannot be displayed so at fleamarkets you find old family pictures with tape over the men in uniform's decorations. I found a 1939 edition of one of Kuhn's books by *asking* about old blacksmithing books (kunstschmiede) at a used book dealer at the fleamarket. It was not on display cause you can guess what some of the pages had on them. The new reprints don't have those pages. I did warn a smithing friend of mine about it before he looked through it as he lost a lot of his family in the camps. It's a tricky dance between ignoring and maybe forgetting history or glorifying bad parts of it. Oh well as Tom Lehrer wrote in MLF Lullaby: "We taught them a lesson in 1918 and they've hardly bothered us since then!" Recent German history is a delicate issue, painful and poignant on all sides. 18 million Germans perished including my wife's father, who was lost in the counter attack at Stalingrad. Being on time is still a matter of life and death for her - she remembers them closing the door of the bomb shelters with people still outside. Her later step father was a psychiatrist who protected incurables by miss labeling them, fought in the battle of Berlin, escaped from Russian and American prison camps, and nursed many Jewish holocast survivors back to life. My anvils went through all of that. For my part I want to document and illuminate and preserve this important corner of German history. On that note I have attached a couple of photos of my thrilling new church windows! The one on the bottom is a mid 19th century hornless anvil/sculpture. The middle one came from a famous castle surrounded by water. It surfaced when they were cleaning out the basement of the gift shop (18th century). The church windoes are shallow and it has a subtle taper from base to top from the side that give it an exquisite form. It would not surprise me if it is the original medieval anvil from the castle. The top anvil has an engraved border around the front plate, a runic style arrow in the center, and the date :1688. My wife told me not to have a heart attack when I first saw it. In 1688 Germans were forging in the high Baroque style. For me this is the ABSOLUTE high point of the craft (Georg Oeg's Wurtzburg Palace work in 1700). When I was cleaning this anvil I noticed pitch tar dripped on all sides. Of course tar like that was melted in and out of repousse leaf work. I stopped cleaning! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sask Mark Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Incredible finds! Thanks for sharing the pictures and some of the history Mr. Greenwood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaughnT Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Absolutely incredible story. Those anvils should be in a museum! Thanks for getting them to safety, I'd have hated to learn that they were melted down for car bumpers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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