NickBalz Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 here is a neat little find 148# - the missing back mouse hole anyone have any ideas on how old this might be . can't make out the first half of the wrighting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 the weight is figures first number 112 +28+6= 146 should be the weight. it is a M&H armitage mouse hole 1820-1835 if you get a chance get the book by Richard Postman Mouse Hole forge it is a great read lots of great pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old N Rusty Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 where did you find it? if was in the deep south after the War Between The States yankee forces ruined what equipment they could not cart up north I am repairing with a lot of braze welding a Parker gunsmith vise for about the same era smashed to "smitherines". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 Poor baby got his tail bobbed, well even with a bobbed tail he can still do a days work with his horn intact. If I was all set to destroy the usefulness of an anvil I wouldn't take it's tail off, I'd take the horn off! I think you're a tad off base on your information about what the Yankees did and didn't do to anvils during the Civil War. Some rumors stillpersistt to this day. :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Einhorn Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 Poor baby got his tail bobbed, well even with a bobbed tail he can still do a days work with his horn intact. If I was all set to destroy the usefulness of an anvil I wouldn't take it's tail off, I'd take the horn off! I think you're a tad off base on your information about what the Yankees did and didn't do to anvils during the Civil War. Some rumors stillpersistt to this day. Excellent point. I advise taking information about the War Between the States with a large grain of salt. A lot of "information" tends to start as rumor or fantasy and end up as "fact", especially around the reenactor and "living history" folks. If something can't be traced back to an original source, then it probably is not very accurate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FieryFurnace Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 Neat anvil and true or false it's a good story about it's possible dissfigurement during the war between the states! Having read up on some of the original documentation of the Eastern, and Western Campaigns and the Atlanta Campaign, I wouldn't doubt for a second that the union army would have smashed up the smithies. Undoubtly though many of the hand-me-down stories are fictional or exagerated. Anyone want to start a CW argument? LOL JUST JOKING! BACK ON TOPIC! That's a neat anvil and it is probably far more likely that an appentice got a bit hasty swinging the 16 pound sledge his master handed him! Or an old guy didn't want to pick it up off the tailgate so he kicked it off. Or some one put a bit too much powder between the bases and shot the thing sky high only to land it on a good solid rock. Or maybe it's like the old "for lack of a horseshoe nail" but instead it is for lack of an intact anvil. HA! THAT'S why we lost! Humph! :) The list of what could have happened could go on forever. Shucks...if you was 170+ years old you'd be liable to break something completely off too! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old N Rusty Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 One fella's "myth" one family's memories. I know the old mousehole anvil I have was the property of one A.A. Broussard a blacksmith here in Baton Rouge. this anvil spent the "re-construction" years buried and was dug up in 1876 to go back to work in his new shop. It stayed in family ownership till 1971, when AABCO fabricators closed forever.I bought it when all else in the shop went to scrap. The war is over, dredging up old grudges wont help us in our new military adventures. Its a pity the taliban dont wear blue uniforms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 You can clean up the broken side it will give you years of service. I repaired mine with 7018 welding rod peened into each other. What was real cool when I ground into it you could see the swirls in the metal old wrought iron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 I recently added a prosthetic hardy hole to an old anvil with a broke off heel. Took a piece of structural sq tubing and clamped it in a notch I ground in the protruding bits---large U bolt under the horn coming back to a crosspiece I forged =_= I use tooling that sticks over onto the face when I can; but it's handy to have a hardy on my "rough projects" anvil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Miller Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 As the great great grand son of a union solder and a 5 generation Yankee new yorker I resent these speculations. Yes the union solders did there fair share of damage but not every anvil with a missing horn is the result of that. I have seen a number of old mouse holes with there horns and heals missing and two in the process of failing. It is due to the vertical forge weld used to attach the horns and heals. These welds were know to fail from time to time. The peter wright method made the top from one piece of wrought iron and resolved this potential problem and simplified the anvil making process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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