Hi All,

Anyone know what type of anvil this may be? I found an ad for it, and it is reasonably close to me to pick up. They claim it is about 150#, and are asking $285. To me, the horn looks really square. Would this be a bad thing? Or could it be rounded off a little more with a grinder?

Thanks, Ben

ASO

Reasonably close?.......If I were next door I wouldn't bother.....If you can afford $285 hold out for a real one.

It's cast, made from a poor pattern, no pritchel. I'd go US$50 to have another hardy hole handy for production projects.

The seller either doesn't know squat about anvils or is trying to gouge the buyer!

Good to know, Thanks guys. Saves me 2 hours of driving.

Stewart, that's an insult to good anchors ;)

With the danger of sounding naive, how do you folks tell that it is a cast iron anvil so quickly? Is it the bit of texture that you can see in the photo, or just the awful shape of it? In person I could tell the difference, but just from a photo, my mind plays tricks on me.

With the danger of sounding naive, how do you folks tell that it is a cast iron anvil so quickly? Is it the bit of texture that you can see in the photo, or just the awful shape of it? In person I could tell the difference, but just from a photo, my mind plays tricks on me.

I was starting out in 1972 at the age of 25 and it's been......cripes, I don't wanna get the calculator.......My first real anvil was a Hay Budden 250 with a plate welded on about half the face.....Never did that again......
I can tell you what size a bar of steel is from 20' away, measure inches and feet by eye (pretty close) and spot an aso from a little picture.........Ah, to be 25 again and know what I know now, ok , 1/10th................This site alone is a huge resource of acquired knowledge, let alone the internet..............................................................................

The mounting lugs are pretty much limited to cast anvils in my experience and if someone had used cast steel a much more difficult and costly material to use they would have probably used a better pattern and put in a pritchel!

Here in the SW US we see cast mystery steel anvils coming from Mexico where they seem to be using old "real" anvils as the master for the moulds. However they run the casting seam right down the middle of the face and are often quite crudely done---3/8" offsets seen in the horns etc. Most are not fettled, all are not heat treated and some auctioneers are misrepresenting them as "antique" "real" anvils. I believe they are "end of the day what's left in the ladle" castings and so what alloy they are depends on what is being cast that day. Some of them could be quite good if they were of a known alloy and properly cast and sold for what they are instead of trying to "cheat"

Tempting to try to get a decent one and add *all* the markings Postman lists to it--an Hey-ACME-Trent-Mouse-Wright-Foster-Fisher-...and bring it to a conference.