Blacksmith Girl Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 OK so I picked up one of these the other day, but I can't find any info on it. can anyone here give me any opinions? from what I can read on the side it says Henry Wright England Solid 80 Is this anvil any good? Quote
Glenn Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 We need more information, good for what purpose? Put the anvil to use. After 100 hours hammer time you will have most likely answered your question. The comment may sound strange at first but after those 100 hours of hammer time you will see the reasoning behind the post. Or you can send the anvil prepaid to a couple of IForgeIron members who might be willing to train that anvil, and turn it into a valuable tool. May take a year or more for the proper training, but ,,,, (grin) Quote
Bigred1o1 Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 cool good to know Stewarthesmith that was one of them useful comments Blacksmith Girl any chance of you uploading a photo of the anvil i would not mind seeing what it it looked like and glenn if i was to take a stab at her question i bet she wants to use it to hammer on not having it as a pet dog but then what do i know Quote
Blacksmith Girl Posted October 24, 2011 Author Posted October 24, 2011 Here you go, It was welded to the stand when I bought it. Quote
Wesley Chambers Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 Looks nice and clean, what type of work are you planning to do on it? Quote
Blacksmith Girl Posted October 24, 2011 Author Posted October 24, 2011 Knifemaking, once I get really good at that then I'll look into custom pieces and a bigger anvil Oh and this thing cost me 205 with tax, advertised as a Vulcan. the Vulcan next to it was 185 Quote
Bigred1o1 Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 nice i dont know if there are any sharpening shops down your way but you can usually get a good number of old files from them for cheap or free and once annealed and cleaned up with a grinder they are very nice high carbon steel billets Quote
Blacksmith Girl Posted October 24, 2011 Author Posted October 24, 2011 I have found that the 14" files from harbor frieght work great, very tough to work with and holds a great edge. Quote
Wesley Chambers Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 I think you mentioned farriers in another post, we burn through a LOT of rasps. A girl I was in shoeing school with is a farris out of the lakeland area of Fl and might have a few old ones to spare. If you see one of there trucks around hit them up for some old files you could have yourself a few buckets before you know what to do with them. Quote
ThomasPowers Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 Keep your eye open for the old pre-nicholson Black Diamond files 1.2%C!!!!! I did a decade long sweep of the South High, Columbus OH fleamarket for them and moved over 50 pounds of them to NM...very nice if you are doing an ornamental patternwelded billet and need a carbon donor to juice it up a bit!. Quote
Blacksmith Girl Posted October 25, 2011 Author Posted October 25, 2011 OK, now the face of my anvil has the obvious wear and tear, it does have a good degree of hammer marks. should i try to smooth it? or do I leave it as is, and I think at some point it fell on the point of it's horn as it's a bit flat at the tip. Quote
pkrankow Posted October 25, 2011 Posted October 25, 2011 The tip you want to forge back, but that will take a couple helpers who know what they are doing. Live with it until you are ready, you might replace the anvil with a bigger one instead of ever fixing this. The face is best left alone. Fresh hammer marks you can plannish back, and literally move teh metal back where it was, cold, but old marks have had the ridge worn down. A lot of marks will fade with proper use. Sharp spots you can use a file and make not-sharp. Grinding on a face is not recommended, and a lot of marks will not transfer to hot steel. Phil Quote
ThomasPowers Posted October 25, 2011 Posted October 25, 2011 I didn't see any major ones in that picture, I;d suggest NOT messing with it save for maybe plannishing any bad marks a bit. As for flattened tips: *very* common and Not from falling on the horn! (My HB was *dropped* on it's horn with no sign of damage though the industrial concrete floor suffered a good sized divot!) Typically they are blunted after the 3rd time a smith banged his leg into a sharp one in one week! If you need a very small pointed horn for some project---make a bic for your hardy hole! Quote
Dragons lair Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 OK, now the face of my anvil has the obvious wear and tear, it does have a good degree of hammer marks. should i try to smooth it? or do I leave it as is, and I think at some point it fell on the point of it's horn as it's a bit flat at the tip. First time ya run into that flat tip You will know about pointed horns. Best thing is add your location (one or more of us might be right around the corner) Clean up the face only if ya know what your doing. Ken. Quote
FieryFurnace Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 Where is Ocala in relation to St. Pete? My Fisher anvil has had about 3/4" cut off of the horn. 99% of the time I don't even need that tiny bit, so i wouldn't worry about yours. At John C Campbell folk school ( I take classes there) the anvils are 150 pound cast steel anvils. Being used as student anvils they get beat up on the face pretty bad. I've never seen that it was a problem getting a good finish on my work or anything. Ignore the bad spots and start hammering on it. :D Quote
Blacksmith Girl Posted October 26, 2011 Author Posted October 26, 2011 OK St. Pete is near Tampa which is about 80 miles on I-75 Quote
pkrankow Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 I wish my anvil edges and face were in that nice of shape. It has had some abuse to the edges, but it is in rather good shape overall. Phil Quote
Fosterob Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 I must agree with the others that that anvil you have is in very useable shape, probably better than most. Use it and if you then see a reason to do any specific repair later. My guess would be you will not. With the possible exception of a better stand. Rob Quote
Blacksmith Girl Posted October 27, 2011 Author Posted October 27, 2011 . So who exactally was Henry Wright? There is very little to no info on these anvils. Quote
clinton Posted October 27, 2011 Posted October 27, 2011 Its funny Mr Postman asks the same question in Anvils in America "One of Peter Wrights sons?" It is a pretty rare anvil he only recorded 11 of them as of 1995. He goes on to say that he believes they were made from the late 1880's to about 1914. The weight was marked in actual pounds not stone weight in most cases. I know Brian Brazeal has one it is the only one I have ever seen, his anvil is in real good condition Quote
clinton Posted October 27, 2011 Posted October 27, 2011 I would remove it from that stand if it were my anvil and build a tripod, the sit much better on most surfaces- four legs will rock back and forth if you do not shim them Quote
Blacksmith Girl Posted October 27, 2011 Author Posted October 27, 2011 Oh so it's rare? How neat. I think I like my anvil even more now. :D Quote
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