I have been looking for an anvil for a while (working with railway track currently). Found this 250lb anvil on local classifieds for $150. What would be the best way to fix it? Or i guess a better question would be can i fix it for less then the cost of a good 160lb? I have everything but a mill/surface grinder.

Thanks for the help.

I'd keep looking. A rather large part of the tool steel face looks to be gone.

well, in the words of young man - I'd hit that!
$150 is pretty low for a usable anvil. and that definitely looks usable. now it's not pretty and swayed backed but it is way better than a piece of railroad track. As long as it have a few square inches of flat space it can be used and used well. just clean up any overly abused sections with an angle grinder. If you really want it to become perfect it will be a big job and probably not worth the effort. get this one, learn how to use it, and when you find a better one use this one for your students - yes you will be teaching before you know it!
Garret

Hard to tell from the pictures. If it just has a swale in it and nothing chunked out, go for it.

Looks like an old Armitage Mousehole. I've repaired a lot of anvils and this one is pretty rough - but - I'd go toss $100 cash at the seller and if he bit, I'd haul it home, buy a few lbs of weld rod and build up the craters, followed by dressing with a right angle grinder. Would do fine until you find a better one.

Well swayed, if the face is intact well worth the asking price, no repair needed. If the face is broken and pieces missing, then it is a little high but not crazy, and would be worth fixing. If you get it you can still beat on it till you can fix it properly.

Phil

250 lbs of wrought iron for $150 that's a good deal.

Search for the Rob Gunter method of anvil repair and realize that while you can make that a restored beauty it will take a bunch of time, welding rod, electricity and abrasives. If the thought of that makes you think "Oh goody!" then I'd do as suggested and offer $100 cash as you will have to spend more than that in repair materials.

If you don't have a good sized welder and the skills then you can A see if there is a local smithing group that may have an "anvil repair day" (I've been to ones in OH and in NM so far and seen anvils way worse than that repaired!) or B start learning!

Tough to tell from the pictures, but it looks like there's a hardy but no pritchel. It also looks a little Mousehole-ish (or like my Hill, which is similar). Hardy but no Pritchel may indicate a pre-1850 anvil.

For that price, if it's usable, I'd be all over it. Hell, if it's not usable, I'd be all over it at some price he'll probably accept.

That's a heck of a buy for $150. Pretty beat up but still plenty of usable iron. Looks like a pretty good horn. If I was looking for an anvil I would buy it!

Yea, I'd buy it. Even if the faceplate is completely missing, you could still find uses for it around the shop. If the body is wrought iron and not cast iron, you could cut it into chunks to sell to knifemakers and such that like small pieces of WI for making fittings. Very easy to recoup your money in that case!

Search for the Rob Gunter method of anvil repair and realize that while you can make that a restored beauty it will take a bunch of time, welding rod, electricity and abrasives. If the thought of that makes you think "Oh goody!" then I'd do as suggested and offer $100 cash as you will have to spend more than that in repair materials.

If you don't have a good sized welder and the skills then you can A see if there is a local smithing group that may have an "anvil repair day" (I've been to ones in OH and in NM so far and seen anvils way worse than that repaired!) or B start learning!

Agree with Mr. Powers! Where I live there are almost no available anvils in the market and when they show up in this condition prices can be as high as 15 USD a kg! If I could get this anvil for $150 I would be very happy and repairing it would be nothing compared with the anvils I have improvised by welding and grinding chunks of steel for hours and hours and tens of kg of electrodes I have melted!