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Anvil Identification?


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Blurrrrryyyyy pics for sure! the best I can tell is that it may be a Peter Wright. I base that on looking at the feet. Could be wrong... Also, make sure the face is all there! Appears that about 1/2 of the face has been broken off~~refer to the 1st pic and look at face above the back feet...again, could be wrong~~that would make two this year!!

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it looks like its missing the back half of the face but thats not so bad since the real working portion of the face is still there i would say take a hammer and tap on it and see if it rings or if it makes a thack or buz noise if it dose not ring it might be worth passing on it if it rings or at least dose not sound or feel dead offer him 5o-75bucks and think of it as a learning anvil the horn looks good and the hardy hole is there for tooling so even down the road it could become a secondary anvil for cutting and doing striking on
just my op

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If there is face over the sweet spot then you are good, the hardy is still usable faceless.

Looks like a PW to me possibly the Solid Wrought in a circle on the side visible in the murk.

I love "damaged" anvils as starter anvils as they are generally much better deals and often a "damaged" anvil doesn't hamper forging on it much at all.

Check the weight and offer a bit under US$1 per pound or the 100 which ever is lower---IFF the rest of the face is solid and rings as PWs are ringing anvils.

I have a Powell that I use as a loaner anvil; missing the total heel; but the face is great and the horn is fair---bought it for $40 which was under 50 cents a pound and it's a great anvil anyway.

Note that early anvils tended to make the face from several pieces of high carbon steel forge welded to the body and often on older anvils you can see the welds between the pieces as they wear slightly different. These anvils also tend to fail at the face weld lines, especially if a face weld line lines up with the heel weld line.

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The pictures are just terrible, but it sort of looks like there is a new face arc welded on top of the old one. Looks to be a plate just set up on top and probably welded around the edges. If it is a new piece of steel just arc welded around the edges on top of the old face then the anvil is trash. I would not pay much of anything if this is the case.

I hope I am just mistaken about it and its a good anvil, but in the pictures something just does not look right.

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You are not mistaken as that is exactly what happened. It does appear to be the original face that was arc'd on though. Also, strangely enough it has a really nice ring to it. It's better than the anvil I had (none) and I gave him $40 bucks for what feels to be about an 80lb chunk of steel by Peter Wright. I'll still be on the lookout for a keeper....

I'll get her cleaned up and post a few pics.


I hope I am just mistaken about it and its a good anvil, but in the pictures something just does not look right.
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Forty dollars for that ain't bad and you can do a lot of work on that hald face when you put your mind to it and quit thinking of this as a temprary solution for an anvil. I still have my first anvil and it is a half face and I did a lot of work on it before I got my "dream" anvil. I think that I still like it better than my dream anvil and that is a 300# Fisher.

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We get used to the battered old things we got started on and then when we get a "good one" we find out that you are so used to the sways and rounded edges that the new one seems "off". I still like going back to my old anvil to straighten blades as it's sway is *PERFECT*---to me---for that task.

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