56FordGuy Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 This is my first anvil, I think. It may turn out to be an ASO. I've had it for a while, picked it up from a scrap yard long before I decided to try my hand at blacksmithing. It's rough, for sure. Looks like someone tried to turn it into yard art. There's a groove carved on each side of the horn, and a small groove in the side of the face. It weighs about 150 lbs, and does have some rebound. I don't know how much is normal, but it's noticeable with a 3 pound hammer. It's completely dead behind the hardy hole, though. Is that normal? The only marking on it is a raised '70' on the side. The surface is rough, and the edges are worn. My current anvil options are this, a short (1 foot) section of railroad track, and a 4x4x2" steel block. I'm sure I will probably wind up using them all for something or other. Does this anvil look like it's in decent enough shape to use for a while, or should I start looking for a better one? The pitting and wear on the face has me concerned a bit, most anvils I've seen pictures of are much smoother. I've thought about trying to repair this one, and have read several threads on the subject. Just not sure if it's necessary, or worth the trouble if it's an ASO. Thanks for any input y'all have! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgewayforge Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 I think it might be a cast iron ASO. There is not much of a table, a short blunted horn and a lack of pritchel hole. I'd use the steel block as your main anvil and just use this for light bending over the horn. It'll work best as a doorstop, boat anchor or roadrunner-repellant, though. Best of luck, but get other opinions. I'm not as knowledgable as some, and I very well could be wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Lake Forge Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 It sure looks like an aso. Does it have a ring to it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Lake Forge Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 I think it might be a cast iron ASO. There is not much of a table, a short blunted horn and a lack of pritchel hole. I'd use the steel block as your main anvil and just use this for light bending over the horn. It'll work best as a doorstop, boat anchor or roadrunner-repellant, though. Best of luck, but get other opinions. I'm not as knowledgable as some, and I very well could be wrong. dang it Ridgeway, beat me to it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 Get a suitably large ball bearing. 50% rebound is the cutoff for "real" vs "ASO" You can do a lot of good work on an ASO but it is easier to work on a real anvil as less energy is absorbed by the anvil. It has a good hardy hole so it isn't useless at least... Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wd&mlteach Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 What you have is an ASO. I guarantee it. It looks exactly like the one I was given in a trade this past fall, the only difference is mine is red with dents. The story goes like this if you care…….it is long but might be worth the read. So a couple of years ago I was talking to one of my old college professors and he says to me something along the lines of “Hey I have all of these great 16mm movies of old industrial arts stuff and it is dated but has some real good teaching to it, but I don’t have a projector. Do you know where I can get a projector?” Of course I had no idea but that thought entered my mind and stuck. Later on while having another conversation with him I asked, “Hey, know anybody with an anvil?” He told me, “Yeah I’ve got one that I have had for years, never use the thing, just move it around,” and that is when I made the connection -thinking I need to find a projector. A little while later the janitor at my school stopped by with a projector and informed me that they were throwing this old technology away and did I want it, you betcha! Boy could I hear that anvil ring at the sight of that old projector. I figured the school, and I are going to make out on this one, one old projector for a nice anvil I now will use for class demos. I called up the professor. It took him two years to bring that anvil for the trade. When he came to my school he gave me this long story of how he acquired the anvil from the University of Maryland when they shut down the technology education program and that it came from Donald Maley’s Program. Maley was not a blacksmith, but a big technology education leader and creator of the Maryland Plan, google it for more information. They now give awards away with his name at ITEEA, I have one on my wall. Anyway as we are going out to his truck I am dreaming of what could be in there. I mean Maley taught at Maryland for almost 50 years, and they shut the program down years ago, whatever it was, it had to be old, right? He tells me it is really heavy and we need two people even to move the thing, and boy I am thinking all kinds of stuff at that point. So he drops the tailgate and my heart sank. There is was, in all its painted glory, a big shiny red ASO. My heart sank. I had been moving that darn projector around my room for two years until the deal went through and now this is all I got, -A red 70kg or 154.4 pound piece of junk, with a story. I did not have the heart to tell him, I just acted excited and wheeled it in my classroom. Later the next day I thought, well maybe, just maybe, I might be wrong. So, while the kids were working I busted out the belt sander to see what was under that paint, nothing but a bunch on dents, gouges, and scratches. I could tell it was cast iron but the way the metal just dusted off by the handful. After I had it all cleaned off I grabbed a small ball pien hammer and gave a small hit. No bounce, no ring, just another dent, heck the concrete floor bounces better. I now keep that anvil on the lab benches where the kids are. They use it for shaping dustpans and pounding pennies, cause that is what kids with hammers do. I yell at them, tell them that it’s a felony or something like that. Then I tell them next time drop the penny in a jar I have by the door grab a piece of scrap and hit on that instead. In the back of my mind I keep hoping that a kid grabs a sledge and knock the horn or tail off and depending on how snotty the kid is, I can make them buy me a new one. Well, maybe not that but at least I can throw it away and not feel guilty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 70 is weight in kg so about 150 pounds. CI ASO So use it until you can find a chunk of scrap steel to replace it with and then make it your dedicated hardy holder. I too have an ASO story: Back around 1982, A couple of days before I was to do a day long smithing demo at a museum in OKC my 200 pound anvil was stolen. Only thing I could find anvillike in a hurry was a Buffalo 100kg cast iron ASO. Paid way too much for it and found that when I was forging coil spring on it it was *denting* *under* the red hot spring! Never used it again after that day and several years and moves later sold it for a substantial loss to a fellow who swore on a stack of Bibles *never* to use it for forging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
56FordGuy Posted July 24, 2012 Author Share Posted July 24, 2012 Well, I appreciate the input. It's not what I was hoping to hear, but unfortunately it's kind of what I expected. I've been looking at alternatives, both in anvils for sale locally along with other things I can use. I've got a couple of old forklift forks, and found an article through here (Mr. Powers, I believe you posted it a while back). I plan on doing something along those lines until I find a 'proper' anvil. I'm also going to swing by my steel supplier and see if they might have a large block in the scrap bin that I could get for a reasonable price. As for my ASO, I'll use it as a hardy holder until a 'real' anvil comes along. Then I suppose it'll be turned into a doorstop, or maybe I'll finish the yard art project that someone else started on it. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 We once took one of the HF ASO's and drilled and counter drilled and counter drilled it and made it into a propane stove for conferences. Drilled like butter; hardly any iron in it compared to all the graphite! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 You can grind dishing shapes into it for spoons and ladles...I am doing that to the bottom of an ASO I have, seems to work OK. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doggonemess Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 Not to resurrect a dead thread, but I had to comment on this. I have the exact same anvil, except mine has "100" in raised numbers on the side (and weighs 220lbs). It's a cast iron ASO for sure, and I've used it as a beater just to pound stuff on that I don't care about. If the OP is still on the site, I'd like to know if you found out anything about this anvil. Does anyone have any idea where they came from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 Its PROBABLY Chinese. If your work is hot enough an ASO WILL work best of all, sometimes makes one worth having in the shop is the hardy hole. There are all kinds of things you can do with a dedicated hardy hole. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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