What would you pay for this Peter Wright anvil

[newbieforge]

Hi all,

Recently this anvil appeared on an online classifieds site.
It is a 200-300lbs Peter Wright and the seller wants $300 or best offer.



It looks like it has been beat up a little bit, but I am considering offering $150-200 for it anyway. (In my area anvils are very hard to come by in the best of times. I have let some good ones pass by before, so I've learned it's better to buy them when possible, because it's just as easy to sell them again later.)

Do you have any thoughts on the condition and value?

Regards,
Markus

[marcusb]

Well, since the tip plate is gone in the rear I would consider it heeless. Last one that size I saw sold quicky at $100 YMMV

[marcusb]

To clear up some apparent misunderstanding, I stated above what the last 200+ good condition anvil with a busted rear end sold for on craigslist in my area. I also noted it sold quickly indicating that it was priced on the low end. SO, in OHIO that 300 would be on the high end for what it is but not terribly out of line. One could draw from this statement that, in anvil poor areas, the price would be in line. Hence the statement below "your mileage may vary"

[newbieforge]

Thanks for the responses.

What would be involved in repairing the heel of this anvil?

It looks like a new piece of steel plate would have to be welded on. Probably a big forge weld, not a job for an arc welder, I am guessing.

Regards,
Markus

[fluidsteel]

If it's a 300# anvil I'd pay $300 as is. I'd attempt to negotiate of course. Cash in hand helps. I'd get there quick. That anvil wouldn't last a couple hours on CL here in Oregon. BAM!!!! It'd be gone!
If it's only 200# I'd still pay $300 if it past a ball bearing test.

[VaughnT]

Depending on the actual weight of the anvil, and not a guess, I would go as high as $1/lb, but not a penny over that. The good news is that the rest of the anvil looks great and not having a top plate on the heel is no big deal from a working standpoint. The hardy and pritchel don't normally get a lot of impact on them unless you're working big stock with a sledge.... . and that's not very common. For 90% of what you might do, I'm assuming, you could use that anvil for the next twenty years and not miss that little bit of top plate.

All that said, though, it is a point of negotiation and could bring the price down. If you decide to fix that area, you'll need to bring the anvil up to temperature (pre-heat) and then lay on a bunch of weld with an arc-welder. The hard-facing rods aren't cheap and there's a lot of time tied up in the process.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

$1 a pound, or less if the whole top plate is coming loose.

I would just bolt a plate down onto the heel that would even the surface up so a hardy would sit flat. Shoot, I might even mill it to accept different heel plates for different operations.

[ThomasPowers]

I'd only go US$100 myself, last heeless anvil I bought was $40 in central OH. The old anvils were faced with several sections of tool steel welded on side by side and it looks like one has failed. I'd be wary to check the rest as it may be indicative of abuse.

You would, of course, never layer up hardfacing that thick; most such rod says to use a softer underlayer and only do a couple of passes of the hardface on top of that. Anyway most hard facing rod is not suitable for anvils. Look up Robb Gunter's instructions on repairing an anvil. They are pretty much the gold standard as to method.