Do you guys paint your anvils or do you go for the plain steel look?

I'm moving house and the anvil I'm taking needs a freshen up. The big anvil will stay home with the folks for now.

Cheers
Andy

It is all up to you. It is yours. I have two with the body painted. And one plain steel and one polished.

I nor most people I know, will buy a painted lady, with out removing the paint first, to see what that paint was hiding.

I am not a big fan of paint either. Raw metal oiled is the best looking in my opinion.

Most of my anvils have worked hard for over 100 years to get their patina; painting them would be like my Grandfather donning KISS makeup. I also dislike the smell of hot steel on paint and use *all* of my anvil's surfaces over time.

Here on the west coast I keep most of my tools painted here cause everything rusts here & being a welder I Hate Rust lol
as a smith I try to except that some folks like rust patina ?? :o
anyway tools are painted flat black then clear coated you can repaint over that again & looks new again & keeps rust off
anvils , hammers, forges so on :) that's my way

apart from a brand new anvil that I have, which is painted (from the factory),all of my anvils are just oiled or rusty. I like the look of a nice brown patina but then again, the painted one started as a crisp neat object that is gradually showing the marks of my use (read: the paint is getting chipped/burnt and molten flux/wax has dripped down the sides).

really I'm unsure which I prefer. I think the painted option is the better long term protection but the smell of burning paint is not a pleasent one :blink:

As it happens, I've been tossing around the idea of painting my tools this week. I'm in the middle of rearranging and tidying my workshop (4 days and only just half way!). I've been making space for some new toys (copressor, sand blasting and when John N has finished his thing, a small power hammer) and have built some racks for my hammers and anvil tools. I've been thinking about cleaning the rust and old oil off the swages etc and giving them a paint job?

Oh decisions! :rolleyes:


So assuming we like paint on things like anvils and other tools (anvil tools, hammers, etc), what sort of paint would be good? I've been looking at things like Hammerite and other metal paints, but then also seeing paint used for tractors and the zinc oxide paints.

i got my Kolswa with silver paint on the non working surfaces, Have never touched it since,,and it shows all the wear you would expect. My Peter Wright had quite a coat of rust but not deep. I wire brushed it and use the product that converts rust into primer.. it looked really nice and kind of a flat black.
That was a lot of years ago. I did not do the face or horn. I like the well used look of both The PW sits outside. The face and horn are darkened but brighten up when used. With our 7" of rain annually rust is not a real deal. .

Good point IronWolf, here in the desert rust is a slow process, on a coast it's a *fast* one!

As to what to use; lots of the old paints were linseed oil based way back when...many of us have some around for doing hammer handles; how about clean off loose stuff with a wire brush, wipe down with paint thinner and wipe with linseed oil---boiled of course.

Or go wild and prime it and then paint designs on it---perhaps "flames"?

or lightening bolts, do whatever suits you heart best. Mine are, or were a mixed lot, my wrought iron bodies were rust patina and my Fisher was and exNavy so it was battleship gray that is slowly coming off due to rust developing under the paint.

painting them would be like my Grandfather donning KISS makeup.

I just spit milk and cocoa crispies on the lap top...lol

I just spit milk and cocoa crispies on the lap top...lol

at 11:06 PM your haveing milk and cocoa crispies ? lol..

at 11:06 PM your haveing milk and cocoa crispies ? lol..

Yep, even now, @ 1:27 am... nom Nom nOM... Love me's some cocoa crispies!!!!

No tool in the smithy should ever need paint, if it rusts you are not using it enough. Tools should be shiny from use, almost polished.

My anvil was a rusty mess. I polished it, but due to the fact it is forged, it has millions of little dents/dimples and abuse gouges. All them little low spots/pits would not polish up with a 3-M 2" grinding disk and polish pads. Didn't know what to do...........

So. I (spray) painted the thing with high heat (semi gloss) black. Then I rubbed her down with a few rags soaked in paint thinner. This cleaned off all the paint on the high spots/polished areas and left the black in the pits/dimples.

It looks really old/worn and polished at the same time. I love it.