I'm looking at purchasing 2 anvils in my area. But there's some wear on the edges and I'm no expert when it comes to telling how much it will affect its usability.

The first is a Peter Wright 124 pounder. $175




And the second is a Peter Wright 243 pound monster. $400






Any help would be much appreciated!

If you can afford bigger, get bigger! (if you can afford both, get both!) They're both looking good, but choose the one that suits your needs. Do you need to transport it a lot? If so, the lighter one is better. If not and you can afford the bigger one, those deals are scarcer.

So can you help me decide if I need to by a commuting car or a pickup truck? Kind of hard if I don't tell you if I need to haul gravel or if I need to drive 100 miles each day to work.

Not knowing if you will be doing small work and need to haul your equipment around a lot or will be doing mainly large work in a stable location makes it quite hard to tell you to go small or go large.

However the larger one looks in better condition and is still quite reasonable in price and you can do light work on a large anvil (with a few caveats); but not heavy work on a light anvil.

If you have the money and don't plan to be hauling your anvil out of your basement, across the kitchen through the back door and across the back porch and into the yard every time you want to forge than I'd say the big one wins. (not a random example I used to do that back in OH when I lived in the inner city...I used a 93# anvil for *that*!)

Bigger is better, for the reasons stated above and as long as the face isn't delaminating (doesn't look like it is from the pics) then get the bigger one.

Here in ohio there is a local dealer near by that sells new and used. Anvils are as penty as the Amish if you know where to look. The two pictured would be scrap iron or a door stop in my area. If that is all you can find in **your** area, I'd wait untill you could make a road trip.

Go with the bigger one if it's a choice between the two. While larger anvils are getting harder to find, that one also appears to be in better condition than the smaller anvil. Both look to be in workable condition, and I love that both are less than $2/lb. I'd definitely go with the larger one, though..... or both.

Sorry for the delay in reply. I've been pretty busy with work.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I went and checked them out on saturday and ended up purchasing the larger one.

The pictures make the damage seem worse on both then they actually were. Now... To build a new anvil stand!