Help identifying this Arm & Hammer

[blacksmithtech]

Hello - Brought this home today. I am familiar with some A&H anvils but had not seen one marked like this. It has the number "51800" on the left front foot, "300" on the right front foot. face is 5 1/4 inch across. It rings like a bell and has decent rebound. Any experts out there? Not sure if I sized these correctly - Thanks for the time.

[blacksmithtech]

ok - I'm antsy - a true character flaw :)

[clinton]

What you have is one of the last anvils that they made. Serial # 51799- & up would have been made 1948-49. According to Anvils in America. The 300 may be the weight of the anvil, although I have seen weight stamped on the side on Arm & Hammers.
Your anvil was arc welded at the waist to join the base to the upper portion

[Sask Mark]

That's the deepest stamping I have ever seen on an A&H. They are usually quite faint.

[ThomasPowers]

That anvil's been around about 70 years and you're getting antsy after 12 hours??? Like blacksmithing this forum has it's "hurry up and wait" aspects.

As for "identifying it" It's an Arm and Hammer brand blacksmiths anvil of London Pattern, Made in Columbus OH, USA.

Now a question for you---how rough is it on the underside of the heel area?

Arm and Hammer made excellent anvils and as you can tell they liked the elongated "american" variation that's quite handy for ornamental work, not so good for heavy work as that long heel and horn are a bit more fragile. However 300# is a stout anvil and as long as you keep to the sweet spot it will take a lot of smithing!

[blacksmithtech]

Thomas - yes on the antsy part. When you are really excited about something like a free anvil you get itchy! Brought it home last night and had to wire wheel couple layers of paint to find out what it was.

The underside is very rough - looks like others I've seen. The part that threw me off was the deep stamping, just didn't look right.

Thank you all for the info -

[ThomasPowers]

Notice next to the arm down by the elbow a faint line---looks like they double struck it.

As for getting it Free; I'd comment but then I'd be sent to the corner by the moderators.

so YOU LUCKY DOG! (remember in Das Boot where a crewmember is left topside while the sub does a crash dive and gives a long stream of invective in German that is translated only as "You Dirty Dogs!")...

[blacksmithtech]

well even a blind pig finds a truffle every once in a while :)

I happened to helping out some elderly folks and noticed this prize in the corner of the garage. Offered good money for it but they insisted I take it cause they knew it would be used and not scrapped. Very humbling gesture and I'm very thankful.