My dad was visiting me the other day and I showed him my forge and all. He mentioned that he had an anvil at his house he had picked up at a yard sale a few years back for $25. Said it was about 75# he thought, but couldn't remember anything else about it.

 

Well, earlier today, my daughter and I went over to visit and while we were there, I asked about the anvil. We went out back and my brother (who lives there with dad) had to hunt it down. It was buried in the pine-straw on the ground out by dad's shop. I groaned when I saw the horn poking out of the straw. When my brother pulled it out and pressed it into my arms, my first thought was "Nice looking anvil" the second was "OUCH! Ants!".

 

After dropping it (luckily NOT onto my toes) and brushing the ants off of it and me, I saw the logo.

Dad scored a very good 90# German Trenton for $0.28 per pound.

 

I convinced him to get it up off the ground and onto a stand of some sort, either weld one up (Him and my brother are both great welders) or put it on a stump. I didn't think to take a ball-bearing with me, but a hammer bounces REAL well. Might even have my brother interested in building his own forge. Anyway, here are two more pics of the anvil. (It weighed in at #89 on the bathroom scales)

The 'SOLID WROUGHT' in a circle is upside down, lol.

The face is excellent. Not perfectly smooth, but not mushroomed, gouged, chipped or cracked. I don't see any sway or other significant issues to the face.

 

After I got home, I hopped on the net and did some digging. According to what I found, due to the shape of the feet, the placement of the weight stamped on the side under the logo and all... it is a Trenton made in Germany by H. Boker(Yes, of the cutlery Bokers) between 1860-1898. I called dad and told him this and he was very surprised it was that old.

 

P.S. If I can't get him or my brother into using it as it should be used... I may try to talk him into letting me 'store' it here in my forge, maybe even offer to take one of my pieces of railroad track over for him to have for those rare times he needs something to beat a piece of metal or whatever on.

nice ! hope you get to use it !

I would definitely talk them into letting your "store" it and replacing it with a piece of rail.  I would even go so far as to make a very nice stand for the rail so they have even less reason to say no.

 

That's a beauty of an anvil, and just perfectly sized for most of what folks do.  

Wow... That's all I can say.