B N C Marked Anvil

[UrsusFabricus]

Greetings,

 

I bought this monster off a bladesmith in Alabama as my first anvil. He pegged the weight at around 400 lbs, but I haven't weighed it. Suffice to say it weighs a solid ton if you're picking it up. I'm a big guy, and all I can do is waddle walk it from the truck to the garage. The only markings I've found are a big "B N C" inset on the side. I can't find any of the traditional weight marking numbers. There's a hardy hole but no pritchel, and the horn is enormous. The whole thing could probably do with a grinding, it's pretty rough.

 

There seems to be a seam on the horn, which leads me to believe this is cast. I only paid a couple hundred bucks for it (~50c/lb), but after doing some research I'm concerned this is one of those dreaded POS anvil-like objects that I've read about that have no life to them. Can anybody tell me one way or the other? I'm stuck with it either way, and I'll use it, but I need to know if it's going to be utter crud to work on. I've included a couple of pictures if that helps.

 

Thanks for any assistance. -UF

[John McPherson]

Hard to say from just a picture, but it looks like a quality casting: that is to say, a product from somebody who knows a lot about casting, but not a lot about anvils. It may be solid cast steel, in which case you are in luck!

 

How to tell: drop a steel ball bearing from 10" up next to a ruler on the surface. Cast steel, or cast iron with a steel face will have 50-70% rebound. A cast iron ASO will be 10- 40%. If the ball end of a hammer leaves dents in the face with light to moderate blows, or if red hot iron leaves marks in the face, well, crud.....

 

Many low grade ASO's are copies of wrought anvils, so they have the graceful form without the requisite strength. Cast anvils tend to look blocky by comparison, but need that shape to hold up.

[Glenn]

Surely you can make a couple hundred bucks by using the thing as an anvil. After that it is paid for and making you money. 

 

If you want bragging rights, then use your new anvil a lot and use THAT money to buy an anvil you can use for bragging rights. Be sure to resell the anvil to someone else so they can use it to earn money and buy an anvil THEY can use for bragging rights. That way the questionable anvil could then be the start of many blacksmithing carriers.

[UrsusFabricus]

Hard to say from just a picture, but it looks like a quality casting: that is to say, a product from somebody who knows a lot about casting, but not a lot about anvils. It may be solid cast steel, in which case you are in luck!

 

How to tell: drop a steel ball bearing from 10" up next to a ruler on the surface. Cast steel, or cast iron with a steel face will have 50-70% rebound. A cast iron ASO will be 10- 40%. If the ball end of a hammer leaves dents in the face with light to moderate blows, or if red hot iron leaves marks in the face, well, crud.....

 

Many low grade ASO's are copies of wrought anvils, so they have the graceful form without the requisite strength. Cast anvils tend to look blocky by comparison, but need that shape to hold up.

Thanks Mr. McPherson. I'll test that out.

[UrsusFabricus]

Surely you can make a couple hundred bucks by using the thing as an anvil. After that it is paid for and making you money. 

 

If you want bragging rights, then use your new anvil a lot and use THAT money to buy an anvil you can use for bragging rights. Be sure to resell the anvil to someone else so they can use it to earn money and buy an anvil THEY can use for bragging rights. That way the questionable anvil could then be the start of many blacksmithing carriers.

Assuming it doesn't dent the first time I knock iron on it, I'll bet I can make something of it :-) Thank you for the encouragement Glenn.

[Fatfudd]

If you don't have a 1" steel ball just take a good hammer and let the face drop on the anvil from about 7 or 8 inches and see if it rebounds. Also 

does it ring when struck? I'm with Glenn, you can work a lot of iron on a piece of metal that big. I'd just use it and not worry about it. I've used much worse.

[philip in china]

Agreed Fatfudd. Try it and see.

 

Don't worry about no pritchel hole. If you really miss one just borrow a magnetic bed drill and drill one the size you want, where you want it. PM me if you want precise details.

 

Some time put her on a scale and see how much she does weigh but what does it matter? If you can do the work on it and it is OK then you have got an anvil.

 

"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is a duck".