Aaron J. Cergol Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Hi all, at long last my shipment of anvils from Austria has arrived. 15 total! Picked them up yesterday in two trucks-the leaf springs on my truck were dead flat. :) All of these are old forged anvils, no cast ones. All of them are over 100 years old. When people talk about the wonders of "German engineering" It absolutely applies to their anvils too. They are incredibly functional, and feature a steel plate that continues over the horn(s) as well. Some of these date as far back as the 1740's, and a few are even dated. they range in weight considerably; from around 50# up to 660#! The three large ones on the pallet are all beasts. The south German double horn is around 480# I believe, the Austrian is 550#, and the green monster is a South German with angled face, church windows, AND an upsetting block-this one weighs in at a heft 660#. these were not fun to unload by any means. We had a forklift set them on the ground, but it was too icy to have the forklift drive them through the garage door. Slipping and sliding on the ice moving them inside led us to several injuries, but all in all, a great day. I'm a little sore from smiling so much that they finally arrived. :) five of these are spoken for already-More pics and weight to come later. These will all be for sale shortly-I am going to clean some of them, but most will have the original patina left as is. I plan to photograph, weigh and measure them, and put up a website devoted to them to sell them. Warm regards, Aaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluidsteel Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Put me on the list for one. Seriously. I want one. Is that Dick VanDyke flying on an anvil? They are so beautiful!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLMartin Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 I sure dont like to see all those anvils brushed and burnished smooth like Matchless antiques does. I am sure that many markings are lost as the hard steel wire in the cup brush cuts away the top layer of iron. Yes anvils are tools, but many of them are pretty old and not easy to idea the make. When the makers mark is steel wire brushed at 6000 rpm over and over any type of lettering is smeared and ground out. Its nice to hear you will leave the hard natural patina on the anvil. The larger anvil with the mounting stem on the bottom looks very interesting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metaljohn Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Lovely collection of anvils , there will be plenty of interest in them I'm sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Put the anvils for sale in the tailgating section of IForgeIron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielC Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 The 45 degree angles on these remind me of my Peter Wright. It has a 45 degree angle on one side that seems to have been there since it was wrought. I understand the significance of a 45, but didn't realize it was that popular to be forged as such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaughnT Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I'm jealous, to say the least! What a wonderful collection of anvils. Those big ones with the "hardy" stems are something I've never seen before. I wonder why they did that when their weight would have been more than enough to hold them to a stump. Maybe there were part of a larger hammer assembly? Makes me wish I wasn't broke as a joke! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLMartin Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 A 500lb anvil still needs to be fastened to a stand. I am sure the stem is a nice addition. Even a 500lb anvil will fall off the anvil quickly when some one is striking out on the end with a 13lb hammer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pulsepushthepopulace Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 That's such a cool thing your doing man, and what an awesome collection you have there!!! I hope you keep importing them, as I might be able to take one or two of them off your hands in the distant future... Hopefully that is... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Nice anvils. It was not unusual to have the stem (shank) extending from the bottom of the old anvils, although it was seen more often on the smaller bickerns. The two horned Spanish anvils of the 19th century had a blocky body with the bottom shank, much like the photos, numbering left to right: four (left foreground) and five (right, sticking in snow). There must be some way to get to Tailgating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iron woodrow Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 the one you are standing on is the closest i have seen to my anvil, but mine is 250lb (possibly) a joy to work on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron J. Cergol Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 Thanks all for the compliments, I'm pretty stoked to finally have them. Daniel, I'd be curious to see the 45degree slant on your PW. there is a lot of argument and speculation about this 45degree "face" most German or Austrian smiths I have talked to tend to agree it is for drawing pieces out over the edge-always placed on the far side, it is the edge that takes all the abuse from the striker. having a bullnose edge, or an angled face not only prevents cold shuts from forming, but allows that far edge to have an awful lot of mass under it to withstand heavy blows/chipping/mushrooming. The earlier Austrian ones had tall shallow church windows, and a simple "bullnose" rounded over edge that went straight down-this projected out from the face maybe 3/8" or less. Later forms retained both features but began to become less about function and more about form. Very deep and rough church windows serve no real function except stability and aesthetics. again-speculative, the earlier forms of church windows were believed to be used as "swages" when tipped on its side. I most certainly plan to import again. This was a "trial-run" for me to see just what was involved with the whole process and allowed me to iron some of the kinks out to plan for a much larger shipment in the future. I think these wonderful German and Austrian anvils need to see more use, and I swear by them; so I figured why not make them available on this side of the pond. The few of us who do import from Germany are all on very good terms with one another, and it's in such small quantities that we are not really treading on each others toes. Frank-thanks. The two Spanish ones; the blocky one dates from the 1760's or so, from Castellan Spain. It weighs in at 340#+. the shank on it has a wavy bottom to allow the ridges to bite into the wood I would imagine. I didn't yet take measurements, but the bottom of the shank is a good 3.5-4" square. One can see where Nimba drew its inspiration from. The other Spanish stake is beat to heck, and is even older. In its heyday it must have been something to see. Stepped feet, and some chiseled decoration complete it. It is over 400#. IW-I'd love to see yours. This was the first one like this that I've come across-it has the angled face, church windows, AND an upsetting block-an odd combination for sure. the horns are exceptionally small for the overall size of it. I need to measure it, but the base is massive, as is the upsetting block. Agreed-they are a joy to use. Aaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lil tomato metalwerks Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 im going to matchless antiques tomorrow and im sure they dont have any iron that hot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbl4823 Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 Aaron, Just curious why you went with Austrian anvils to import and not German? I know you are in the business of re-sale, but from my experience people are wary of Austrain victorian cast reproductions versus genuine german cast anvils. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron J. Cergol Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 Lil tomato, Steve has some very nice stuff, I bet you had fun out there. Especially seeing Tim's collection. I did bring a few German ones over as well. I have no interest whatsoever in brining cast ones over. I have never owned a cast anvil, and I do not plan to. Just my preference. All of these are older forged ones, the oldest-judging stylistically and decorations could be as early as the 1670's, the newest from around the turn of the century. (1900) why Austria though? I had a good contact over there and it made my descision easier. Cheers, Aaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron J. Cergol Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 here is some more pics-these were the pics I recieved from my contact in Austria. When time permits I'll take better, more detailed ones, and put up longer descriptions. Anyone interested in any of them can feel free to contact me. https://picasaweb.google.com/home I'm still debating which one to keep...descisions descisions...I do think the Square spanish one would be fun-make a nice tapered stump for it, and carve figures on the stump. Maybe a carving of St.Elias??? We'll see, but for the time being I might have to "test run" a couple of the big ones. Aaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatfudd Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 T think you gave us the picasa web home page but no photos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron J. Cergol Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 Doh! Try this: https://picasaweb.google.com/110237586412247118904 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainBruno Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 It would be a dream to get a piece of art like this in the shop. How much would one of those mid sized(roughly 300 lb) ones cost? And wouldn't the shipping cost nearly as much as the anvil? That's an insane amount of weight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulKrzysz Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 What can you say about that Polish anvil you have there? Do you know what city it is out of and the year? Why is there no horn? The chisel work is nice, not something you see often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron J. Cergol Posted February 23, 2013 Author Share Posted February 23, 2013 I'm afraid I do not know the city of origin. It is dated 1820 on the front, and I believe this was the year made as it (as well as all the other decorations) are quite deep-suggesting it was stamped while hot (in the forging process) it is probably my favorite of the ones I brought over. Why no horn? To be honest, I'm not sure. I can imagine a smaller hornless anvil (like this one) possibly being used as a bench anvil, but I've had hornless anvils weighing upwards of 400#...they were popular enough though, as I've come across an awful lot of them. I suppose I don't use the horn too often, and if I had a variety of hardies, it would just make the anvil have more mass where it's most important. Cpt.Bruno, you'd be surprised at how reasonable shipping can be. For anything up to 150# it can be shipped USPS or normal carrier for right around $100. Anything more goes via freight. Depending on location, it's usually right around $200 or a bit less. That's strapped to a pallet and provided you have a forklift terminal where it can be dropped off at. Lift gate service is a whole lot extra. Aaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainBruno Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Cool thanks. Keep us updated on these operations. It would be great to have someone on our continent that imports these beauties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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