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I Forge Iron

Anvils of old


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I have a "Trenton" anvil from the late 1860's.  It was the primary anvil in the forge for the old Paia Sugar plant on Maui, Hawaii.  I acquired it 12 years ago when the plant shut down.  It has the Trenton "brand" on it but the numbers are no longer legible.  It has been represented to me as being #750.  I have no idea how accurate that is.  It measures 5"x22" on the flat, 5"x3.5" on the step and 14" on the horn.  Any feed back on weight or?  would be appriciated.

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Trenton anvils weren't being produced in the 1860's.  Based on the length of the anvil I would guess it is 450-500 pounds.  The weight should be stamped on the left side of the front foot and the serial number should be stamped on the right side of the front foot.  The serial number can be decoded to give the year it was made. 

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Greetings Loren,

 

What size is the hardi hole..?  I have many Trentons and it looks to me like a 1930 ish manufacture...  I have a 300# with the same dementions.. 

as Sask said the serial number is on the base along with the weight....  Does the bottom side have a dish?  Some times there be a larger number on the foot..  25  

 

I hope this helps

JIm

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Welcome aboard Loren, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in your header it'll save us asking over and over again in later posts.

 

That's a sweet looking anvil, even the stamped weight is often inaccurate, a pass over the scales is the only way to know for sure.

 

Frosty The lucky

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put a piece of 2x8 across two bathroom scales and lower that anvil slowly onto the middle of the board then the weight is the sum of the weights on the scales.

 

As far as I can see the scale of it, it  not close to 750#; humans tend to be wildly off "guessing" anvil weights when they get over 200 pounds.

 

However it's a great anvil and if it's still in the islands quite rare and desirable for smithing!  (well pretty desirable for smithing even on the mainland just not as rare!)

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Lol, we used to weigh race cars that way, but you only need one scale, a bird and a fulcrum. Multiply the weight read on the scale by the ratio between the scale, fulcrum and weight. So say a 2 foot board, place the center of the weight (anvil) 6" from the fulcrum, and 6" of the board on the scale. That leaves 12" between the weight and the scale, so multiply the reading by 4 if you center the weight then it's times 2

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