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I Forge Iron

Rolling the dice from a picture.


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Local auction house occasionally has some on-line web auctions, on-line bidding only.

I saw an anvil come up for their on-line sale. 

 

Very little information provided, no manufacturer, no dimensions, it only stated “200# Anvil”.

And only one picture was provided, with someone writing 200# on the face of the anvil, here's the pic:

anvil1.jpg

  

Looked in decent shape from what I could see. 

Face looks ok and flat enough, maybe some chipped edges...

Then I started looking at what other info I could get from the picture.

Taking into account the size of your average pallet, and the size of the average fork lift tine, I started thinking it could be bigger than 200 pounds.

 

My guess was around 28-30” length if that pallet was a standard 36” width.  Looks possibly more than 200#, maybe 225#?

But has a narrow waist, maybe HB?

 

I decided to roll the dice and bid on it with a reasonable "get-a-deal-if-I-were-to-win-it"  max bid, and I won! 

I pick it up this afternoon, and we’ll see what we got.  I’ll report back with what it actually is, and some real pictures, and the amount it ended up being.

 

What would you have bid on this with very limited info, or would you have at all?

I admit I was rolling the dice and taking a chance that it is a decent anvil and possibly more than 200#.  My max bid for the auto-bidding was $425.

The rebound could be crap, and other potential disasters lurking, but I was willing to wager on it.

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My winning bid ended up at $308.  :)

And I love it when I see this:

dice1.jpg

 

After a few hours of wire brushing and a washdown, I'm quite happy with what I find.

 

I was right in the ballpark with some of my estimations, but I hadn't guessed Arm & Hammer

The clerk at the auction house said there was no markings on it, but a little thumb spit rub on the side made me smile....

 

Anvil is 29.5", I was hoping it to be a bit heavier, but she says 217 pounds.

But I'm thrilled with the rebound!  Probably the best rebound I've bought yet in all my anvil addiction purchasing.

Postman says she was born in the 1911-1912 ballpark.

This is now my third A&H anvil to clean up (and smallest), for some reason these A&H's seem to clean up better than any other make I've cleaned.  Dunno why....

 

So for my $308 gamble, I think finding a nice shape 217# A&H is quite a decent winning!

dice3.jpg

 

dice4.jpg

 

dice2.jpg

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Greetings Frog,

 

Yep your lucky or really smart .. or both....  Seems like you scored a Fisher and a A&H in the same week..   You will have to give me a refresher coarse in smelling out great anvils ..  Not that I need any ... got 20

 

Forge on and make beautiful things,

 

Jim

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Nice score. I've been trying to pinpoint when the handling holes went away on A&H anvils. Yours has them and appears to be serial 14991. My 90 lb A&H marked Belknap is serial 17817 and lacks handling holes. So we are narrowing the range down even further now.Congratulations on your great find!

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