Thought I'd seen it all when it comes to anvil abuse but this takes the cake. I had to be a deliberate, very labor intensive act to heat this beautiful tool, put it into a large hammer or press and wreck it.....Why, oh why..... :angry: :(

Bubba, new to blacksmithing, used too large a hammer when forging?

He did not read the thread on hammer to anvil ratios. (grin)

I think that looks neat.  Had to be a forged anvil to begin with.  A cast anvil would have just cracked.

I don't think it was done to destroy the anvil, but to make the anvil better work for a job they did.  It would have been far easier/cheaper/faster to simply cut the anvil into pieces.  It would have taken a lot of heat to bring that anvil to forging temps.

Hey Bruce, I think you you should double your wonderment. Look close there are TWO different anvils pictured. Notice hardy hole placement.

That or it's the largest swedge I've ever seen. <_<

I do not know what it could have been used for if purpose built, but if I owned an anvil factory that would NOT be the strangest creation made with a reject.

Ric

It is a shame to ruin a good tool but, if they were going to do it anyway, I would have liked to seen them do it.  It took a lot of power to do that.

Doc, that is the new mobile hardie hole feature on that brand of anvil. Just move ti to where it is most convenient for forging.

Hey Bruce, I think you you should double your wonderment. Look close there are TWO different anvils pictured. Notice hardy hole placement.

GAH! Shure enough........

Oh, I thought you guy's saw that right off.  :D  Between that and the lack of bulge over the upsetting block, it looks like they were intentional.

 

Of course, they could be "decommissioned" anvils.  Anyone with the press or hammer big enough to make that dent probably has a furnace that could get it hot rather quickly.

This has to be a case of more money than brains or just a need to be destructive. If you really really needed a form like that, and I can’t imagine why you would, you’d have it burned out of “6 or “8 plate in that shape. Might be the first prize for a blacksmith Darwin award! I hope the idiot dropped it on his toe after wrecking it.

Maybe it's wishful thinking and/or the retired firefighter in me that thinks this could of been an anvil or two that was in a large factory fire and had some tubular object collapse onto them. I've seen a lot of strange "stuff" after a structure fire or even a large wildland fire.
The wishful part is that someone didn't do this intentionally!

Looks to me like a lot of large axle forging was done. Probably the most efficient way to get that done at the time. The sway back anvil looks like it has been around a long time, unused for a long time. It looks as though it has lichen on it.

 

Probably not a lot of 8 inch plate around at the time.

The hull on the battleship Missouri is "12 thick, so thick plate has been around a while I think. How would you have gotten a top tool to the work with the form it warped into, I guess you could have.  I think some dope just wanted to see it they could do it. That's was a nice big old anvil, that any good smith would have loved to own. Just a shame to see.

I reckon it was done to win a bet/ done as the result if loosing the bet. Probably involved copious amounts of beer.

You have to admire the sheer power that went into doing that!

All the best
Andy

Art project?

Maybe I am just being hopeful but any chance it was a bizarre kind of photo shop.  Two anvils damaged in such a similar manner makes me hope its a hoax.  That or an old attempt at destroying unauthorized copies?

My guess is that those are ACME anvils, looks like what happens when you drop one from very high onto a coyote.

Meep meep!

That's not abuse, that's art.... seriously I imagine that anvil was in the reject pile back at the ww2 anvil factory and somebody decided to get a little creative, or 3-4 helpers grabbed the wrong top tool under the 4000lb hammer. in any case thanks for the picture, that there is a good one. Take care , Matt 

ACME anvils for sure!  :)

Must have been that darn General Sherman!  Those anvil wrecking Union troops got everywhere it seems, even somewhere with big European anvils!  (wink)