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I Forge Iron

3 unique anvils.


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I picked these up from a guy that was getting out of the saw repair business. The round one is weighs about 55 pounds. The two rectangle ones are each 2 inches thick and the faces are 10 inches by 48 inches and weigh between 200-300 lbs each. All faces are near perfect except for some surface rust. No markings of any kind to indicate origin. Does anyone have any info on these? I am interested in possibly selling one of the large ones as I have two, but I have no idea as to what a fair price would be. Thanks in advance for any input.

 

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The rectangular pieces don't look like any sawyers anvil I've ever seen: you don't need a face that big to hammer a saw blade on.  They might have been used somewhere in the process, but I would guess that they were anvils the guy simply "made" out of locally-found materials.  The lack of a maker's mark on something that substantial would seem unlikely.

 

Is the round one slightly conical, or is that just the camera/lighting making it look like that?  It's the right size for an sawyers anvil, but the lack of any maker's mark doesn't lead me to think that it is an actual anvil made for that purpose.  It would certainly make a great anvil if the face is sufficiently hard, though.

 

The plate would make great anvils even if their mild steel.  If you can do a spark test and confirm that they are high carbon alloy, that would make them more valuable than mild.  I think you'd be better off cutting one into a few pieces so you could make smaller anvils to sell.  A 2x10x6 chunk would be great for a striker's anvil or a bench anvil or a bladesmithing anvil....

 

Sales-wise, it would be tough to find a buyer that needed a 4' chunk of steel bad enough to pay the freight costs.  But if you cut it up....

 

Anything over scrap rate would be a win. 

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I have an original FISHER pattern for a round saw anvil.  Is your round one steel all of the way through, or does it have a steel plate over iron?  To add to VaughnT question, is is a cylinder, or is it conical?  Fisher's anvil pattern is conical in shape.  Could you post the dimensions of the round one?

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Added location.

Have no idea how to turn the pics or why they posted at a 90 degree rotation to start with. Not that tech savvy.

The older gentleman I got them from said the plates were bandsaw anvils that he worked large bandsaw blades on for what it's worth.

Yes the round one is slightly conical with grips cast into the side. It appears to be solid steel and does not have a hardened face plate like my Fisher. I would guess the top,face at roughly 10 inch diameter an the bottom at 12. I'm at work now so I can't get the exact measurements.

Will try to post a pic of the grips. Maybe it won't rotate on me.

 

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Not the best pic, but you can see the grip on right side. There's another on the opposite side.

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Well, that conical one is definitely something.  Being all cast, with no evidence of a top plate, makes it either cast iron or cast steel.  In either case, it's mighty weird that a company didn't put some kind of markings on it.  But, if it gives you a good rebound, I'd be pleased as punch to have something like that in the shop.

 

The big plates could be used for working a long section of band saw blade.  I don't know anything about that stuff, so all I can do is hypothesize.  I've certainly never seen an anvil made that shape, so I wonder if they're not just pieces of bar stock that the guy used as anvils because they were very handy.

 

Still be a great thing to have in the shop.

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The long flat anvils are for truing large bandsaw blades.  There are a few saw sharpening / repair shops near me and I have seen them in use (I pester them for 15n20, dogs head hammers,  and for their anvils...which pays off).  I have had a few of them pass through my hands keeping the largest one which is 4x12x48.  The ones I have had have all been hardened, though not as hard as your typical anvil face...I would say low - mid 40's?  they have all been cast steel, some with makers names / company marking cast into them.  I wish I knew the steel type.  I thought about cutting one up into sections and hardneing the faces to make anvils / swage anvils.

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Just spoke with a guy out in Oregon. He was familiar with bandsaw anvils as his company regrinds the faces. Gave me some good pointers and a price. According to him most are made from as you stated, mild cast steel but some are chilled for hardness which according to him increases the value substantially. He suggest I use a file to test for hardness which I plan on doing when I get off work today. Thanks for the input.

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