Jmercier Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 Hello, all. I just obtained this HUGE stake anvil and I was wondering if anyone knew of any ways to help try to put an age to it. I've got pictures up at Temporary Stake Anvil page It weighs between 120 and 125lbs, is 24.5 inches tall, 22 inches long from tip of each horn. The top has a 9" face 4" wide and there's a close to 1" squareish hole in one side. Looking at it you can see how the whole anvil was forge welded out of tons of layers and pieces of metal, including some voids in places and a few places like on the leg where you can see a forge weld didnt completely hold. The leg is a nice forged octogon with a little bit of a taper, from 3.5" to 5" at the top with the flange at the bottom 5" wide as well. I've seen some large stake anvils before, but this one is significantly larger than any iv'e ever seen before. I'm mostly wondering if there are any identifying factors which could help me place this anvil in age. It was found in a barn up on the east coast of Maine and I picked it up on ebay for an extremely reasonable price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skunkriv Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 Really wonderful piece! Definitely hand forged. I have had two stake anvils and seen many others. This is far and away the neatest one I have ever seen. Thanks for sharing. No guess as to age. Someone wanted one and they (and one or two helpers) made it. Fantastic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitebear Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 i would say probably around...1850s to 1890s around the civil war time becaue i know alot of batallion blacksmthis carried stake anvils with them for easy mouting options becasue you can mount it in basically any stump. that would be my guess. someone may and probably does know better then i. i've been searchnig and searching for a stake anvil for over 20 years and can't find one worth spending money on. great find Son Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmercier Posted October 13, 2007 Author Share Posted October 13, 2007 I have an older stake anvil (more like a very large bickern) that's ~55lbs which I've been able to to date aproximately as colonial early to mid 1700s from other examples, though the surfaces arent that great anymore. This stake anvil is like none that I've seen though, and stake anvils are something which I've always keept a close eye on everywhere I can find them. If this didnt have hardy-hole in one side, I'd be tempted to say it looks like a mid 1600s one I've seen in a book somewhere (cant recall where off hand, sorry), albiet with less decoration on the sides. The fact that it has a hardy hole of any type is one of the things that's throwing me. I cant say Iv'e ever seen a mid to late 1800s stake anvil anywhere near this size, nor this style, all the ones that Iv'e seen tend to look like small farrier's anvils on posts. for example these two (which I was bidding on recently, but held off on biding more because i had just won this huge one =P)http://www.tharkis.com/images/tools/stakeanvils.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitebear Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 it may very well be a european style stake anvil. oft. called a stump anvil/post anvil. to me it looks somewhat french. weighing at 125# is quite heavy for a traveling smtih. now that i really think about it is may be a european nailers anvil when nailer where a specialized craftmen all to themselves. it tok some wor kto mount it to a stump but once it was there it was there. a old nailer would normally be sitting. to you anvil is the pefect hight for anailers anvil. when a tree was cut in old europe the stumps where left to rot. about 4-6" was left. and a normal european nialers chair was about 17" at the seat. that would mean with the anvil you have set into a 6" tree base. the face would sit at around 27" and with the nailer sitting in a 17" seat this would but him at the perfect hight to work nails. the square hole made me think a bit. then i remembered that in europe hardy cutters where starting to be made around the 1780s time frame. and to make nails a hardy cutter is extremely helpful. so if i had to make a very educated guess i would say this is somewhere between 1780's and 1830's i say 1830's becasue that is around the time that the regular ol' blacksmthi started takeing over the nialers job and nailing was no longer a specific trade in and of itsself. the blacksmith had his own anvil his own hardy cutters. everytyhing he needed. the nailer was no longer needed. so i would guess it was made within that 50 yaer time frame. again i'm not the most knowledgeable person on this subject i jsut know what i know. and again fantastic find hope all this helps Son Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitebear Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 i jsut saw the other picture you posted. the larger one on the left in the picture of the two take anvils the one on the left is definitly a nailers anvil. an american nailers anvil. Son Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 1830's was about when the machine made cut nails dropped the market for handmade nails; not the Blacksmiths taking over so much though they did do speciality nails. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferrous Beuler Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 WOW! - O L D ! Beyond old. Pieces like this are these days one of a kind. Who knows where it was forged or when? How many like it were made at the time this one was made? Was it just a one- off piece made in a shop with a particular need or was it made in a larger foundry in numbers for sale to smiths near and far? If awards were given out for scrounging old iron, preserving unique pieces of smithing history then this particular score should get some kind of trophy.:oDan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce wilcock Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 i have seen a similar stake at a brewery the coopers used it to work up the bands and to punch the holes and set the rivet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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