Huge odd anvil

[Bret888]

I took these pictures a year ago, and thought I would post them here.  This anvil is at Old Economy Villiage,   http://oldeconomyvillage.org/  a communal society that called themselves the Harmonists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Economy_Village

Things are "restored" there, and things got moved around in western PA, and out to Indiana once, so I don't know if this anvil was always at this site. One thing I don't see mentioned in the history, is that they owned the Beaver Falls Cutlery, a few miles north of Economy.

I didn't have anything to measure with, but I am guessing the top would be about 10x24, and maybe 26 high. I had Ryan get in a pic, and he was about 5' then.

It looks like the horns were pre forged, then cast into the anvil. Using those dimensions without adding for the taper, or the horns, comes to over 1700 lbs.

 

[ausfire]

That's some lump of iron. No-one is going to walk off with it. :)

[Black Frog]

geez, you'd best be watching where you are walking around that thing....

[Nobody Special]

They sure did a number on the edges though....

[Bret888]

They were celebate, so they had to take their frustrations out on something. ....

[Judson Yaggy]

That one is in AIA if I recall.  Always thought that the round horn looked like a smaller anvil embedded in the larger casting given where the transition to cutting table starts to show quite close the the main body.  Why go to the trouble of forging a useless transition just on the top of a horn when you can just cast in something pre made...

 

Bet they wouldn't let me cut that thing open to prove the hypothesis.  

[VaughnT]

That's a beautiful thing.  I'm glad they preserved her for posterity, even if we don't have a clue what she was designed for.

[Benton Frisse]

Fun fact, the sister town of Economy, PA is my hometown. New Harmony, Indiana. The other "Utopian Community Experiment" by the Harmonists, who followed George Rapp. 

I've tried doing research on some of the blacksmith's that came with the Harmonists, the Boatload of Knowledge, etc. But there isn't much on there. However, we've been lucky enough to be the blacksmithing demo set up for Heritage Week and Kunstfest :) 

 

Anyway, Economy and Harmony, PA are lovely towns! That's a sweet anvil. 

 

I took these pictures a year ago, and thought I would post them here.  This anvil is at Old Economy Villiage,   http://oldeconomyvillage.org/  a communal society that called themselves the Harmonists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Economy_Village

Things are "restored" there, and things got moved around in western PA, and out to Indiana once, so I don't know if this anvil was always at this site. One thing I don't see mentioned in the history, is that they owned the Beaver Falls Cutlery, a few miles north of Economy.

I didn't have anything to measure with, but I am guessing the top would be about 10x24, and maybe 26 high. I had Ryan get in a pic, and he was about 5' then.

It looks like the horns were pre forged, then cast into the anvil. Using those dimensions without adding for the taper, or the horns, comes to over 1700 lbs.

 

Brett I'll ask around, a few of my friends work for the Historic New Harmony group. Maybe we can find out more about this beast! 

[Bret888]

Benton, I would be interested in anything you find out. If you do talk to someone knowledgeable on the Harmonists, ask if they know anything about the cutlery business? The volunteers we talked to down there had never heard of it. This link has an interesting story about them bringing in Chinese labor to break a strike.

 

http://www.bchistory.org/beavercounty/BeaverCountyTopical/Industry/ChineseinBeaverFalls/ChineseinBeaverFalls.html