Cleaning up anvils

[Black Frog]

A member here, TheCopilot, asked me the process of how I cleanup the anvils that come through.
 

Black Frog: If it's not a proprietary secret, could you share your process for cleaning up an anvil like this? You seem to get very good results without making it all bright and shiny. Would love to know the steps you go through. Thanks!

This is nothing new on my part, I really liked how Matchless Antiques cleaned up his anvils for his auctions, so I wanted to get similar results.
Cleaning up anvils is not without costs. Cash goes into buying the wire brushes, paper towels, degreaser, rust preventative, etc…..

So if others are interested, this is how I go about it. Ballpark time amount for me is generally about 1.25 hours per 100 pounds of anvil. Of course that can vary depending on what condition the anvil is in, but after doing dozens of anvils like this it seems to be a good estimate of what it is roughly going to take.  If there is paint on the anvil, you'll spend an extra hour or more on paint removal (depending on anvil size and how many layers of paint).

First thing you need is a good work area, preferably outside as this is a MESSY, FILTHY job.
You need some old clothes that you don’t mind getting horribly dirty, filthy, and stained. I have some old jeans and shirts specifically for anvil cleaning.
Protective personal gear is a must. Safety glasses, rubber gloves, ear plugs, and a dust mask doesn’t hurt either.

I have a cheap pair of plastic saw bucks from the home improvement stores I like to use for this. Chemicals don’t bother them, they don’t rust, and they fold up nicely to hang on the wall out of the way when done. I put a couple old deck boards across the saw bucks and put the anvil on that. It’s a nice height to work on the anvil so it doesn’t kill your back. Depending on the size of the anvil, it can be interesting getting it up on the saw buck boards. I have a wonderful hydraulic toe platform lift that makes this lifting quite easy. Bought it cheap off CL and wouldn’t trade it for anything… well, maybe for a real forklift I would.

Determine if your anvil has paint on it or not. Sometimes this is not easy to tell under decades of hardened dirt, barn dust, and pigeon droppings….. If there is old paint on the anvil, it is most likely lead paint. That old lead paint can be incredibly tough stuff, not to mention really bad for you should you breathe in paint dust. Rather than try to wire brush paint off the anvil, I like to use paint remover. Lots of choices out there for that purpose, I use Easy-Off Heavy Duty oven cleaner. That’s where the rubber gloves and safety glasses come in- do NOT get this stuff on your skin or in your eyes. I go to the dollar store and buy the el-cheapo $1 rolls of paper towels, you’ll use a lot and I’m not too concerned about the quality of them.

If the anvil doesn’t have paint, I go right to the grinder with wire cup wheels. If it does have paint, I spray a healthy layer of Easy-Off on all surfaces of the anvil and let it sit 15min or so. After 15 min start wiping off the “sludge” that has formed from the Easy-Off with individual paper towel sheets (wearing gloves). Use a plastic grocery bag to dump the used paper towels in as you go. Once you get done wiping the anvil, give it another coating of Easy-Off and wait 10 minutes for the wipe off, and repeat the process until most all of the paint has been removed. It may take four (or more) spray & wipe cycles to get tough paint off. You’ll be able to tell when your paper towels start wiping off without paint colored sludge on them.

Then I hose it off thoroughly with water to rinse any remaining paint remover from the anvil. Next, I grab my angle grinder with cup wire wheel installed. There’s lots of these brush cups out there, the twisted wire cup wheels are far too aggressive for me for anvil cleaning. I don't want to remove any details of the original factory stamping marks or casting reliefs. If you are too aggressive with your wire cup brush, you will start to wipe those details away.

Even some of the “well-made” wire cup wheels can be quite aggressive. Not the drill-mounted one, but the threaded wire cup brushes that mount on an angle grinder. What I found that works well (for me) is the cheapo red colored ones from Harbor Freight. They are not as aggressive as most, yet still do a decent job of cleaning. But be warned! They are not the best made and will launch wire bristles out in every direction as you’re using it. They can even penetrate skin at times. Safety glasses absolutely required. Some of these HF cups are not very well balanced either, and vibrate your grinder during use. And depending on how hard you use them , the do wear out faster than well made ones. On real large anvils, I’ll use several of these on one job as the brushes wear down. They’re inexpensive (under $4), I buy a lot of them, but you’ve been warned about the downsides…..

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-in-crimped-wire-cup-brush-60483.html
 
Ear plugs while running the grinder for long periods are a good idea. Don’t press too hard on the wire cup, let the ends of the bristles do the work. You’re not going to get this clean all in one pass, so just take what the wheel removal gives you. Don’t move too fast, so do small sections at a time. Vary the direction that the bristles contact the surface you’re cleaning. To brush on the bottom edges of the feet, I tip up the anvil and put a chunk of 1.5" metal under the end I'm working on. This allows you to work the lower edges of the anvil while they are slightly up in the air. While you’re doing wire cup brushing, you’re most likely putting off a lot of rust and dirt dust from the anvil. You’ll see it streaming from the wire cup out into the air. That’s why I do this outside, and why a dust mask would be a good idea.

Once I’ve given the anvil a good once-over with the wire cup, I give it a thorough spray down with heavy duty degreaser cleaner (lots of those available). I use a common plastic brush and heavily brush all surfaces of the anvil (wearing gloves!) to work the degreaser into every corner, crevice, and surface. Put some elbow grease into it. Then comes a healthy spraydown rinse with water. You’ll be surprised at all the dirt and filth that washes off the anvil…..

Repeat the wire cup brush process all around the anvil, all surfaces, a second time. Degrease and brush. Spray and rinse.

Repeat the wire cup brush all around the anvil a third time. You’ll notice that on bare steel after water rinsing that light surface rust forms fairly quickly as it dries. You’ll have to be the judge as to how many cycles of the wire brush, degreaser, and spray rinse you want to do to get to your goal. Most anvils for me are after the third wire brushing I’m through. I don’t degrease after that last wire brushing as it can sometimes dry with a weird look even though you rinsed it. So after my last thorough wire cup brushing, I spray it down with rust preventative oil, wipe it nicely all around with paper towels, and you’re done.
 
I don’t use boiled linseed oil because although it protects well, it makes them really dark colored which I’m not a fan of. I use LPS#2 (#3 leaves a waxy film, great for long term storage though) or CLP, or I’ve read some comparisons that the new “WD-40 Specialist” was excellent at preventing long-term rust without a film. I plan on giving that a try.

So after my wipe down with LPS#2 or CLP is when I snap a few pics that I’ve posted here or when I’m selling the anvil. If you’re after real long term storage in humid climates you might want to use something a little more protective.

So that’s my process, follow it at your own risk if you like. You’ll definitely need a shower when you’re done.
Be very careful with those wire cup wheels, they can grab any loose clothing in a fraction of second.
And keep a good grip on that angle grinder when approaching edges or corners. Those cup wheels can yank the grinder from your hands if you’re not careful and not in full control.
Wear your PPE!

I get great satisfaction from taking a dirty, rusty old looking anvil and making it glorious once again.
Get dirty, have fun, and make her prettier than she has been since she was born in the factory. :)

Here’s a few that I still had some original 'before' pics of the anvil...
 
Arm&Hammer 362# before/after:


 

 

Columbian pushing 400# before/after:
 

 

 
 
Arm&Hammer 217# before/after:




 

Arm&Hammer 225# before/after:
 

[John McPherson]

Thanks! Good enough for it's own IFI Blueprint, Black Frog. (At least a Sticky at the top.)

[Black Frog]

I've noticed after doing several dozen anvils like this, certain makes have distinctive "looks" to them after going through this cleanup process.
Sort of generality, but seems to hold true far more often than not.
Columbians seem to always have a darker look to them, as do PW's.
A&H's have a lighter color to them, as do Trentons but with a more silvery look.
Fishers always have a very deep gun-metal-grey to them.

[ThomasPowers]

They look beautiful.  I on the other hand tend to just wirebrush loose rust off the face and get to work and let the hot steel/scale polish the face and not worry too much about the body of the anvil.  Though I will admit most of my anvils have not been excessively rusty to start with.  I have a friend who cleaned a postvise down to bare metal and heat coloured it and put a protective coating on it I believe. It also looks great but it wouldn't fit in with my shop decor of "Dust & Rust" for the smithy.  The part for armouring is more polished and refined...

[njanvilman]

To add a small point:  I wear my leather blacksmithing apron when wire wheeling.  Those wires that break off go everywhere, and will easily penetrate denim and cotton shirts.  I also wear thin leather gloves(like TIG gloves) for the same reason.  My wife is much happier now that she does not find the wires in my clothing or in the washer after laundry.  The leather apron is tough enough to prevent penetration.

 

And...PROTECT your eyes.  Safety glasses and goggles or face shield are imperative.

[SilverDeck]

Many thanks for posting this, Black Frog!  It's great to see your method and results!

[Black Frog]

This has been my biggest cleanup yet, took a long time and just finished up over the weekend.
A Blacker Power Hammer 525# anvil with 250# cast base.
This was how I got it:



This has turned out to be a gorgeous project, but I've got over 12 hours in the cleanup process.
Getting the rusted jack bolts out of the base (one on each side) was quite a job without destroying anything on the base.
The bolts were trashed and new ones would be required for restoration, but I did manage to save the original locking nuts.
Getting the anvil separated from the trough in the base was very difficult, all rusted in place, and probably the first time they've been apart in 100yrs.

The paint on the cast base was the toughest paint I’ve ever encountered. And layers of it. Getting it all removed was quite a chore.
I fabricated new square-headed jack bolts (7/8 x 9 full thread, 8” long) for replacement, can’t buy them like that anywhere anymore.

The anvil is almost in like new condition. The cast lettering in the base is beautifully done, simply wonderful.
Lot of work involved, but I’m thrilled with how it turned out. Almost like a museum piece now... :)



This gorgeous casting is on both sides of the base.
The detail and quality they got in this cast lettering is amazing to me.

[ironwolfforgeca]

? what is the sq cut out on the side used for -- tooling ?? if so what kind

nice work

[Black Frog]

I'm assumming that cutout was used for some specific tooling of some sort, but I've not seen exactly what it was.

I have seen at least three different shapes/sizes of that side cutout on Blacker Hammer anvils up to this point.
One anvil's cutout was wider across, another anvil's cutout did not go down as far as this one.

[ThomasPowers]

The cut out is there because the Blacker used a square "hammer" for the top die and it could be traversed from horn to heel allowing you to use differing tooling in the hardy holes.  However when you traversed the top die to the cut out section the front edge of the top die would just align with the edge of the cut out---a handy thing as power hammer users can attest.

 

Is the 525 an accurate scale weight?  I've used a Blacker anvil in my shop for over a decade and was just using the 515# weight I was told it was; but seems like the slop in scales would cover that region pretty well...

 

Also my Blacker Fisher anvil has a small serial number punched in the side of the face near the cut out.  If yours does as well could you post it?  I've only seen one other in person and it's number was very close to mine and so I'm interested...I'll be back to visit my shop in a couple of weeks and can get the number off mine and post it.  Mine came from the Columbus Ohio RR shops and I bought it from the fellow who worked there and got it when they shut down,

 

I love my Blacker-Fisher anvil, I've made a number of hardy tools for it by taking mushroomed top tools and forging the eyes so that they drop into the 1.5" hardy holes.  I have also made a set of nested sq tubing to drop into a hardy hole to convert it to 1" so I can use my "normal" hardy tooling.

[njanvilman]

The Blacker Hammer had a striking head that was adjustable across the entire face of the anvil.  The bolts on the base were used to adjust the anvil in and out.  One could use the striking head dead on the face, or the anvil could be adjusted in so that a "half on/half off" strike could happen for offsetting the work.  The two hardy holes enabled different tooling to be used also.  The Blacker hammer design was the only type of power hammer that had this versatility.

 

Several companies made the anvils for Blacker, Fisher included.

 

Frog: Are there any markings on the anvil or a serial number?

[Black Frog]

TH, I'm doubting this is a Fisher Blacker anvil....
I can not find a single stamp or informational mark on it anywhere. I'll look over that area again that you mentioned just to be sure.
But it does have nice rebound, and obviously was well made and nicely crafted.
Not sure who else besides Fisher would've been casting quality anvils of this size at that time... ?

I haven't weighed it on my scale, 525 is what I was told and it seems about that ballpark to me from moving it around the last few months... I did weigh the base though. When the anvil & base were loaded into my truck it had my little 2wd Ford Ranger looking incredibly "squatty" in the back end! Driving home was steering when the front end touched on the bounces. ;) Getting that combined unit out of a truck with a cap on it, by myself, by hand with no power equipment, was interesting as well.

[njanvilman]

Frog:  If you make it to ABANA Dover this summer, stop by the museum on the way home and compare your photos the the Blacker anvils I have.  Yours 'might' be a FISHER, just not marked.  I have seen one more base similar to yours at an auction in Pennsylvania.  That anvil/base is now in southern Delaware somewhere.  Not sure who make the anvil on top though.

[Black Frog]

Josh,
Did the Fisher Blacker anvils have one size of side cutout?
Or have you seen different cutout sizes on Fisher Blackers?
I'd love to visit the museum!... and will at some point, but ABANA is not in the cards for me this year.

I'll measure the cutout dimensions, and maybe TP can measure his as well for comparison.

[ThomasPowers]

You didn't tie a rope to it and to a tree and pop the clutch?   I can measure mine next trip back to my smithy.  Working a 3 hour drive from "home" is the pits! (reminds me of an old Ma Bell story from back in the days of using lead sheathed cables when an installer was called on the carpet for using bad language out in the field as reported by a customer.  He explained that what he had actually said to his partner working on closing up a spice was "Oh pshaw, I do believe you are dripping the hot lead down my back"---he was give a "pass" on that incident)

[Black Frog]

Other Blacker anvils I've seen- some have a skinnier face, some have an obviously different cutout area.
 
I found this picture of a Fisher Blacker anvil from Fred Moore's collection that Frank Turley had posted.
Looks like identical proportions and lines to the one I have doesn't it? Cutout looks the same too.
The area under the horn, and how the lines come up from the feet to the horn seem identical.
 
If this isn't an unmarked Fisher, would some other company have access to the same casting molds?


 

[Black Frog]

Also interesting how the base says, "BLACKER ENGINEERING CO." on it.....

[Frosty]

Very nice rusty/dirty iron clean up how to Froggy. The only think I can add is how to control dust. If you have air tools you can wet brush and not put dust in the air. It's messy as all get out but nothing about brushing rust and dirt off is clean. Wet brushing doesn't mean water necessarily, sticky oil is good but it can contaminate the area if you don't have it tarped off well enough.

 

Now the thread is diverging into specific anvils I'm just a spectator. Beautiful job on the Blacker anvil as with all the anvils but that one is a show piece.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[VaughnT]

Frog, that's definitely a Fisher Blacker anvil.  I've never seen another anvil that had the casting line on the horn like a Fisher does.  Awesome clean-up process.  The look is worth all that work you put into it.

[Black Frog]

I assumed it was when I first eyed it up, not wanting to climb all over it too much with obvious attention when buying it. But was starting to have doubts during cleanup when I couldn't find any sign of a stamp or hint of manufacturer other than the shape and proportions.