All the time you hear the sad story,   Poor me, No anvils except for $15/lb on ebay (or something to that effect)

 

We have stumbled on two this week.   One a 140 lb Trenton that a guy who stopped by the shop had sitting in his yard and we traded him a Pexto stake plate for.    And this one that I bought today on Craigslist for $250    A 200lb Fisher in perfect shape.   It took a total of 20 min's from making the call till the anvil was in the back of my car.

 

   I think currently we have 8 or 9 anvils in the shop, at least 4 just kicking around in the way.   None of them did I really dig for or take more effort than a phone call.

 

But yeah,   There are no anvils out there anywhere, ever.     If its this easy on the West coast then they must just be laying around everyplace on the East coast where there actually was a supply of anvils.

That is a heck of a deal on the Fisher. 

Anvils are like Women, if you are desperate to find one, you're one lonely son of a so and so............

You could always come way north and test your anvil aquisition skills and maybe have a vacation as well!

anvils are magnetic, they attract more anvils, and the more you get the more are attracted to you

I've always wanted to set up an experiment with decoy anvils...

I've always wanted to set up an experiment with decoy anvils...

The decoy thing could work, since so many anvils are "out of sight, out of mind". A prompt so to speak. 

I Imagine they're harder to find for sale in the winter months as no one is cleaning out the barn/gargage.so in the northeast ~ 6 months a year probably a rarer sight. The good deals on craigslist go really fast, atleast in my area. (like within an hour fast). So unless you check all the time,you usually only have the choice of overpriced beat up anvils.  They're out there though.and they are like magnets... 

Actually look up the TPAAT; folks keep using the most expensive methods of finding anvils---and then complain about the prices...

If you're in the yellow pages as a blacksmith anvils will come to you, even here. Of course an add in the Yellow Pages, even just one season would drive up the cost of an anvil considerably. Even something in the news paper want adds is stupid expensive.

 

Still, having the word out you are a blacksmith will bring smithing tools out of barns, garages, basements, sheds, etc.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

There are no more anvils to be found out there, anywhere.
It would be best if everyone just stopped looking for them, due to it being a fruitless effort and a total waste of your time.
So don't bother looking, just go about your normal business.... :)

free rehoming service for your unloved anvil, we even collect free and find it a good home

There are no more anvils to be found out there, anywhere.
It would be best if everyone just stopped looking for them, due to it being a fruitless effort and a total waste of your time.
So don't bother looking, just go about your normal business.... :)

 

Ayup, that's all folks. Nothing to find out there, move along.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Bought another anvil,     This one was on Craigslist in the Boise area.      It took me 5 days to get around to sending my brother up to look at it so the argument "you have to catch the ad the moment it posts" is invalid.     A nice, flat and clean 358 lb Trenton on a nice stand for $650.    The guy also had a swage block I got for $125 with a stand and a 6" Reed vise on a stand for $50.     I am going to have to start ignoring anvil leads as I simply cant afford to keep buying them even at give away prices.   

Awesome!
Around here, if it is a good deal on a nice anvil it is gone within hours.

Wow. I am glad I have not been looking on CL for a week or that anvil would be at my Mom's in Boise since I don't have any more room in my garage for anvils. And I can't afford to "collect" anvils.

Anvils in rural areas, especially older or 'foreign' looking anvils, tend to languish away on CL. I missed a deal on a 500 pound Mousehole one time because I did not have a vehicle capable of moving it, or reliable enough to get there and back, 250 miles away. 

 

I just acquired a beautiful old English anvil that will be perfect for an 1830's museum smithy that I am working with. It sat on CL for almost a month before I could get there (150 miles away). Why? Because it was not a 1900's looking London pattern, and because the seller was waaaay out in the sticks.

I always get a kick out of folks saying they can't find an anvil.  We had one guy say that on one of the forums so I took a look around him using searchtempest.com.  Lo and behold, there were three anvils within 250 miles, including one that was professionally refaced by the local blacksmithing group.  How in the world is anyone going to be able to use an anvil when they aren't even smart enough to find one that's publicly listed?

 

More often than not, when folks say they can't find an anvil, what they really mean is that they can't find anyone that will sell them a mint 300lb anvil for $5 and deliver it to their house free of charge.  

Where on the west coast?  I'm down in San Diego and have been watching CL and others for a while now.  There's a decent looking Fisher 100 miles north of me, but nothing down here.  Odd given the shipyards.  Have a couple of feelers out to various folks.

100 miles north of you.... and you don't consider that right next door?  How much more local do you expect them to get?  Go get it!

Hoping to as soon as I find a free 3-4 hours.  Kitchen has been under remodel.  Plus it's priced a little high.  Nonetheless, Probably just going to do it.

The "Antique Barn" up on Route 30 near York, PA always seems to have anvils, rivet forges, leg vises, and sometimes a cone.  And usually the various yearly blacksmithing events within driving distance have a few anvils, vises, and just about everything else that one can want.