intrex Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Hello all, I had been looking for a 300+ anvil for over a year now and finally stumbled across one on craigslist last week. Unfortunately it was at 9pm the night before I was leaving at the crack of dawn for my beach vacation. To my wife's great dismay I dropped packing up the car and drove 30 minutes out to check out the anvil. I ended up having to move the anvil by myself without any equipment other than hand truck and didn't get packed until 2am in the morning but man was it worth it. It turns out it was a 308lb sodefors 1929 anvil which at first appeared to be in almost mint condition. It looks like it has been very lightly used, there were only a few very minor dings on one edge of the face. They guy told me it had been sitting in his barn for at least 40 years. He wanted to make sure I was going to use the anvil so I brought my Hofi hammer out to test rebound and show him that I planned to use it rather than reselling it. I was just about ready to buy it when I noticed that it didn't have a pritchel hole. After looking at it closely I saw that the pritchel had been filled (looks like it was welded shut?). Then I looked under the heel and noticed that it had some deep strange marks in it under the tip of the heel. I am pretty sure they aren't power hammer marks from drawing out the heel. When I noticed this I thought that heel must have been broken and repaired but I couldn't find any seams on the face or side. The top plate line also looked clean and unbroken on both sides. I have missed a few large anvils in the past and didn't want to let this beauty go so I decided to get it and figure out the pritchel hole issue later. Does anyone know what the strange work under the heel was for? Maybe the person who welded the pritchel was trying to heat the anvil from the bottom to make sure the weld would take? I am planning to cut the pritchel hole out from the bottom using a 3/4" holesaw which is the exact same size as the pritchel hole. This seems pretty straight forward but thought I should ask here before cutting into this beautiful anvil. I am a little worried about the shape of the heel and can't figure out what was done to it. I am also thinking of putting a very slight radius on all of the edges so they won't crack more while using it. Is that a bad plan or would you suggest doing anything else before putting this anvil to use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njanvilman Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 It looks like someone took a cutting torch to the heel to make it thinner. They probably had a reason and made the anvil fit the job. Kind of a crude way to go about it. I would leave it as is. You could do a mild grind to smooth it out, but why make the heel even thinner? I would try to drill out the pritchel hole with a twist drill bit. Start small, like 1/4", and work your way up. Use a new bit, or one that is very sharp, lubricant, and a magnetic base drill or a drill press, if available. The rest of the anvil looks almost pristine. You found a nice anvil. Radiusing the edges is up to you. I would use it a bit first and see if that is needed. You can always remove metal, hard to put it back on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Coke Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Greetings Intrex, Congrats on you anvil find... It looks to me like someone torch cut the bottom of the heel.. You might test the top to see if it still is hard at the hardie hole area and pritchel hole... I would not be rough on that end it may crack at the torch cut.. Just use it as it is... Have fun and have a great vacation.. Forge on and make beautiful things Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWooldridge Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 You could also rebuild that entire lower area by welding - would take some rod and you'd need to make sure the anvil face didn't get too hot but wouldn't take more than a few hours work to restore the profile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 ARGHHHHHH, someone took a torch to a Soderfors!! Grab your pitchforks and torches boys, someone must pay for this! Okay, silly drama over. Don't mess with it, Soderfors used a pretty sophisticated technique for heat treating their anvils and it's not something even a large shop is likely to be able to pull off. Double check the rebound on the heal to see how much damage the torch cutting did to the face in that area. It may only be suitable for light work, think fork tines. You don't need a pritchel, bolster plates do the same job with better variety for cleaner punching. Drilling that one back out is going to need a cobalt twist bit and remember to pilot with at least a 1/4" bit and step up by increments off about 2x. For example: 1/4" to start go directly to 1/2", then 1" etc. Too small increments will result in chipping the outer corners off the drill's edges and you can lose the hole if a chip sticks in the parent stock. Just don't mess with rebuilding the pritchel or the heal. Just put her to work, you'll be so happy with what's left you'll take your hammer to anyone who makes a suggestion than may damage her. Chipped edges are pretty much the norm for Soderfors anvils they are very hard and a missed blow on the edge can knock chips out more easily than most anvils. I radiused the edges about 4-5" back from the step so I could make nice shoulders without worrying about cold shuts in the work but left the rest of the edges factory crisp. Just don't try "fixing" it till you've used her for a while, I don't see anything that'll effect her performance so long as you don't do any heavy hammering on the heal. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 I have an anvil whose heel is Way Too Thick for most heel tasks. Rather than mess it up for possible future work I just set another anvil near by with a very thin heel. So my 515# Fisher and my 93# Arm & Hammer generally sit next to each other in the shop. How much large punching do you plan to do? 3/4" is pretty large for a pritchel and if the heel has already been weakened a bit....I'd go with a bolster plate, maybe even drill a 1/2" pritchel and make a rotating bolster plate with a bolt through the pritchel and the differing sizes of holes where they can be rotated over the hardy hole. BTW those are rather classic cutting torch marks; you stick around in metalworking and you will run into them again and again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intrex Posted August 11, 2014 Author Share Posted August 11, 2014 Thanks for all of the feedback, I worked on the anvil for a little while today. I already had the 3/4" carbide lenox cutsaw so I decided to give it a go. It actually went surprisingly well. After about 20 minutes of slow drilling and constant oiling I had the original hole perfectly cut back out. I think that is all I am going to do until I have worked on this baby for a while. I have seen a video of a guy who made a rotating bolster plate that fit in his pritchel hole and then allowed drifting through the hardie. I plan to do the same thing when I can find something at the scrap yard that will work. One of my friends cut down a large oak on his property and is supposed to cut a 21" piece out for me for the stand. As soon as I get it all together I will post some pics and rebound tests. This makes my 128lb cisco superior anvil look like a toy. I can't wait to actually start using it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRS Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 I have seen a video of a guy who made a rotating bolster plate that fit in his pritchel hole and then allowed drifting through the hardie. I plan to do the same thing when I can find something at the scrap yard that will work. I have searched and found a blueprint of the rotating bolster plate here: http://www.iforgeiron.com/page/index.html/_/blueprints/100-series/bp0149-spinning-bolster-plate-r381 Now I am really mad that my hardy hole and the pritchel hole are so far apart on my anvil :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intrex Posted August 11, 2014 Author Share Posted August 11, 2014 Thanks KRS, That is exactly what I was planning to do but with a significantly thicker plate (probably 1"). Having the mounting rod of both sides is a great idea. I wouldn't have thought of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intrex Posted September 22, 2014 Author Share Posted September 22, 2014 Many thanks to everyone for all of the guidance with this anvil, I got sick of searching for a good stump and ended up building an anvil stand out of treated lumber. The stand was made flat on both ends with the router jig method. I then routed out a 1/2 square in the center of the stand on the bottom and a half inch template of the anvil base on the top. The anvil was siliconed into the 1/2" routed template. It is hard to explain how much nicer it is to work on a heavier anvil and stand with absolutely no wobble. Several steel bearing tests on the anvil give a rebound of around 90% :). The only downside to this anvil is that I have to make all new hardy tools now :(. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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