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I Forge Iron

Stolen anvil, $1000 reward


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I wrote to the director of the Morrison Historical Museum, and gave them my experience in the trade. I tentatively ID'd it as a Hay-Budden farriers' pattern anvil looking to weigh between 160 and 175 pounds. I told them about the clip horn and the H-B Manufacturing Co, Brooklyn, NY, markings on the side, sometimes legible and sometimes not. If a working smith stole it, that would be unlikely; it would be sacrilege in my view. Whoever took it would probably want it as a barn door stop or a garden ornament...or would just sell it.

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That's sad. There are some grubby people around. As the guy said, the historical value to the town is of greater value than its monetary worth.
We are just too trusting. Maybe I'll go tie down my anvils.

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Even worse: back in Ohio there was an indigent smith who rode the craft down until when he died there wasn't enough money for a headstone; so they used his anvil as one and welded his hammer and tongs to it.  As the years went by the hammer handle decayed and one of the SOFA smiths found out about it and pledged to keep a handle in in the hammer.  And he did up until someone stole the anvil!

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Here in NJ, and probably most of the country, you need photo ID to scrap anything.  They have to keep those records indefinitely in case they have to look into what was brought in.  And all of the scrap yards keep all of the interesting stuff that comes in for resale or for themselves.(one owner near me has a whole building(museum) of stuff that he got for scrap prices).

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I'm afraid in OK most any thing exept HVAC parts (an oly because they were stealing the coper coils from churches) are easy to scrap, even running cars with iut a title, metal check has been bad about that in the past. Many yard have taken it on themselves, as not to be enable the theves. They are diditaly photographing the material, seller and vehicle tag. I applaud that and only do buisnes with such yards.

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  • 3 weeks later...

There stealing bridge parts here! I can't believe the guy acted like nobody would want it. Try to find an anvil now days. I have heard that there is some video game out there that has all the kids hooked on blacksmithing and that is why they are hard to find. Hopefully soon their mothers will get tired of stubbing their toes and offer up for good price. I will keep an eye out here if that helps at all, they can keep the reward and use it for better tiedowns. Should be indoors anyway, sad.

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There stealing bridge parts here! I can't believe the guy acted like nobody would want it. Try to find an anvil now days. I have heard that there is some video game out there that has all the kids hooked on blacksmithing and that is why they are hard to find. Hopefully soon their mothers will get tired of stubbing their toes and offer up for good price. I will keep an eye out here if that helps at all, they can keep the reward and use it for better tiedowns. Should be indoors anyway, sad.

 

Yeah, it's called Minecraft I think. Look up anvils on Google and it's all you get. Lots of kids at my demos mention it. Crazy stuff.

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I get a regular stream of folks who know all about blacksmithing from video games; for amusement I like to hand them the hammer and a piece of steel and say show me!   (If I'm feeling evil I'll hand them a piece of high carbon as they all like to quench the piece!)

 

Pretty quickly they learn that there is more to smithing than you learn in a video game.  When they are not full of it they are ready to learn...especially as I like to teach the why as well as the how.

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I had a junkyard offer below junkyard market prices because they thought the items were stolen, they were not. Just an excuse to get stuff below "low" junkyard prices. Another spin was it was alright to buy it if suspected stolen just don't pay as much. As an aside the junkyard had highway signs poking out from under the pile, asked them about people selling them and they replied ,"those kinds of people need to eat to."

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One thing that bothers me, they were given this " Historic" piece of local importance but leave it outside in the weather poorly secured and now are concerned about it being stolen. I'd be careful giving them anything else of Historic Value.

I've given items to a couple local Museums/Historical Soc. and a library only to discover later they decided it wasn't something the latest administration wanted so they sold them. Those three places are no longer being give items and anything else I give has a clause that if they don't want it I get it back or OK where it goes.

My brother is on a committee that is trying to handle the disposition of a Historical Society that has gone broke and is loosing their building. The committee is trying to find appropriate homes for the items and having only moderate luck. Many other organizations are in the same boat from what he has heard a lot to do with poor recent management.

All this being said there is no excuse for some sleaze to steal it and sell it most likely for pennies on the dollar for drugs. When found seems appropriate to drop the anvil or any anvil on the clown's foot 10-12 times.

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