Hi folks, I'm new here, I got an anvil a few years ago as a 30th birthday present, I love it, I've made some round pieces of steel flatter, and some other pieces bent in weird angles, I've read loads and loads of books and it's time I put put what I've read to metal, what I did want to do first was fix up my anvil, square off the edges and take out the cuts off the horn, can anyone help me with the identification of it, it doesn't have a pritchet hole which I've read makes it old, and I can see no markings either. Anyone help?

My almost 150 year old blacksmithing book reminds people that the first thing they should do when they get a new anvil is to ROUND OFF THE EDGES so they don't mark up their work or get chipped---why do you want to square off yours?  Those edges look GREAT to me!

The horn is soft, low carbon, real wrought iron and can be arc welded on but experiment with welding on real wrought iron before trying to fill in those cuts; it welds a bit differently due to the slag content of the metal.

One thing you could do would be to planish the area the cuts  are in to smooth them out and just get to using your anvil.

Truly that anvil is in very good shape indeed and all it really needs is to be lovinging hit some red+ hot steel on it!

Thanks Mr Powers, I've seen a few YouTube videos about fixing them up, and all new anvils I've seen have sharp edges on one side and rounded edges on the other, it's not got a very flat top but with practice ill get used to how it sits, I've spent a lot of my spare time just hitting mild steel not really making anything, just learning how it feels. I don't suppose you know who might have made it? I hear it's 2 1/2cwt it's bloody heavy to lift, it took 2 of us a good 15/20 mins to get into the car. Hardy hole is just under an inch, and it has no pritchet. Phil

 

 

 

 

 

Good anvil mate, I'd just pein the cuts over and get some hot steel on it and start hammering, after a year you'll be glad thats all you did.

Quit reading and actually USE the anvil. A year from now tell us what the anvil was not able to accomplish because of the condition of THAT particular area.

It is YOUR anvil and you can do anything you want to it. Just be sure you NEED to make any modifications before you destroy an anvil that has survived over a hundred years of use and is still in great shape.

 

Postman has identified over 200 anvil makers in the UK many of them making anvils similar to other ones as a common scenario would be for a fellow to learn under one maker and then set out on his own making pretty much the style they learned on. So even if you found a near duplicate that was named yours could still be by someone else.

Before Postman published, anvils tended to be sorted into two groups: Good ones and Bad ones and due to abuse and mishap even a good name anvil could be in the bad group. If it bothers you a lot stamp your name on it! (with owner of course)

come over to kettering on saturday and have a play, it will help you get started, my forge will be going and there will be several people making stuff throughout the day

Welcome aboard Phil, glad to have you. That anvil is a grand old Lady and she's in fine condition. The edges are just right as they are and don't be fooled a flat face isn't any great shakes that one is more than flat enough. Better than flat it's reasonably unblemished, smooth is good, I LIKE smooth. Please don't make a mistake so often made and "repair" your anvil before you know what one really is or needs to be. The anvil doesn't do anything, it's just highly refined dirt. It's the clever monkey with thumbs that does everything. We need to perfect ourselves before we try "perfecting" tools.

Take the Dwarf up on his offer, getting together with other blacksmiths will get you up to speed quickly. Every hour with an experienced smith is worth days of trying to figure it out yourself. Seriously, just knowing something won't work and why is worth gold.

Don't be a stranger and remember, we LOVE pics.

Frosty The Lucky.

Well, I'm throughly welcomed, thanks everyone, I've got to got to Stowmarket on Saturday,  but I'll see if I can come up after on my bike, I'm quite excited now, cheers Dwarf. Would you message me with your details?

Phil

 

will do