I found this locally to me today for what I hope is a reasonable price & would like to ask the experts here what i picked up. I'm assuming it's a farriers anvil & after that I don't know.  Thank you for any help. 

Yes, that is a farrier pattern. Easily told by the clip horn, swelled main horn, and the thin waist. 

Centaur Forge is a smithing/farrier supplier, so they may have had this one made for them. 

I'd like some more info on the wood stove. I spotted the sanitary couplers right off the bat. 

The wood stove is actually my fireplace. I'm in the process of turning it into a heat exchanger. The big piece of stainless in the picture is really just a cover over the fireplace surround and a door. The door is going to have a opening water jet into it to accept a 8" x 10" piece of ceramic glass. The sanitary couplings are for the exchanger part of the set up. There is an air intake on the bottom & 2 exits on the top. I'm making a log holder out of 1 1/2 " sch 10 pipe that connects the intake with the outlets. The pipe is light enough, that it'll heat up quite a bit as the logs sit and smolder / burn on them that the air inside will heat a lot. I have a small computer fan that will fit inside a concentric reducer that mounts to the air intake. 

I guess it's going to be more like a radiant / heat exchanger type system.  

We bought our fixer upper here last August. We use wood to heat, so i was trying to make things more efficient. But with so much to do, winter caught me before I got it finished. Probably be spring before I get back around to it. & my welder is broken right now. 

 

Thank you for the info on the anvil. Will it work for learning the basics of blacksmithing? 

The anvil you got is a great little anvil.  I wish I had mine back!! It was probably one of my favorite anvils.  They were made by

Kolshwa in Sweden and imported for centaur forge and farrier supply.   Good chunk of Swedish steel.  

Thank you.  I had read up on centaur before, but had no idea they once sold   a kolshwa made anvil. Which I had also read up on some as well. HopHopefully it's not one of those bad ones from later on in their relationship. 

It has a loud high pitch ( almost painful ) ring to it. A 3.5 pound ludell hammer dropped from 10" or so will rebound around 90% or better. 

For a brief period Kohlswa anvils suffered bad heat treatment and were soft. For the most part though they're top shelf anvils that baby will be your favorite in no time.

I put my Soderfors on a steel stand and it took most of the ring out of it. She was brutally loud on a wood block stand a missed blow would make my ears ring through muffs and plugs. Even just working stock was unpleasantly loud.

It's being cast steel that makes them resonate so well putting them on wood is like hanging a triangle dinner bell on leather or a wooden peg, it allows the vibrations to continue. The steel stand has a very different resonant frequency so being in contact they damp each other. My Sorceress now just clangs rather than make people 50' away wince.

I LOVE my Soderfors I've never worked on a better anvil. You're in for a treat enjoy.

Frosty The Lucky.

You answered your own question:  If you are getting 90% rebound you have a great anvil no matter whose name is on the side!

Thank you folks. I fell better about my impulsiveness now. I went to look at some hammers and tongs since I was needs those as well. I was planning on ordering a new kanca from centaur last night,  but as soon as I walked into this fellers shop I couldn't help but want this one. Maybe it was just ment to be. I am rarely so impulsive about buying stuff that I am really uneducated about. 

Now i just need to learn to use it correctly. 

It will make a good travel anvil even if you graduate up to a bigger one later.