I've always assumed that my 155 Lb. Hay Budden (manuf. 1895) was considered a shop anvil, but I showed a blacksmith with a lot more years under his belt than myself a picture of my anvil and he insisted that it was a farrier anvil?

 

I guess in the end it doesn't really matter because it's been working well as a "shop" anvil for the past three years, but I'm just curious on which it would be considered now and if there's any benefit/drawbacks of one style over another.

 

 

 

Farriers have shops too; especially in the old days!   I don't see a clip on it so I would call it a shop anvil too.

I'm by no means an expert or a farrier but it looks like a farriers anvil to me from the skinny waste and shape of the heel . Could feel a little more "springy" than a thicker wasted shop anvil. 

It is a blacksmith's anvil, not an HB farrier's pattern. The farrier's anvil did not have a defined cutting table. They had the step, and the horn and clip-horn came away from the step smoothly and sometimes with a swell to the horn. Most HB farrier's anvils had two pritchel holes and a  narrow face, approximating 4 inches.

2 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Farriers have shops too; especially in the old days

I grew up in a livery stable  many times with 40-50 horses and have been around horses, of all kinds for 60+ yrs.  We had 5 blacksmith shops in town and they all shod horses.  In the 60's they started coming to the stables to shoe.  Never heard the term Farrier until the big money Hunter Jumpers came to our valley in the mid '70s.  We called them and they called themselves Blacksmiths before and then they became farriers, prices went up but they were the same guys with the same anvils.  Old signs I have pictures of say  Blacksmiths with Horse shoeing listed on the sign. 

I checked "Anvils in America" quickly and see Farrier anvils listed, no step and a side clip or two on the ones I saw.  I'd stop saying Farrier or Shop Anvil and just say Nice Anvil and be happy  you have one as nice.   

 

 

Yes the waist and elongated top is particularly good for some sorts of ornamental smithing too.

Nice anvil. I don't see what someone else wants to pidgeon hole it as anymore than I care how old it is or who made it. I only care how good a tool it is and that one looks like a beauty.

Sometimes people can get more invested in an opinion than is good for them and can't let go of a position. You get them occasionally at Demos, you know the person who's grandfather was a blacksmith and I'm not working the steel hot enough or taking too long or whatever. If the person is becoming a PITA ask for a detailed accounting of exactly what makes an anvil a "farrier's" anvil. It's the same tactic I use at demos on Grandad the smith characters when I offer them the hammer. I don't argue with them and after the first bit I don't respond till they hit the distraction from the demo threshold and I silently offer them the hammer. I've never had one take the hammer nor continue bothering me and I've never had to say a word.

Frosty The Lucky.