Benjaman Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 So this is my first post. I've read stuff from this website. Just finally decided to make my own account. So I was checking out some anvils a guy had. When I got there I had never seen so many 500+ pounders in my life. None of them were for sale of course except the arm and hammer. He was 4 grams for this thing. The brand is still visible. So is the serial number ect. The anvil was produced around the time of world war 2. When they were welding the waists. The only other arm and hammer i have found that was close to this big was a #527. (Found reading different forums on this website) and I fell in love with it. But 4 grand seems so steep. Opinions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njanvilman Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 There were never many made in that size, and even few left in that kind of condition. It is a top brand of forged anvils. It all comes down to how much you want it, and your personal finances. It is probably a bit high in price; you can always make a cash offer. And be sure to have the cash with you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 LOCATION??????? My 410# Trenton ran me 50 cents a pound and my 515# Fisher was 66 cents a pound---but was in *mint* condition; How desperately do you need a huge anvil? How rare are anvils where you are at? How much is your budget? How much effort and time are you willing to put in searching for anvils? What did he say when you made a counter offer? (Do you really need a huge anvil? They were fairly rare back in the day most shops being able to get buy with 150 to 250 pound anvils with no problems...) Blacksmiths suffer terribly from "anvil envy"; but if I was getting started I'd not worry about that anvil and spend the $4K on a great powerhammer and be far ahead of things! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Frog Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 I have the 527# you're talking about. :-) Can you get a closeup picture of the side logo, and a picture of the serial number? I'm making a database of the logos vs. serial numbers for a few makes. Both A&H and Trenton had several different styles of logo stamps through their history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Welcome aboard Benjamin, glad to have you. You've been reading IFI how long and you don't know to put your general location in the header? Things like what you're asking are very regional in nature, what one fellow can pick up for pennies a pound in one location cost dollars a pound in others. live in a dollars a lb place. That's a beautiful looking anvil, do YOU want it enough to pay the piper? Make a counter offer, I ALWAYS make a counter what's the worst they can do, tell you to pound sand? If they say no then it's in our court, yes or no. If you pick up that beautiful lady please post pics of her in the shop. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Fleamarket training! I've picked up some stuff that I thought was way overpriced by offering what I was willing to pay and not being upset if they said *NO*! Sometimes as I'm walking away I'll get a yes. (Bought my penultimate pickup that way. I offered what I was willing to pay---cash and they said NO! Not a problem, I just was NOT going to finance a penny of it and so headed for the door. They said yes before I was halfway there. At the fleamarket I'd sometimes pass back by on my way to the truck as heavy rusty stuff tends to get cheaper as pack up time approaches---and why you want to go to fleamarkets where they have to remove everything at the end of each day... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjaman Posted March 29, 2016 Author Share Posted March 29, 2016 Thanks guys. I'm from southwest Missouri. I don't need an anvil this big. I just want one. And the dude is firm 4K. But cash talks. I'll get some closer pictures. And that's a beautiful #527! I want it bad. From my understanding the big arm and hammers and rare, and I love em. Just 4gs is so steep, I got the cash. But I could also get a power hammer for that. Like you said. Where are the places with cheap anvil prices? Because I haven't found them cheap anywhere. I'm willing to drive cross country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Telling us where you are in a post WILL be forgotten as soon as we read something else. Putting it in the header puts it in front of us every time you post. It'll get you invited to a LOT more casual hammer ins, swaps, buy sells, BBQs, etc. honest. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 I've written a number of times how one goes about finding anvils at below market prices; basically you are trying to find the ones people are NOT trying to sell to make money off of. Less time driving or on the net and more time networking! I got my 515# one like this: I was going through the fleamarket (South High, Columbus OH) and a fellow howdy'd me. Now he was selling greasy car parts that I wouldn't have drug out of the dumpster for free; but.... So I stopped and talked with him and mentioned I was hunting an anvil. Turns out his Uncle had an anvil he wanted to sell...So I arranged to meet him as soon as the fleamarket was over and about 5 miles from my house---inside the city---was this anvil; was used for a blacker powerhammer in the railroad shop. Well his Uncle told me a fellow had offered him $350 for the anvil several years before---and he wouldn't take it! I asked if he would take the same now and counted out the money and he said yes... In MO I'd check around the old mining towns for larger anvils than the usual farm support blacksmith shops would have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjaman Posted March 29, 2016 Author Share Posted March 29, 2016 That's what I've been trying to too. Talk to more people. Talk around. But not a whole lot so far. And actually I live in the old mining towns. Where would be a place to check you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Got any old family run businesses? Our tire guys go back in town over 100 years; last time I stopped by they threw in a piece of old mining drill, that was under the old roller skating rink that was being torn up---previously, 60 + years ago it was the town blacksmith shop that was razed and then the roller rink built... I've had good luck asking the older folks at church. Anvils tend to stick around; like my big one; when they closed down the RR shop the smith took it home with him and after enough years it passes to someone who's ready to pass it on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjaman Posted March 29, 2016 Author Share Posted March 29, 2016 I think I know what skating rink your talking about. Or at least I think. Got mangled up by the tornado? Use to go there in my younger days. But thanks! I'll see what I can pull up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 In Socorro New Mexico? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjaman Posted March 30, 2016 Author Share Posted March 30, 2016 Ohhhhh! I thought you meant around the southwest MO region. My bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuarthesmith Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 Benjamin, you are well named...Whip out forty benjamins and own that anvil!!!!! A 634 pound Hay Budden just sold for $14,440 dollars on an auction site not allowed to be mentioned on this page.......behemoths are rare.....you will kick yourself if you don't buy it..... my 700 pound hay budden is probably worth 18k I have said for a long time that anvils are a better investment than plantinum, lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njanvilman Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 9 hours ago, stuarthesmith said: Benjamin, you are well named...Whip out forty benjamins and own that anvil!!!!! A 634 pound Hay Budden just sold for $14,440 dollars on an auction site not allowed to be mentioned on this page.......behemoths are rare.....you will kick yourself if you don't buy it..... my 700 pound hay budden is probably worth 18k I have said for a long time that anvils are a better investment than plantinum, lol Stuart, do not continue that false information about the Hay Budden. We all know it did not sell, the buyer backed out. It was sold in a private Best Offer for a lot less than that. Yes, I agree, anvils are a great investment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjaman Posted March 30, 2016 Author Share Posted March 30, 2016 So. If you were in a situation like me. Just have exactly 4K saved up. I'm 19 years old. So I don't have any bills but insurance. Would you but the thing? I can always make more money. But finding another one like this. I'm not sure if I can. Or it I can how long would it take? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 If you want to do smithing a powerhammer would be a much better buy IMNSHO! How settled are you? I bought my 410# Trenton for 50 cents a pound from someone who was tired of hauling it around every time he moved. (took a 125# PW as part of the trade/cash deal as he wanted to have an anvil...) He picked it up in AZ and moved it to OH, I picked it up in OH and moved it to NM....not including "little" moves within states. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turbo7 Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 Mate, IMO, let the anvil go, grab a chunk of rail iron, make a forge and start hammering. Keep saving your $ young fella, the only $4K I ever saved I spent. Buy a 100lb anvil if you must. I know the big anvil seems like the be all and end all atm but unless you have the work for it it will only be a white elephant, at best, $4K worth of pretty big bragging rights. The other thing is big anvils are not that saleable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuarthesmith Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 7 hours ago, njanvilman said: Stuart, do not continue that false information about the Hay Budden. We all know it did not sell, the buyer backed out. It was sold in a private Best Offer for a lot less than that. Yes, I agree, anvils are a great investment. the hammer price was as I specified which means, my good friend, that the back bidder bid 14,340, one hundred dollars less. Not MY fault that the "winning bidder " chickened out. The seller got ROOKED the back bidder,. who was serious and bid in earnest, bid $14,340 dollars, and was willing to pay that.....so be careful who you point the accusatory finger at, my good friend! as far as missing opportunities, the day I bought my 700 pound monster, there was a 485 pound baby elephant Hay Budden sitting on the floor alongside the one I bought. I was so smitten by "anvil fever" that I didn't even consider buying the slightly smaller one. Big mistake that I am kicking myself for 40 years after the fact. I could have flipped the extra monster for an enormous profit and gotten the bigger one for free! I was young and stupid in those days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuarthesmith Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 If I were Benjamin, I would show up with 30 c notes in one pocket and ten in the other, and try to get the anvil for 3k......cash talks and chin musac walks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Olson Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 8 bucks a pound , yeah right. That's stupid. And it has damage. Walk away Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuarthesmith Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 damage????? what damage!!!!! Aesopian tale of the fox and the grapes that 490 pounder is as clean as a whistle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 1 hour ago, turbo7 said: Mate, IMO, let the anvil go, grab a chunk of rail iron, make a forge and start hammering. Keep saving your $ young fella, the only $4K I ever saved I spent. Buy a 100lb anvil if you must. I know the big anvil seems like the be all and end all atm but unless you have the work for it it will only be a white elephant, at best, $4K worth of pretty big bragging rights. The other thing is big anvils are not that saleable. I agree with turbo7 on this one. You can get a decent 100-150# anvil for a quarter (at most) of what you'd spend on this one and still have money for tools, coal, sandwiches, the occasional PPV movie, and a bottle of WD-40 cologne. Save your money while you're young, me boy; you'll need it when you're old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuarthesmith Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 reach for the stars, and NEVER settle You will kick yourself if you don't if you decide not to buy it, please give me the guy's phone number, lol!!!!! my 700 lber needs a "wife" big anvils aren't sellable?? You' re kidding, right?? Every blacksmith tool dealer in north america is waiting for me to kick the bucket so they can maraude my shop!!! to the person who posted that "big anvils aren't sellable", my pickup truck is gassed up, and I have a wad of cash in hand......wanna sell all your 500 pound plus anvils to me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.