Hi all,

There is a guy selling an alleged Peter Wright around 150#.  I don't have any pictures but I went out to see it.  It's got the English weight and the feet and looks right, but the mark stamp is gone and the guy was saying that it was on the opposite side of the anvil as the weight markings and tried to hold it up to the light and say you could faintly see it.  I didn't see anything but I've never seen a PW with the mark opposit the weight and I might could haggle him down if it were an unknown maker.  Does anybody know if there were Peter Wrights marked this way at any point?

Thanks all.

 

 

 

More likely they would claim it's rare and raise the price!  (as all the old anvils were pretty much hand made there is known variation in how things were done---and even some speculation about possible sobriety issues on anvils done right before or after a holiday...)

Was it the older chunky style? Did it have a pritchel hole? Did it have a multi piece top plate? I think very old PW's had their name on the other side.

This is sooo cool! I get to be the first guy to use my new copy of AIA to help out! According to Mr. Postman Duckcreekforge is right. PW's before 1852 had "P.WRIGHT WARRENTED" on one side and the weight on the other. Typically if you were looking at the side with the horn pointing to your left you would see the weight. The waist will be thicker or "chunkier" as duckcreekforge put it, than later PW's. These PW's were made between 1830 and 1852.  If it is a PW, it could be pushing nearly 200 years old! 

Okay got pictures.  Took forever.  You can't really see it in the picture but there is a handling hole in the center of the foot on the front, and one also underneath the anvil.  So this is backwards from what you said 200pounder, the weight is all I see and it is on the side with the horn pointing to the right, so maybe it's not one after all.

I'm curious to know if you bought the anvil? Sorry for the delayed responce, didn't mean to let the thread go cold. The feet look right for a PW. Remember what Thomaspowers said. Hand made (forged) meant there was a lot of variations. 

In my humble opinion with todays world if they can not prove it is a PW within a shadow of a doubt then is it ?? with reduced value.  Other wise you are buying a pig in a poke with only the sellers assurances which is of limited value.   Being painted would turn me off.  But then I have a known PW with all the nomenclature.  Buyer be aware

I did buy it and got it at a reduced price because of the uncertainty.

I will get some new pictures up soon that have close ups of the sides.

Its actually not painted,  the white flakes are bits of flour from where he was trying to show me the markings.

Thanks guys!

An unmarked anvil with a 90% on the ball bearing test would be worth far more to me than a well marked Peter Wright with a 70% result on the ball bearing test. But then I'm buying a tool to use...

Yes, and I'm looking for tools/collecting antiques with historical significance, and thought maybe that for either I could come to this site for aid and information, rather than condescension.  I have seen a lot of your posts though Mr. Powers, and I'm fully aware that you liked blacksmithing before it was cool, and we're all very impressed :).  Thanks for your input.

Perhaps we have different ideas about "historical significance"; To me the post vise in Watt's workshop (preserved an on display in a Museum in London, UK) has historical significance as it was tied in with the improver of the steam engine which gave a big kick to the industrial revolution.  Another vise just the same would not; it merely being old.  I would see few anvils as having retained any historical significance as they are generally separated from their context. An antique dealer in Ohio once wanted to sell tongs to a friend as a great deal as they were only US$45 a great deal compared to the one in the book that was $90 and had been forged as a demo by Henry Ford and had provence and documentation.  They didn't understand whey "farmer's tongs" I only bought for $5 and under we'ren't worth at least $45...

I'd say we agree on historical significance, and if I had the means to acquire items such as the ones you've listed (whether it be access to purchase or monetary value) I would probably do so.  But for now, I am just trying to gather information on a hobby I've picked up within my own means, and in doing so was just looking for clarification on the identity of an anvil.  I apologize if my lack of knowledge on a hobby that I'm new to disagrees with you somehow.  It's the reason I'm on this site in the first place.  Perhaps you could lend information that might allow my knowledge to better agree with you, as I already understand that an anvil is a tool :).  And please don't take that the wrong way as I do appreciate any input from a person with more knowledge on the subject than myself.

Hey I didn't get the title curmudgeon for nothing!  I sometimes act as a devils advocate when folks seem to be forgetting that blacksmithing involves hitting hot metal at it's core and so items that you can do that on/with are "good" even when compared to pretty, gold plated items that are not so good.  Funny thing that when it looked a bit like AinA was not going to be published I offered to buy a copy of Postman's research notes to be sure the information would not get lost through mishap; but I don't like the recent  "my anvil is better than yours" based on who made it when.   I have an 1828 William Foster I try to forge on at least once a year---90% of the face is missing and the heel as well; but it's an anvil and it deserves to feel hot iron on it every now and then.  (I literally told the fleamarket junk dealer that I'd stick it in my backpack and walk off with it if he would take a trivial amount of money for it---and he said he's do it to see me do it... HEAVY BACKPACK)

As for smithing before smithing was cool; well I'd have to be positively paleolithic---cause smithing has *ALWAYS* been cool since it started! (In a HOT way, of course.)

I was reading a book on word origins at breakfast last weekend and of course checked anvil and hammer  out.  Anvil goes back to "Hit On".  Hammer seems to go Waaay back and is quite similar in many of the germanic languages but the root seemed to deal with a tool with a stone mounted on it---*that* far back!  (I don't have a TV so get a lot of reading in at odd moments...)

Well that was all knowledge I did not already have.  Thank you!  And I know what you mean about anvil competition.  I had planned on using it, I just like the old anvils it makes me feel like I'm giving use to something that might have felt abandoned.  Actually though to be honest  I was hoping to disprove that this particular anvil was a PW with this post because I would've gotten it for cheaper (the antiquity was the vendor's main argument for keeping the price high).  I do like to collect and use the old anvils when I can though.  And you do have me there, blacksmithing has always been cool, or maybe "hot".  Thanks!

Ahh "Old" = "Valuable"; I run into that one a lot too.  Back in Ohio at the fleamarket I could reach down and pick up a piece of gravel with a bit of fossil in it and tell the dealer; "This is a MILLION TIMES older than that tool it but I will trade it even for the tool that's so much younger..."   Local CL has a lot of people using the term "rare" for some of the most common items---and one fellow today selling I Beam Anvils, sigh.

Anyway if it's not Marked, it's not Marked and any attribution is a guess, especially as there so many small anvil makers in the UK over the years that often made nearly identical anvils as they got their training at one of the big makers and made what they knew.

Hello everyone! I am new here and I was wondering if any of y'all could help me out. I figured a forum about PW anvils would be a good place to start. I just got this Anvil. It is a Peter Wright Patent 0 3 25 C. Or at least that is what is written on the side. Please tell me anything you can about this anvil. It is in good condition. I just would like to know what I have. It weighs precisely 105.8 lbs. Thank you.

The 0  3  25  is the weight stamp in the old CWT system   0x112 + 3 x 28 + 25 = 109 pounds as originally weighed---some difference from modern weight is expected.

It also says Solid Wrought, not having the England stamp indicates it was pre 1910.

the weight markings show it as 109 lbs so could be inaccuracy in the original scales or it lost a little weight due to a few hundred years of use, both would be common.

it looks in good condition, best way to get it looking better is to use it.

never grind any material off the top, use it and after a time it will shine

Thanks you. As far as cleaning it goes would oil and a wire brush be ok to use? I just want to clean up some of the grime that has built up on it. If that is not the proper way to go about it could you provide some insight? Thanks. I'll take some more photos of it later so y'all can see it all. 

It's your anvil you can clean it anyway you like!  I generally only lightly brush off loose rust on the sides; but I live in a very dry climate, (more days with single digit humidities than those over 50%)---I prefer to clean the face of my anvils working hot steel on them, they polish out a treat over time.