Maui Posted August 3, 2016 Share Posted August 3, 2016 Hi, This is my first post in these forums and I hope that I don't unknowingly break any rules. I'll be signing up for some blacksmithing lessons soon, and decided that I need to buy an anvil. I recently picked up the anvil in the photos. I know that these photos aren't the best, but they are the only ones I have at the moment. The anvil measures 35" in length, stands 13" tall, and has a face width of 5 3/4". There are no markings anywhere on the surface that I can find, and I've looked at both sides carefully. I simply can't see any markings on it at all. I used a hammer to check the rebound before I purchased it, and was amazed. The hammer xxxx near wanted to jump right out of my hand. It rings like a bell. It came out of a railroad repair shop that had closed back in 1976. My guess is that it weighs well over 300 lbs. I got a boatload of tongs and tooling with it too. Can anyone here possibly help determine who might have manufactured this anvil? I'll take better photos and post them when I can. Thanks. Maui Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ling Posted August 3, 2016 Share Posted August 3, 2016 first, welcome to the site, and sorry I don't know much about anvils, though others will be along and ask you to take pictures of the underside of the anvil base, and pictures of the feet (for a serial number). On 8/3/2016 at 10:01 AM, Maui said: The hammer xxxx near wanted to jump right out of my hand. Just try to remember that this is meant to be a G-rated family site, watch your language. One little slip up isn't anything, sooner or later most of us do it. Littleblacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latticino Posted August 3, 2016 Share Posted August 3, 2016 You are going to make a lot of smiths here pretty jealous. Just starting out and you look like you have scored at least a 300 lb. anvil in great condition with additional hand tools. If you decide smithing isn't for you, you should have no problem selling this stuff off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Frog Posted August 3, 2016 Share Posted August 3, 2016 Look on the front foot for signs of a serial number, might require a wire brushing... Tip the anvil on its heel and take a picture of the underside of the base. Guessing around 350# ballpark range for those measurements. Nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maui Posted August 5, 2016 Author Share Posted August 5, 2016 Here's a little better view of the anvil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 A picture of the underside of the base might help as well as several brands had differing shaped depressions in their bases. Any stamping on the front of the front foot is also useful and what sides each part is on if it has any (like serial number on right or left of the front foot, weight on the left, etc) I actually called about a "large anvil" listed on Craigslist for US$250 recently; fellow didn't know anything about it but thought it was around 50 pounds as he had moved it before, I'm guessing it might be a HF ASO and if so a tad over priced by a factor of 5... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maui Posted August 5, 2016 Author Share Posted August 5, 2016 I'll take photos of the base and underside this weekend and post them here. Thanks for the replies so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 I won't be back on till Sunday evening at best; my wife and I are celebrating our 32 anniversary this weekend and I won't be wasting time online...Hopefully other folk can look at it and help nail down a good suggestion as to what it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
otisdog Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Maybe I can help... First, where are you located? Where was the railroad shop? I have a very similar anvil, it's even green like yours. Has no makings, like yours. Mines 400 pounds. Mine came from the town of Truckee, California. Truckee is around 6400 feet in elevation, in the California Sierra. What does this have to do with anything? I started wondering how and why someone would have such a big chunk of metal, and how difficult it would be to get said chunk of metal up to that altitude. Truckee lies on what was the Southern Pacific Railroad mainline. Southern Pacific paints their "maintenance of way" railroad cars and tools green. Large railroads had, at the time, the means to forge massive metal pieces, like the side rods of a steam locomotive. Whipping out a run of anvils would be no big thing for a steam shop...they were forging parts on a daily basis. No need to put identifying marks on their anvils, they were kept captive in their shops. Mine looks like a Hay-Budden knock off...it is shaped very similar to one. My anvil was painted a bit more mint green...found the color once I had removed the white paint that it wore when it resided in its owners yard...also came with a cast stand. Mine also rings like a bell and rebounds quite well. Enjoy it and use it in good health, it is a great first (and maybe last?) anvil. As an aside....warning someone about the use of the word xxxx? Really? Might want to look it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 Is there a numeral stamped next to the handling hole, upper waist, under the horn? If so, it might be a Hay Budden. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McPherson Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 otisdog: Yes, really. There are rules that we all agree to abide by when we join Glenn's site. No cussin', and no fussin'. G rated. I never found that knowing the name helped my forging. I for one am totally mystified by the public obsession with names on anvils. But then again, there are a lot of things that I just don't get: Pokemon Go, overly hopped IPA's, tattoos, quinoa & kale........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
otisdog Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 My point being, xxxx is not swearing in the singular... as in "look it up". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McPherson Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 My point being: you and I and everyone else that posts agreed to terms of the site, whether we actually read and understood them, or not. Glenn's house, his rules. I happen to agree, as I frequently recommend this site to interested youth as young as 6th graders. I am sure that they all have HBO and know all the words already, but that is between them and their parents. You would not have to hang around me long to know that I could stun passing hornets and blister the bark off of a sweetgum at twenty paces while changing the water pump on a tractor in the driveway, but I say 'dang' here. >>>"You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use this bulletin board to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law.""The Blacksmith Forum is a family site. The standards are set high. You are expected to conduct yourselves as gentlemen and ladies. Your posts are to be civil, polite, and respectful of others and their opinions. There are to be no "bad words", no personal attacks, and it should be able to be read from the front of the church on Sunday with no one being embarrassed."<<< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
otisdog Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 Interesting that the word was censored in my post but not the original one. Funny, but I have heard the offending word often in church....and they don't swear in my church. Last post on the subject, we're here to talk anvils... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAG Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 What is this debate defining the word in question. Its merits are irrelevant. The site has several rules of site decorum, and that is one the restrictions. (There aren't many ). Its use would bother a small minority of visitors, that the management does not wish to exclude. So the word in question is verboten. Case closed. Regards to all the gangue. SLAG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 Admin has to shift through I don't know how many posts every day so there are "robots" involved in filtering out unacceptable words, phrases and such. I've been warned more than once when context altered the meaning of a word. Then a robot sees the same word occur in the same thread it's X'd out. If an Admin reviews an incident when multiple warnings are issued in one thread the human may un-warn or put the poster on moderated, maybe get a phone call. The admin guys are all volunteers sorting through a couple few thousand posts a day AFTER their paycheck job and hopefully some family time. The site is paid for out of Glenn's pocket, it's free to us. Back to anvils. I'm surprised you wondered how something heavy got to Truckee Ca. It's RR, mining, logging and a cross roads in the area. It's the same all up and down the Walker trail and the E.W. main lines. My folks lived on Lake Davis just up the mountain from Portola on 70. Virtually every highway and good sized feeder road is on a RR route. Ever been to Dunsmuir? Just another major RR town in mining & logging country but what really sticks in my mind is the tap water. Wow I'm getting off on a ramble. I guess what point I have is California is criss crossed with rail roads and was industrialized to an amazing degree even before the rush. RR shops were pretty notorious for copying tools and making them in their shops. I have a "Lancaster" pattern swage block made in an Alaska RR shop in the Road Commission days, say '30s-'40s and the folk who held the patent probably never even heard of it. I missed out on the shop anvil and mandrel cones when the Anchorage RR shop shut down that part of it's blacksmith shop. Ah, the POINT! RR towns are likely to have a lot of shop made blacksmithing tools and equipment scattered around town. When the shop doesn't need something it just goes, maybe broken up and remelted or given away or just tossed. The shop foundry may have cast anvils swage blocks, mandrel cones, vises, etc. as teaching projects. It's not like that now, most are under single buyer contracts to a scrapper who is under single buyer contract to a steel mill in China. It's worth looking around RR towns though a LOT of student projects walked. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maui Posted August 8, 2016 Author Share Posted August 8, 2016 As promised, here are some of the requested photos. The only marking that I was able to find was the number 4 stamped into the anvil below the horn, as you can see in one of the photos. No other markings were found. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Frog Posted August 8, 2016 Share Posted August 8, 2016 Hay-Budden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maui Posted August 8, 2016 Author Share Posted August 8, 2016 That was quick! How can you tell? By the way, here's a shot of one of the forging tools that came with it. There are several others too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McPherson Posted August 8, 2016 Share Posted August 8, 2016 That tool is a sheet metal working stake, and should never be put in an anvil and used. Good way to break an anvil. Here is the bottom of my 211 pound Hay-Budden. The 'frame' around the edge is typical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maui Posted August 8, 2016 Author Share Posted August 8, 2016 Thanks everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maui Posted August 8, 2016 Author Share Posted August 8, 2016 Otisdog, I am located in upstate NY. The railroad was the Lehigh Valley railroad. You can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehigh_Valley_Railroad Frank, yes there is a number 4 stamped there. Your observation together with Black Frog's and John's replies has me convinced that it is very likely a Hay Budden. Where did Hay Budden normally stamp their name on the anvil? Was it stamped on the side or the bottom? Or would they have produced some anvils for certain customers that were not stamped with their logo at all? Maui Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Why I wanted a picture of the bottom---a feature unlikely to be copied when "forging" one and closely associated with HB's (and a few trentons...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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