William Foster 135# / year ID help?

[Yuppiejr]

While cruising one of the local liquidation/construction remnants/odd lot auction sites I threw a bid on what was described in exactly two words, "Heavy anvil."  Didn't figure my lowball offer was going to fly but I ended up winning presumably due to the low effort from the auctioneer on both descriptions and pictures.  Got it home and knocked the gunk off this evening so I could see what I was dealing with, based on the shape I assumed it was a Mouse Hole but after I scrubbed off the dirt and barn gunk it ended up being a William Foster.  It's been whacked up good with a chisel, but seems in good serviceable shape with decent rebound and a flat face.  I can't tell if the odd pitting on the face is a weld repair or just a defect in the steel, I assumed a weld job but found another picture of a William Foster with almost identical pitting.

Here are the post cleanup pics, I'm still trying to figure out a date since the only number visible among all the chisel hits below the maker name is a 7.  There is a single crown stamped below the weld line for the face plate, and then "William Foster" on a single line followed by a lot of nicks and a clearly stamped 7.  The opposite side has the hundredweight stamp of 1-0-23.  

Anyone know where in this mess of hits I should be looking for the manufacturer date on this particular anvil?  I went over it with a flashlight, dusted the entire thing with white chalk and had two other people look closely with and without the flashlight and nobody could spot any additional numbers beyond the 7 in the picture.

 

.. here's a picture of another William Foster with the same strange pitting on the edge of the face, possible coincidence that this one was also repaired or is this a common trait of these anvils?

This one will get cleaned up and re-sold to another aspiring local blacksmith well below the Craigslist prices which are pushing $5 a pound lately.

 

 

 

[ThomasPowers]

WF's used a very low grade of wrought iron and rather tend towards delamination over the years; mine from 1827 is missing 90% of the face along with the heel.

My guess is a failure and a repair---still a decent starter anvil though!

[Yuppiejr]

Thanks for the into Thomas, any chance you can describe the markings on your anvil?  Is the William Foster name on one line or two? I figure there are only so many years ending in 7 in which this one was manufactured so maybe I'll get lucky and find someone else with a 18x7 variation with similar markings and can figure out the year from there.  I like to have as much info as possible to share with the next owner even if it isn't particularly collectible or valuable. 

Functionally the sweet spot on this thing is huge, and it doesn't ring nearly as much as my similar weight Peter Wright which has the sweeping long horn and iconic thin waisted profile that's nice to look at... but it's got that utilitarian beauty of a tool that's meant to be used vs looked at. It really will make a good starter anvil for someone, I'm having a hard time bringing myself to part with it already... but it's got to make it down the road before my wife drops it on my head while I'm sleeping. Cheers -- J

[ThomasPowers]

By coincidence I am collocated with it  Looking at the side with the horn to the right

William

Foster

1828/9 hard to read final digit

On the other side (horn to the left)  is the weight stamp in CWT 3 8 (96 pounds originally)  Bought it at the South High fleamarket columbus Ohio about 20 years ago for US$15 in severely damaged state. (someday I want to do a traditional repair on it and forge weld a new face to it) every once in a while I will demo on it showing that a badly damaged anvil is still an anvil...