Since anvils are so hard to find in Australia. How does this look? I think I would most be making blades,hammers and other kind of work that requires a striker.

Here are some pictures. 

 

What do you fellas think????

It looks more than just good to me but I'm a huge fan of Soderfors anvils. 71lbs is an excellent portable size, maybe a little light for a shop anvil but it'll do for moderate and light  jobs. Make it a good stand, wood will let it ring and Soderfors anvils are LOUD. I put mine on a fabricated steel tripod and it's quieted to reasonable levels.

You might want to keep your eyes open for a heavy piece of steel to use as an anvil for heavy jobs, hammers and such. It doesn't need to be a London Pattern to be an anvil. A truck axle makes an excellent anvil mounted flange up as will most any piece of shafting on end. I'd still grab that Soderfors, they don't come any better quality.

Frosty The Lucky.

Looks in good condition, great first anvil, go for it.

Definitely go for it. The only two obvious issues are as Frosty described: it's a bit light for a shop anvil, and the ring is going to be pretty loud. Bedding it down on a layer of silicone on a heavy steel stand will help a lot with both of those.

By the way, what's 71 pounds in Australian dollars?

I'm planning to pick up the anvil this weekend hopefully or this Monday.

it was posted on eBay for $600aud but I've bargained with the fellow and have come to an agreement in regards to the price of the anvil.

Hope you get it before someone else shows up with cash in hand.  That's a dandy of an anvil and you'll be well served by her.  Nice clean edges, no sway in the face, the horn's minty....  you really don't get any better than that.  If you take good care of her, you could forge on it for the next thousand years.

Is a good one, buy it!

Will do, picking this gem up this Monday. It's about 3-4 hours away from me unfortunately. 

Just a question about anvils is it true that if the anvil has more mass and weight it's easier to move steel when hammering? 

This is picture of a tanto I've forged on a friends soderfers anvil. Maybe it's my hammer technique but I have to use more heats whilst I see people on YouTube use less heats

Don't believe everything you see on Youtube. That said some guys get a lot more movement that others with the same equipment. Hammer technique has a LOT to do with moving metal. Knowing when to stop and hit the fire again, etc. etc.

Whatever you do develop the skill to do it well. THEN start trying to do it faster, well trumps fast any day.

Frosty The Lucky.

Knowing which end of the hammer to use first helps in moving metal faster too..

 

 

Ended up getting something heavier. It's not a soderfers. 

Anvil face has cracks on the edges....but there was another anvil with no hardened face which was the same weight so I went with the one with the crack on the edges.