Went to a scrap yard to try and find a forklift tine to turn into a striking anvil and the owner showed me an anvil he said he had been keeping aside for himself to eventually try blacksmithing. He recently got bad news about his health so he said it was time to part with it. Marked 1-0-18 and painted a hideous green it looked to be in great shape. I asked him a price and he said 300$. I jumped on it and decided to inspect it closer on the way home.  Rings loud and true, sends a ball bearing back into my hand. I'm in the process of stripping the paint and so far I see no areas where the multiple layers of paint was covering a flaw. I think I got lucky here at $2.30/lb. 

 

Good score at a good price.  Sometimes things really do fall into place.  Be sure and add your location to your profile as it helps on many aspects of answers:  You might also find that others are near your location and can give more personal help.

I got to thinking about that hideous green.  On my computer it looks to be emulating the patina which copper or brass can get over time....on a headstone.  Sometimes old smiths had an anvil placed as part of the headstone and painting a real one was a heck of a lot cheaper to do than actually using one that had been cast from more appropriate materials.  I'm curious if there are any signs it might have been potted into a headstone or the color was chosen to emulate copper's patina.

Scrapyard + tweakers = who knows where things came from.

That's just a wild speculation.... 

I think this green had faded some, there was a layer under it and a white layer under that. This thing has a VERY loud ring to it once I placed it on a couple of cypress blocks. The edges are fairly rounded but uniformly so. I rarely need a very sharp edge and have another anvil with sharp edges if I do. The rebound got significantly stronger on the cypress stand as well. It's a keeper for sure. 

Now you need a lottery ticket!  If it has sway in the top plate don't worry about it. The sway in my PW is an asset.

Cleaning up nice. It has a really cool patina  if it has a swayback it's very very slight  

Try turning your cypress on end & jst see if you can tell an addition to rebound.   Where are you?  Might have to try your scrapper.

I'm in Central Mississippi.

Geez you Americans get good deals on anvils! How heavy is it Derek?

13 hours ago, Gorō said:

Geez you Americans get good deals on anvils! How heavy is it Derek?

It's 130lbs. I have 4 now, an 81lb, 125, 126 and this 130. I'm hoping to trade two of the 120's for a heavier 200ish anvil. If I can find one.....

100 pounders tend to be sought after as they can be moved around by 1 person.  They used to go for twice as much as a 200 pounder where I used to be at; but nowadays folks want anvils bigger than they really need as many hobby smiths don't need a massive shop anvil.