Just bought this and was wondering if anyone could help me identify it's maker? It weighs 71 lbs. Thanks.

Welcome aboard Jefe, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many Iforge folk live within visiting distance.

Nice looking anvil, have you done a rebound test on it? It's cast, hopefully steel. Good edges and face, clean hardy hole and horn. Good portable kit size, it'll do good hard work and still easy enough to move.

Good score.

Frosty The Lucky.

I've read about ball bearings being dropped to test for rebound. How should I conduct the test? Just learning. Thanks

Older thread from 2012. PFP stands for Paul Ferdinand Peddinghaus, the company founder. 

http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/27462-old-new-pfp-peddinghaus-anvil/

 

Brush or wipe any crud off the anvil face it can effect the bounce. Then drop a bearing ball from a height, 10" and a scale if you want to be precise (sort of). You eyeball estimate how far it bounces back as a %. 75%+ is good, 85%+ is excellent much below say 60% is poor.

Test in a pattern over the whole face watching for sudden change in rebound, it should gradually get lower as you move towards the heal, less so the horn. If you can do a rebound test on the horn I want to see the video! What you're looking for is a dead spot, sudden fall off in rebound which indicates bad. In a wrought anvil with a welded face plate it can indicate a failing weld between the plate and body or a spot where some idiot used the anvil as a bench for torch work. Yours is a cast anvil so it shouldn't have dead spots, if so they'll be widespread.

Frosty The Lucky.

3 hours ago, John McPherson said:

Older thread from 2012. PFP stands for Paul Ferdinand Peddinghaus, the company founder. 

http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/27462-old-new-pfp-peddinghaus-anvil/

 

PFP anvils never were, to my knowledge, cast. This anvil looks definately cast- the raised PFP and the ridge under the heel. The hardy hole isn't square all the way through, and the step/horn transition isn't good. 

 

That being said, though this is an imitation of a PFP anvil, it might be a good anvil. Just so long as you don't associate the name PFP with the quality of this anvil, since they're two different birds. 

It's not necessarily cast, it could well be die forged, it's only 71 lbs after all.

Do you know of a way to tell if it is cast vs die forged? Thanks.

Yes, take it to a good steel lab and ask for a microstructure evaluation---may cost hundreds of dollars.

2 hours ago, jefe said:

Do you know of a way to tell if it is cast vs die forged? Thanks.

I would contact Joe van der Steeg, He's a user on here, under the name of TechnicusJoe- He's a big proponant of PFP anvils, and knows far more than myself on them. He's here and on youtube, and if you look in the "anvil reviews by brand" section, he's written a lot about peddinghaus and PFP anvils. 

 

Could be die forged, but I am not sure that really squares with the way this anvil looks. That being said, if its good and hard and has rebound, no reason not to use it, its just helpful to keep it separate from true PFP's. 

Then again, what do i know? I've only ever owned one london pattern made by some unknown english maker! ymmv