Skip to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

I Forge Iron

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

Got my first real anvil today

Featured Replies

I got me a Fisher today. It's 100#, and looks real nice.

It has the Eagle and wheat on side, marked 100, and it looks like S62 in the casting on one end. Can anyone tell me when this was made?

I have been researching to no avail.  You can see 2 small casting pits  on the step that only go in about 3/16". They are part of its journey in time. I think she is a beauty to behold, and I will take the paint off her and buff her down. Maybe I should just bring her in the house and sit and admire it.

Video 2 0 00 01-09.jpg

Video 2 0 00 10-18.jpg

Video 2 0 00 17-11.jpg

Video 3 0 00 10-08.jpg

Very Nice! Fisher and Norris anvl. NJanvilman will respond shortly and give you a lot more info but it is in beautiful condition.

Nice score!

Greetings Brazer, 

.       All ways great to hear a successful Fish story.. Great catch... I have her sister still in factory paint.. N.J. A. M will chime in soon with more info.. Enjoy.. 

Forge on and make beautiful things 

Jim

Nice score, congratulations! Nice size for a portable kit, large enough to do serious work on and light enough to move without hiring a teenager. She's a quiet beauty.

Frosty The Lucky.

  • Author

Thanks guys. My neighbor saw it yesterday and asked will I be making a lot of noise with it. I am in a partial commercial property, so I said not unless I start working the night shift.  Besides this baby is quieter that the ringing sounds of the rail I was pounding on. I am so happy I found her.

That face is in remarkable shape. may I ask what u payed for her?

  • Author

Some will say I paid too much, but I bought what I saw in his ad, and wanted it at first sight. Asking price was $500, I negotiated down to $350, and he delivered to me and set it on my steel bench for me to inspect. I then paid him and I am happy with my purchase.

Naw, not too much if YOU feel good about it. Like any manifestation of the "perfection" myth you can spend forever looking for or trying to make something perfect. She's a beautiful anvil and $3.50/lb might be high some places but it that beauty was advertised around here it'd be sold before the electrons settled in the add.

Oh, the value won't go down.

Frosty The Lucky.

Your anvil was made in the early years of the Crossley time of making Fisher anvils.  The S62 indicates it was made late in 1962.  Your anvil has a nice logo.  Not all Crossley Fisher's had that.  You might have noticed that it is not marked FISHER on the front.  They stopped doing that around that time also.

A bit of history:  the original Fisher plant was located on the waterfront of the Delaware River in Trenton,  In late 1961, the State of NJ used eminent domain to take about a couple of square blocks of land.  They cleared it completely.  One casualty was the Fisher plant.  The gave the operations/materials to Crossley, a manufacturing plant about a mile away in Trenton.  They continued making Fisher anvils until 1979.  In 1979, the EPA shut down the foundry operation due to lack of pollution controls. 

The photo below is of one of my anvils, made in 1942, with the bronze logo stamp used in the mold.  This is probably the same one that did your anvil.  The Eagle is on a Naval anchor, not wheat.  The wheat logo was only used until 1870.  

The black paint on your anvil is probably factory.  You might want to leave it alone.  Just clean the face and horn.  The small casting pits are a non-issue.

 

IMG_20150405_153734112.jpg

  • Author

Thank you njanvilman. It is great to know that she's a keeper. Used it today after cleaning off the dirt. Sounds beautiful when struck, and she will be with me for

as long as I am around.

Thanks a lot.

Here is a picture of mine, can't identify the maker for some reason. I've just did a quick clean up with an angle grinder.

IMG_1456.JPG

You sure? I'm not sure what brand it is but I thought it was those old english wrought iron anvils.

FISHER anvils are not forged anvils. They are American made cast iron/steel top plate anvils. What you have looks like an old engish wrought anvil- plenty good, if you don't grind the face off! 

The anvil's face is like the modern automobile's computer chip- the whole thing doesn't work unless the chip is in good condition, but its small- like the face of the anvil, and grinding it can take 100+ years off a usable anvil. 

Yours looks good, though- its a nice anvil

That's why I just used a flap disc instead of the cutting/grinding disc. 

Not sure if I should weld a stand for it or just get a tree stump....the tree stump is so much easier. I see lots of people use tree stumps

I use a 3 foot diameter whit oak stump, and it works great. 

  • 2 weeks later...

Did you have to bolt/clamp it down to the stump??

I put some oil on my anvil because I noticed it gets rusty quite easily when you leave it sitting outside

IMG_1889.JPG

I use rr spikes to hold mine down. i drive them in around the base. by the way, your anvil is marked w/ stone weight, so that would make it english .check for punch marks between the numbers. if it has those it is a mousehole.

It's most likely a mousehole.  Nothing to prevent a smith from adding punch marks to their anvil cause they like them...

I have a large American anvil where the sides were ground clean.  I'm planning to re-stamp it in CWT just to twist the brains of

some folks...

You should stamp it Hay Budden on one side and Harbor Freight on the other!

18 hours ago, C-1ToolSteel said:

You should stamp it Hay Budden on one side and Harbor Freight on the other!

How DARE! anyone use Hay Budden and Harbor Freight in the same sentence!!!!!  Where are the censorship police?? ;)

There goes my bad habit of using should and shouldn't interchangeably again. Officer, how much is the ticket?

Remember that contractions are not necessary, they are just a short cut.

Now if you were to write should or should not, it would clear things up, no contractions needed.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

Account

Navigation

Search

Search

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.