Good day!  My husband and teenage boys are just starting to build their forge and my dad just dropped off this anvil for them.  He bought it at a farm auction in the 1980's for less than $20.  We have been doing some research but can't seem to nail down a date or what the A's stamped into it are for?  Any info would be much appreciated!

Between 1852 and 1910; most likely the late 1800's. The A's are most likely inspection marks. The weight is in the CWT system so 1 1 0 original weight was 140 pounds. (1x112 + 1x28 + 0)   Peter Wright is one of the most common brands of old anvils seen in the USA; I don't know where you are at. They have a good reputation.  One of my anvils is a Peter Wright and it has done a lot of work these last 33 years.

Please do *NOT* grind or mill the face and do *NOT* weld on it unless you have studied and can follow the Gunther Method of Anvil Repair HOWEVER most anvils will do quite well with no repairs and do very much better than with poorly made repairs. I currently own and use close to a ton of old anvils and only 1 have I had repaired and that at an Anvil Repair day put on by an ABANA affiliate with people following that method.

We are in Arizona.  We weighed it and it now weighs 123 lbs so there has obviously been some metal loss. Considering how much we are seeing them sell for we feel very blessed to have it handed down to us.  

My husband said our cheap household scale is probably not very accurate either.

Please see my update to my post.  Hopefully you are near one of the Abana Affiliates in AZ; a lot of blacksmithing is much more easily learned by direct transmission of skills and many if not most smiths are willing to give a helping hand.

(as an example if you read in some of the old smithing books they talk about working the steel at a "cherry red". I've run across a lot of folks who assumed that was bing cherry red which is a red/black and hundreds of degrees colder than the old *pie* cherry red that was pretty much an orange colour).

Welcome aboard, glad to have you, heck get your whole family on board. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the Iforge gang live within visiting distance.

That's an excellent score. The edge damage is minor there is plenty of edge left in other locations to do what you need an edge for. As Thomas says welding on an anvil is risky IF you know what you're doing if not it will leave the anvil in worse condition than it is now. Honest, that beautiful old lady only has some wear on her, she isn't injured let along broken. 

Don't sweat what she weighs, it's not really important, 123lbs. is a good weight especially beginning. It'll be some time while while the blacksmith aspirants gain knowledge and experience before they know how to arrange the shop to work best for them. An anvil that weight is plenty heavy to do serious work but light enough to move without straining. My go to anvil is 125lbs. and I have a 206lb. Trenton about 3' away. Heavier isn't necessarily better.

That beautiful old lady doesn't need more than MAYBE a wire brushing to dust her body off and some hot steel beaten on her face to put a proper shine on it. If you want to protect her from rust, brush her well then a light coat of a: polymerizing oil, Boiled linseed oil is popular, A good spray preservative is LPS-3, it soaks into all the little nooks and crannies, has rust inhibitors and leaves a coat of tough wax. It's expensive but really good stuff. I like a good paste carnuba wax floor polish, the can I've been using for a few decades now is "Trewax," but "Bowling Ally Wax," is a top shelf product. I use the same stuff to finish forged items. If goes on best if the piece is warmed up, smoking hot is too hot but more than 100f. is better. Fresh cup of coffee is about perfect in my experience.

Frosty The Lucky.

I just picked up an old Peter wright. One side reads p.wright &under that says warranted.  The other side has the numbers 1,0,&8.i believe he last being its weight at 80lbs. I haven't weighed it though. On the bottom front between the apron its stamped either 11 or Roman numeral II. I'd love a little education on the significance of the stamps&its age&value. Anything would be very very appreciated.thank you

Well 1  0  8  is the weight in the CWT system: 1 x 112 + 0 x 28 + 8   or 120 pounds.  (CWT is based on the old stone weights and only used on old English anvils. American anvils are stamped in pounds and Swedish anvils in pounds or KG and modern English anvils in kg.)

Welcome Nate, have you read this yet? READ THIS FIRST  Pictures and where in the world you are located would help.

 

Hi any idea about the age of this anvil please

Nope...

If it has a pritchel hole then it's most likely made after 1830.  Anvils are not considered "old" until they are around 200+ years old

"Anvils in America" may be able to narrow it's age down from the stampings on it. Unfortunately my copy is 200 miles north in a box.

Is the CWT weight stamp  5 2 22 ? =>   630 pounds?

It was made after 1910 because it has ENGLAND stamped below the word PATENT 

Though some companies started doing that before the 1910 law went into effect.

Looking to see if anyone would have any info regarding age and such on this anvil i just picked up, i believe its a peter wright although i may be wrong, 119# for the hundredweight

What does the underside of the base look like?

Doing a little research i am leaning towards it being a Trenton, he are some more pics though. Any information is appreciated very much. 

Looks like the Trenton diamond. I don't recall Trentons ever being stamped in CWT and that doesn't look like a CWT stamp.  Now it that was actually stamped 149; then a weighed  weight of 144.5 would be very reasonable!

I think it may be 149, there is a lot of build up i am going to try and clean off so i could not for sure tell if it was a 119 or 149.

Some of the "fonts" they used can be confusing too.

I'd say Trenton too. The weight looks like 149 or 148 to me, the difference is probably due to what the factory used to weigh it and your scales. Still a good find. Hope you have read about not doing any grinding, milling or welding on the hardened face which looks good in the pictures.

Yes I have, not planning on touching the face at all 

I certainly HOPE you touch the face! With hot steel and hammers that is. 

Pretty nice looking score. Keep an eye on the near edge in the last pic where it's rolled over. You do NOT want it chipping in use, the crack sound you hear isn't the steel breaking it's the chip breaking the sound barrier. Sure it isn't going to be going that fast very far, a foot or so maybe but it's still traveling at bullet speeds for a couple more. Take a look what part of your anatomy is at that level. Hmmmm?

That spot on the edge MIGHT be where I'd think about taking an angle grinder to that fine old lady. Use it a while before you take any metal off her though, you don't need to work on or very near that edge so it can wait a while. Yes?

Frosty The Lucky.

I will most definitely keep that in mind and steer clear from that, I greatly appreciate the advice!

On 7/16/2019 at 11:29 AM, ThomasPowers said:

Well 1  0  8  is the weight in the CWT system: 1 x 112 + 0 x 28 + 8   or 120 pounds.  (CWT is based on the old stone weights and only used on old English anvils. American anvils are stamped in pounds and Swedish anvils in pounds or KG and modern English anvils in kg.)

 

Mine has 1 1 14, on scale is 124#  by math 127

Could be for sale, just buffing with 120 flap disk, surface scale rust.

 

Edited December 24, 20205 yr by Mod30
correct all caps.

Actually by the CTW system 1.1.14 would be 154 pounds if my math is correct. If it's off by 30 pounds something is wrong. Pictures of your anvil will help.