Anvil i.d.

[Mooreag]

Any ideas

Edited June 10, 2017 by Mooreag
Add pictures

[Tubalcain2]

do ring/rebound tests and report results. it is obviously cast, but that will tell us if it is cast steel (good) or cast iron (bad). can we have detailed pis of both sides and feet? it looks to be a fairly modern production, but all the same.

[Judson Yaggy]

Probably junk.

[Ranchmanben]

2 hours ago, Judson Yaggy said:

Probably junk.

Yee of little faith...I agree. 

[Mooreag]

Thanks it was a craigslist add for a forge and anvil. Didn't think the anvil was quality but thought I would check with y'all 

[matei campan]

If that anvil have served for a time, there's a chance to be a good anvil, if junk, it couldn't be in such a good condition (heavy chipping, hammer marks, etc). as I can see, there is some tooling also, so I'm inclined to think that that anvil has served. Also, usually junk anvils are smaller and with a rougher finnish and ugly shapes. I think that anvil worths being checked, you could miss a very good anvil

[Frosty]

Start carrying a ball bearing in your pocket, I like 1/2" ones using 1"ers is from the more is better crowd and is less than pleasant to carry in your pocket all the time. When I'm garage saling I carry a couple in case one takes a bad bounce and disappears.

This one is giving off contradictory signals as Matei points out. The over thick false face plate screams ASO. The size and shape are pretty good though so . . . maybe. On that score. The lack of wear is a maybe never got used or maybe good. My vote is it got put in a corner and forgotten.

Being cast is no sin, I have two cast anvils. My Soderfors is as good as an anvil gets and sows very little wear in the form of minor chipped edges. The other is a cast iron ASO that was dropped off here 15+ years ago and has been rusting in the brush since. It doesn't have any hammer marks and is only a little rusty, it's even a decent shape and size, about 120lbs IIRC.

There's a discount tool store a few miles from here that has anvils, as always. These are a Fisher knock off running 110lbs. ASOs one and all.

I'd have to do a rebound test on that one, without expecting anything good but hoping to be surprised. Take a bearing and go look at it.

Frosty The Lucky.   

[Thief_Of_Navarre]

KL anvils and the Brooks farrier pattern both have the rediculous looking faces to them and I'm sure they aren't the only ones. I'll stick my neck out and say it's a military issue KL; cast steel.

[matei campan]

Bear in mind that the rust layer on the face tends to affect the result of the bearing ball test, tye thicker, the less rebound, so for an accurate result the rust must be removed if possible. if i were to consider the result of the bb test on a little Trenton I bought, I wouldn't have it now - it was heavily painted over a good layer of rust, so there was almost no rebound. Also useful for testing is a file - you check if it skates over the edge or it easily bites into it. On that little Trenton the file was very useful to confirm what my eyes told me, that is a good anvil.