July 12, 20178 yr Buddy of mine picked this anvil up from a farm. Missing the horn but good usable space on it. Can't tell what it says on the side, might have to chalk paper it.
July 12, 20178 yr From a website called iforgeiron: Wilkinson Anvil's are of British manufacture. From "Anvils in America" Richard Postman notes that there were up to four (4) different Wilkinson companies/shops in the Dudley/Birmingham area making anvils. And at least two of these companies were exporting to the U.S. Probably Joshua Wilkinson
July 12, 20178 yr Just now, ThomasPowers said: From a website called iforgeiron: That sounds like a really interesting website. I should check it out.
July 12, 20178 yr Actually tannic acid is a rust preventer; if the anvil is scrubbed down to raw iron and then soaked in very strong tea it should come out sort of a purple/blue/black colour...
July 13, 20178 yr Thomas, I can't help but think you know this from anecdotal AND personal experience. My question is this: Why did you desire to have a purple anvil?
July 13, 20178 yr Author 2 minutes ago, Lou L said: Thomas, I can't help but think you know this from anecdotal AND personal experience. My question is this: Why did you desire to have a purple anvil? Ya know... I was thinking the same thing, would be kinda neat to see!
July 13, 20178 yr I was kinda thinking it might be like a tempering purple than a my-little- pony purple, but if that's what it takes to keep your stuff safe from thieves who am I to argue!
July 13, 20178 yr Actually it was from an experiment decades ago on early medieval pattern welding. "The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England" H.R.Ellis Davidson listed a series of possible ways to develop the patterns in a pattern welded blade and besides selective rusting in salt water they mentioned tannic acid from peat bogs. Not having a peat bog handy, I remembered a chemistry experiment where we boiled a pound of tea for an hour and then extracted the caffeine and went an purchased the lowest quality black tea I could find. Boiled it up and left a pattern welded leaf shaped spear head soaking in it overnight. In the morning I removed in and it was covered with black fuzz. "Well that was a dud" I thought walking to the sink but when I washed it the fuzz slipped off leaving the pattern visible in various shades of blue/purple/black. I later ran across a cite on experiments in using tannic acid as a rust preventer in one of the old ASM manuals IIRC.
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