Hello sage curmudgeons, professionals and fellow newbs. Seeking some advice on this cute little piece of metal. The seller is willing to part  with it for 220€.

Looks to be in pretty good shape to my inexperienced eye. But! It's a 200km drive, so I was wondering if I should bother visiting the seller for some testing.

Thanks in advance! 

I'm no expert on anvils buy any means, but the chips look like hard tool steal (like chiped glass) the body is obviuslty cast, but to my inexperienced ey that could be cast steel or cast iron. 

I'd drive two and a half hours and pay $200, but I only pay $1.30 a gallon for diesel and the truck gets 25mpg. The government figures about .50 a mile (not counting your time, comercial shippers figure $1.50 a mile) that's only another $250 in fuel, insurance, maintenance and depreciation. Might consider having 

It mailed...

Here diesel costs around €1.30 a liter so mailing wouldn't be out of the question

What kind of problems should I expect with the chipping edges? Too bad there's no more than this one pic of the anvil...

Unless the face is delaminated the chips arnt that big an issue, as you use the anvil you may deside to clean up one or another as forging die, but from this side their is plenty of good face to work on, and sharp edges are acualy a bad thing. My anvils have a radii from 1" in the heal to 1/4" in the front. Yours is just reversed.  

Cast steel anvils GOOD; cast iron anvils BAD.  Get the owner to strike it with a hammer while you listen on the phone---a high pitched TING means it's a cast steel anvil and a quite nice one indeed!.  A muted thwap means cast iron BAD; or steel face and cast iron body: Good or Bad depending on other factors.

The chips back buy the hardy hole look like hardend steel, to my eye. 

Some digging around the 'net reveals the construction should be cast steel. Lokomo anvils have kind of a legendary status here. Gonna guess it's partly because they were made in Finland. Not a whole lot of anvil makers here. And from what I've heard from Finnish smiths, the anvils are pretty darn good. 

Hi,

Well if you consider that some Finnish blacksmith-hobbyists travel to the Czech Republic to buy a normal quality anvil, and they do it because it's worth it - I'd be happy to drive and buy that Lokomo.

I've also heard that Lokomos are good anvils. The chipping on the side is not that bad problem. With my limited experience about the anvil situation of Finland I can say you can have a nice deal on the anvil. Maybe the owner even lets the price down a tiny bit. Worth a try.

Bests:

Gergely

Argh, some smith beat me to it. Looks like I have to learn how to TPAAAT... 

Yeah, you do. But if any comfort Finland is not the easiest territory to find a good anvil.

try to find a scrapyard that sells scrap steel. (Finland related info: do not try to contact them on phone, wear your worst cloths when you go there, just ask them casually) Hunt for a big industrial looking chunk of steel. 100 mm dia axel and you're golden for a couple of years while you find your actual anvil.

And nevermind. Steel goes to you any minute it realizes that you're a magnetic personality.

Bests:

Gergely

Your ancestors used what was esentualty a 4x4" (10 cm) block to forge swords, axes, spears and ship rivits. A post or stump anvil, a bick and a portable hole and your off to the races. 

Of corse, Gergely just had his own cast. 

 

There's two scrap yards in my town, I'm not sure why I haven't visited them yet. Probably because I have a habit of going into a shopping spree whenever there's rusty junk around... But I'll see what I can find! And for Mrs. Meadowgrove's sake I'll try not to empty the whole yard. 

One must keep the domestic goddess happy, after all she is a bighearted woman of questionable sanity, she married you! Lol. 

Large sledges, and splitting mauls have made workable anvils as well. 

On 2017. 08. 23. at 7:49 PM, Charles R. Stevens said:

Of corse, Gergely just had his own cast. 

I'm sorry, Charles, but: what?