I am new to smithing and am on the hunt for an anvil. I found this "anvil" on craigslist kinda sceptical. I know that some anvils do come in this shape. My hesitation is the lack of identification on it. Don't reall want to spend $350 on a hunk of scrap. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

So, I went to the listing, and looked at all the photos. Pretty low resolution, but the pitting seems to be the same on the face as on the sides, which have no markings. May or may not have a steel face.

Check it out in person with a small hammer or a ball bearing. See if a file skates or bites on the face, or if the face dents under the hammer. If it has good rebound and a hard face, it is a steal at that price. If not, it is an ill shaped boat anchor.

I may have made a bad call but I went ahead and bought it. The rebound in the center was about 65% and 50-55% on the edges. I used a 1" ball bearing and a ruler. I also brought a claw hammer to check the sound. It sounded the same all the way around. I think the hardness is decent. I used a file and it slid across the face without hanging up. I will post pictures once I can get help getting it out of my car. Oh, I got it for $325 instead of $350. 

Thanks for the help!

Looks like a sawyers anvil isn't it?

George

I was thinking an anvil for a large steam hammer. Either one should give good service and at $1.78 a lb it's a bargain.

I'm on the sawyers side; Steam hammer would have a deeper side for wedges I think.

 Looks like a useful anvil at a decent price. Some people seem to prefer that shape for general work , even though it does't have a hardy hole, pritchel , heel or horn.

If you stick with this and end up getting an English pattern or double horn anvil as your main shop anvil, that one would make great floor anvil for upsetting long bars.

Doe's anyone know how they were used as a sawyers anvil ?

 

 

Yes they were used to tune large circular saw blades, hammering them so they would run true at speed:

some here: 

 

I wish the photos were present...  would have been interesting to see what Jeff was doing.

We used to tune our edger saws.  Used the sawyers anvil, hammer, and straight edge.  I never seen a tension gauge for saws.  We always just went by the dish of saw.  Sometimes we would tune the 56" saw if it wasn't too bad of shape.  The really bad ones we would send to another guy in the area that was really good at hammering saws.

 

Here are some pictures of the anvil I said I would post. I cleaned it up a bit with a wire wheel. Probably gonna hit it again tomorrow and apply a light coat of oil to it.

I did notice there seems to be no markings anywhere. I believe it is cast steel but not positive.

 

How many people did it take to move that thing! Nice chunk of steel, it's big!

Haha! So far it has taken two each time and that is sliding it around. It fell off the hand truck and is now on those 2x4s for the rime being.

Hope no one got a foot in the way of that thing! Think about using lashing straps so you can tie it in to a pouch of sorts and then 2 people can do the forearm forklift with it.

I can see a lot of good uses for that in a shop!  After a day of forging on it you'd have a literal hot seat 

No feet were harmed in the movement of this anvil. It was only about 6in off the ground when it fell off the hand truck (in horizontal mode). It surprisingly only chipped the surface of a tile. Great idea about the arm lift. 

Hopefully after a long day of forging, I remember that it will be a hot seat and not a comfy seat.