I finally found an anvil that I decided to buy. 

I don't know anything about it other than the guy I purchased it from had it for the last 25 years. 

I don't know the exact weight, but it's all of 200lbs if not more. 

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Kevin

 

I'd also be thankful for any suggestions on cleaning it up, if necessary? I was just thinking to get the paint splatter off. Etc. Maybe wire wheeling it. 

 

Kevin

A wire wheeling never seems to hurt any anvil. If you can get numbers off of the anvil, especially after wire wheeling, you may get an exact year ID and/or maker. 

If you measure the dimensions of the face, the total length, and the height, then look at the 1914 hay budden catalog on this site, you can get a better estimate of its weight 

I think it is a Hay-Budden, if so there should be a serial number on the foot below the bick/horn.

After cleaning it up with a wire wheel, I only found one recognizable mark. No numbers or letters. Just this Anchor.

I see reference to Peter Wright anvils having anchor stamps on them. Could/should I assume this is actually a PW anvil? Any ideas as to the vintage?

 

My initial thought was that the feet looked like Peter Wright feet.  See if your local library has a copy of Anvils in America.  AIA pg 111 "On the front of the feet under the horn are usually all types of markings, such as numbers, letters, asterisks, anchors and Roman numerals."  Is that anchor stamp located on the foot that is under the horn?  My vote is for a PW, but there are people on this forum waaaaaaay more knowledgeable than I am.  It reminds me of the PW's made after 1910.  Henry Wright also made a similar looking anvil too.  You might be surprised what you find if you clean the whole anvil with a wire wheel.  I couldn't read the weight of mine until I wire wheeled it.  In fact you couldn't even see that there was anything there.  Yours looks like it has some layers of old paint on it.  Mine actually had grey and green on it though the rust took care of most of the paint but it does obscure the writing.  I see that the body has a lot of test punches and chisel marks, but sometimes you can make out one or two letters that will really help solve things.