I know there was a company in chicago that made anvils with SDK but I thought they worked with Hay Budden and this one looks like a Peter Wright? 

Someone on another site gave me the answer that its a very early HB

 

That is incorrect.  Very early Kimbark's were made by Boker in Germany, same as an early German Trenton.

Black Frog did those early ones have the flat on the feet like was seen on some of the Trentons?  Might excuse some of the confusion with the PW guess.

Altho unproven there are those that believe that Boker was contracting with PW to produce anvils which were then branded Trenton. 

 

Removing the thick coating of paint on the side might reveal more clues.

The Boker anvils have some general similarities, but are still noticeably different than PW's.  The proportions and forging style are not the same.

Many of the Boker's are marked with the "GERMANY" stamp.  This would no be the case if PW was making them.

This SDK shown is the same as the early German Trentons.  Just a different stamp on it.

34 minutes ago, Shady McGrady said:

Removing the thick coating of paint on the side might reveal more clues.

A wire wheel in a drill or angle grinder would work, as would chemical stripping. No grinding wheels, no heat guns or blowtorches.

Black Frog.  My Boker Trenton doesn't have "Germany" printed on it and the "Solid Wrought" is not in a circle but two words one on top of the other.  Since getting mine I've been looking at every Boker that presents its self and see 3 different types so far:

• Bokers that have "Solid Wrought" (not in a circle) below the Trenton mark with no "Germany" on them.  IMHO these are the earliest dated ones.
• Bokers that have "Solid Wrought" in a circle printed below the Trenton mark with no "Germany" on them.  I think these are mid-age types.  I see a lot of them like this.
• Bokers with "Solid Wrought" in a circle printed below the Trenton mark with "Germany" marked on them.  I think these anvils are the latest dating Bokers given the requirement to put the country of origin on them.

I don't have any documentation to back this up, just a theory of mine since we don't know much about the Boker Trenton anvils.  I'd love to hear other theories and opinions, especially from Black Frog.  I could be wrong on all or some of the above.

One thing is for sure, all Bokers have PW like feet.  Find an anvil with PW feet and a Trenton trade mark stamped on it and you have yourself an early Boker Trenton anvil.

I am picking it up tomorrow as most people on here know I get lots of anvils (50+ a year) in I only really keep Hay buddens( my favorites)I will be cleaning it up in the next couple days and will post photos of any stamps or any other identification marks I find for you guys.

I believe the circular "SOLID WROUGHT" as well as the flats on the feet were an attempt to imitate some features of world's best selling anvil at the time- Peter Wright.  Some German Trentons had the "PATENT" stamp on them too, just like PW.

I have seen a few oddly-oriented vertical stamps of GERMANY between the feet on some early German Trentons as well.  

Not sure there is a good indication for organizing them into which came first, I've recorded some with SOLID WROUGHT in two lines also with the GERMANY stamp.  I've seen at least three different styles of the SOLID WROUGHT two-line stamp too.  There's "GERMANY" and "MADE IN GERMANY" stamps on early Trentons.

There are several different version of the German Trenton logo stamp I've recorded.  And I've also see some very different proportions and forging styles of German Trentons.  Makes me wonder if there was more than one shop forging them.....

Since the German Trentons did not have any serial numbers, pretty tough at the moment to figure which came first, and also why I've been concentrating on organizing the Columbus Trentons (and A&H's) by logo style.  Serial numbers makes for a convenient way to look back through their history and all the different logo styles they used during production.

2 hours ago, MC Hammer said:

One thing is for sure, all Bokers have PW like feet.  Find an anvil with PW feet and a Trenton trade mark stamped on it and you have yourself an early Boker Trenton anvil.

....some of that statement is not true.  The very early Columbus, Ohio Trentons had flats on the feet and forged bases, very similar to the German Trentons. 

This was before they switched to the first style of cast base.

Thanks for the more correct info Black Frog!  I knew someone out there knew more about all of the different Boker anvils out there.  Great info.  Do you think the "Germany" and "Made in Germany" could correspond with the same rough time that PW anvils were required to have "England" stamped on them?  If so, that might be a way to separate out those to be later than the others.

I also didn't know some of the very early Columbus Ohio Trentons had flat feet as well.  Do you think those flat feet were just left over stock they had to use up from the earlier Boker anvils?  I guess what I'm asking is that do you think it would be possible those are just left over Boker bases?  Thanks for the info, we all learn a little something new.

 

 There was no leftover stock,  Boker anvils were built up forging, and the built up forged early Columbus anvils are similar,  but different. 

Here are some photos needs more cleaning there are a lot Of coats of paint on it

She cleaned up nicely.  My old German Trenton had green and red paint, well parts of it left, and it was hard to get off.  That face looks like it's pretty smooth on top with lots of life left in it.  I like the color of the patina left when the wire wheel is used.  Here's a picture of my Boker Trenton........look familiar 

On 1/22/2018 at 1:01 PM, MC Hammer said:

Black Frog.  My Boker Trenton doesn't have "Germany" printed on it and the "Solid Wrought" is not in a circle but two words one on top of the other.  Since getting mine I've been looking at every Boker that presents its self and see 3 different types so far:

• Bokers that have "Solid Wrought" (not in a circle) below the Trenton mark with no "Germany" on them.  IMHO these are the earliest dated ones.
• Bokers that have "Solid Wrought" in a circle printed below the Trenton mark with no "Germany" on them.  I think these are mid-age types.  I see a lot of them like this.
• Bokers with "Solid Wrought" in a circle printed below the Trenton mark with "Germany" marked on them.  I think these anvils are the latest dating Bokers given the requirement to put the country of origin on them.

I don't have any documentation to back this up, just a theory of mine since we don't know much about the Boker Trenton anvils.  I'd love to hear other theories and opinions, especially from Black Frog.  I could be wrong on all or some of the above.

One thing is for sure, all Bokers have PW like feet.  Find an anvil with PW feet and a Trenton trade mark stamped on it and you have yourself an early Boker Trenton anvil.

My broken Boker Trenton also has a bit of the peter wright look with the flats on the feet but is clearly made in Germany.

I bet she still works great even though her tail has been clipped.  234 was a pretty big German Trenton.  I wonder how many other members have Boker Trentons?  How about you show them off in this thread everyone!  Let's see them, good, bad and the ugly.

So this was one of the first moves so far since I got it and I was looking the Kimbark(bottom anvil)top anvil is a pw farrier and it looked like someone removed the clip on the Kimbark at some point thoughts? 

So this was one of the first nice day so far since I got it and I was looking the Kimbark(bottom anvil)top anvil is a pw farrier and it looked like someone removed the clip on the Kimbark at some point thoughts? 

Well you asked:  why are you spending time thinking about that and not working on those anvils!

On 1/23/2018 at 7:32 PM, MC Hammer said:

  I wonder how many other members have Boker Trentons?  How about you show them off in this thread everyone!  Let's see them, good, bad and the ugly.

Just picked up another Trenton this morning. Weighs 159 pounds and I believe it's another made in Germany.  Got it for $200 which I think was a fair price for these days because there's a few weld repairs on the edges, although they seem old and have held up through use. It has excellent rebound (about 90-95% with a half inch ball bearing) and a nice ring.

The bottom photo is comparing the stamps between the 159 and the other 234 boker I have. The new to me 159 can clearly read "Trenton, patent, solid wrought ( in a circle) and the weight, 159.

Love it!  Thanks for showing off another German Trenton!  Mine is just like your broken heeled one as far as the "Solid Wrought" stamp.  It doesn't seem like the face plate jobs on the German Trenton's held up really well.  Of course they are late 1890's so it gives them a few more miles.

Just got these two anvils from my uncle. The little h boker anvil we found hiking at an old mine back in about 1985. It’s stamped 16 then a 1 with a barley visible B under the 1 the bigger anvil is about 125lbs. He found that one hiking and packed it out from old mine site in 1983 it has no markings other than 27 on the bottom cast. Looks like it’s a cast base there is a line that separates the body from base and hard steel on face and looks like hard steel on horn too has no ring but a note sound 

Your quiet one is probably a Fisher, the high carbon steel face welded in the mold to the cast iron body doesn't resonate (ring) making them pretty darned desirable besides being a high quality working anvil. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Edited May 30, 20224 yr by Mod30
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