A pretty 70 lbs anvil with absolutely no markings. Bought in RI from a woman who states it was her father"s. The underside shows a slight cavity of the pour. The waist looks like a weld. It has been painted several times. Does anyone know who might have made it. The bottom line of the horn is unusual and straight.

Can't help with the anvil, but this thread will help with the forum.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/53873-read-this-first/

 

Never saw one that shape before, but the seam running nose to tail screams cast iron. 

Try the ball bearing test. If it passes the ball bearing test it's a good anvil no matter who made it.  If it fails the ball bearing test it's a bad anvil no matter who made it.

I'd be surprised if it passed. Doesn't look like a weld but rather a bad mold. The face has the type of damage seen with being too soft. And I hate to tell you but they sold ASOs over 100 years ago as well as the good anvils---they just generally don't survive to this day.

Thanks for the information. I will do a video test of a ball bearing and post it in this thread. I dropped a hammer on the face and this small anvil and it had a nice bounce. Gave me pause with regard to the apparent cast iron casting.... surprised it may have lasted this long.

On 5/28/2018 at 6:44 PM, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

Can't help with the anvil, but this thread will help with the forum.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/53873-read-this-first/

thanks ... I have spent more than a week looking for a post or image similar to the profile of this anvil to no avail. It may mean they've all bit the dust because it is a "bad casting".  I've posted because any information will help to understand the culture of anvil creation. (bad or good)

My vote is cast iron.  The first borrowed anvil I worked on was very similar and was around 70 - 75 lbs.  Had the same seam running up the horn but not on the face.  The face on it wasn't dead soft and there was some bounce to it, more so than medium steel.  When I got a real anvil though, the difference was very noticeable.  With that said, it will "work" and you can forge on it until you find an anvil with a hard steel face.  The one I used had no markings on it whatsoever and my Dad claimed it was "really old".  It had all the old coloring of a well aged patina but I can say it was not a quality anvil for sure.

One common misconception is that cheap low quality tools are a modern thing and that old tools were uniformly high quality.  This was not the case, However the low quality stuff tends to get broken, thrown out, scrapped; where better quality tools were maintained and passed down---it's an "artifact of preservation"  just like we have more examples of high status clothing than peasant clothing from medieval times.

100+ years ago Sears Roebuck & Co sold: cast iron anvils, Vulcan anvils and rebranded Hay-Budden anvils (and other high end brands).  Folks could buy at the pricepoint and quality level suited for them; but guess which ones had a better chance of making it to the 21st century!

Some good points TP.  It seems to me that a lot of people just liked the idea of having an anvil in their garage or workshop starting at the decline of blacksmithing on through the 1970's.  I think maybe the stores catered to that crowd with a lot of these anvils possibly (or at least that's my theory).