Help identifying Anvil Find

[MC Hammer]

Spot on Thomas as usual.

I don't have years of experience, but about the only anvil I'd think of milling the surface on MIGHT be a Fisher.  They have that thick face plate.  I've said it a lot here, but I'll say it again.......many blacksmiths have fed their families on these anvils we are acquiring and never saw the need to mill the faces or square up the edges.  They used them as is knowing their limitations and using the "flaws" to do good forging work.  Now we come along in the last decades and think we know better than the 3 or 4 smiths that used the anvil before us.  I think there is just too much emphasis put on how an anvil should look vs. how it should function.  I admit, my anvil is a little beat up in spots along the edges, but it moves metal just as well as a new $1,200 anvil and has a solid / good face.  A master blacksmith could use my anvil and make the same quality things on it that he could with a new one.  He may even like mine better 

[Frosty]

I"m with you Thomas, expertise in one field does NOT transfer to others, thinking it does is the road to disaster. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

MCHammer--- Fisher face plates are not that thick in reality. They cast a false edge that is thicker than the plate itself. To paraphrase another MC Hammer - Don't touch that...dum  dum-dum  dum

 

[MC Hammer]

Ha!  Good one Biggun.  I never knew that about Fisher's.  I'd always heard they had a thicker plate and they sure look like they do.  Well, that takes my list down to ZERO that I would every think about having milled.  

[jlblohm]

The false edge does help with chipping though.  Thats why you see so many vulcans missing half the face but you rarely see a chipped up fisher. The only anvils that could be milled without doing major damage would be something like a rhino anvil that is through hardened. 

[Daswulf]

I've seen many a chipped edge fishers. 

I kind of agree minorly to the cast steel anvils being able to be milled but again on those they are generally only hardened so far into the face. But imo those would be the only ones. Anything with a face plate use as is or look for better.