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I Forge Iron

Anvil auction -- Sold a few weeks ago -- Central PA


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Curious, what's the source for that convention? 

I usually hear of near side, far side. But that's still relative to the smith, and let's not go on another round of which way the left handed smith puts the horn. 

I'm super interested, knowing that there are catalogs and books that have been written that I've not read, in who came up with the orientation of taking right and left from facing the horn. 

I would blame blueprint drawings, but I'd tend to expect a horn facing left as the "front view" in a third projection drawing, therefore making the "left side" looking at it from facing the horn.

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Well we done it this away for decades before it was published but "Anvils in America" written by Richard Postman, most likely the preeminent anvil expert in the USA, uses that convention, mentioning in the discussion on Trenton anvils: weight on the left and serial on the right right under a picture that clearly shows that this was looking from horn towards heel.

Also if you are standing in front of a house and looking for it's number and a friend says "it's to the right of the door"  Do you automatically assume they mean to the right if you were standing in the door looking out?  (If so do you have a long history of being a Thespian and so stage right/left is ingrained...?)

Not knowing what books you have read I can't tell you if there are some out there you haven't.

Are there a lot of folks where you are doing it the other way?  Anybody here place the numbers with respect to straddling the anvil looking towards the horn?

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JHCC, don’t forget about “larboard” - it was dropped for “port”.   I’ve read (somewhere in the past) that one reason for the change was that “starboard” and “larboard” could get misheard in the heat of battle.  

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