There was a reference to a 1000-lb anvil in another thread, and I followed up on it, finding the Blacksmith’s Paradise shop. Those anvils are pricey, but less expensive than what I can find in my area. I’ve also been having issues with the beat up edges of my pre-1850 Hill. 

So.... anyone buy from them? Any opinions on working with them?

(no, I’m not in the market for that 1000-lb monster, but I wish I were!)

Your location is a big factor. You need to be by a large port or waterway. Otherwise you either need to travel to get it from port or set up your own shipping from the port of your choice.

10 minutes ago, JlBlohm said:

Your location is a big factor.

Which provides a timely opportunity for us to remind you to add your location to your profile settings!

On top of the purchase price, shipping, import duties, and brokerage fees are not cheap.....

If you can find someone to share shipping (as in a couple of you have anvils shipped together),  He’s got a flat rate of $500 USD for 1000 pounds on a pallet.  I know two people whose anvils totaled right at 900 pounds, so they split the cost - $250 each.  They also said they were able to get a better price than what was listed, depending on how long the anvil had been on the list.  Have no idea how smooth the whole process was, but they did get the anvils.  

Interesting. I was unaware that my location affected the business experiences of others. Noted for he future. 

On 8/6/2018 at 9:31 PM, bajajoaquin said:

There was a reference to a 1000-lb anvil in another thread, and I followed up on it, finding the Blacksmith’s Paradise shop. Those anvils are pricey, but less expensive than what I can find in my area. I’ve also been having issues with the beat up edges of my pre-1850 Hill. 

So.... anyone buy from them? Any opinions on working with them?

(no, I’m not in the market for that 1000-lb monster, but I wish I were!)

Emerald is a bit difficult to work with (I bought two anvils from him).  We had a long back and forth over several months and I told him I wanted to buy three vises to fill a pallet (1,000lbs).  All along, I was up front and said it might take me a few months to decide on anvils, and have the money at the same time, and he said he was fine with holding onto them until they could ship at the same time.  I bought one anvil, then a month or so later bought another.  I was trying to decide on a third, but never got to that.  

Oh, he won't take anything but a wire transfer if you buy outside of eBay, so add $25 or so to the cost. 

Without any notification I got a call from a guy named Henry in Texas saying that he had my anvils and wanted to know how I wanted to deal with shipping them.  Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed.  Emerald never checked with me before shipping because he prefers to send a container to Texas with everyone's anvils, give that guy a free anvil (or one very heavily discounted) and let him deal with re-shipping them to all of the other buyers.

In the end I wound up paying Emerald for shipping to Texas, then setting up my own shipping from Texas to Michigan.

To make things even more interesting, a local friend of mine had also bought an anvil from Emerald at the same time, and it turns out he didn't pay anything for the shipping between Germany and Texas.  He and I combined our three anvils and got them shipped from Texas to Michigan fairly reasonably, but it was still not what I ever intended since Emerald lists he can ship to most any major U.S. city and all of the Detroit freight places are within about 20 minutes of my house. 

Henry was very helpful, combined the two shipments into one, and got them dropped off at the freight terminal for me.  He told me that a number or people he called had the exact same response and had no idea their anvils were going to get shipped to Texas.

I will say that both of the anvils I bought, and the one my friend bought, were exactly as the pictures described.

All of this comes down to communication.  If Emerald had been up front and said "I ship X times a year, and send them all to Texas, and then you'll coordinate with Henry" or something like that, I would have been okay with it, but having it dumped on me like this was unprofessional, especially since he knew I was looking to buy three anvils, not just two.

 

On 8/7/2018 at 11:01 AM, Black Frog said:

On top of the purchase price, shipping, import duties, and brokerage fees are not cheap.....

There are no import taxes on anvils, or other blacksmithing items.

Thanks, that’s very helpful. And I totally agree: the setup as described actually seems pretty convenient in that there’s a central US person dealing with import. Sounds like a good way to do it.... if you’re telling people in advance that’s what you’re doing. 

I have a question,  when you pick up the anvils from the terminal, do you have pay in order to get them ? In other words are there any fees that I'm not aware of?

Welcome to IFI Vincent, have you read this yet? READ THIS FIRST  It will help you in getting the best out of the forum.

Vincent that will depend a lot on which of the 150 countries that participate here you are in and if they have COD or other payment mechanisms; or if you need to pay a customs fee for it crossing an international border.

Interesting side note: All of the anvils I am looking at on the website seem to have pristine edges and faces; 

Is this a matter of him collecting the best, or is there a general trend towards country's having long traditions in smithing to handle their anvils more carefully? (thinking in comparison to the dozens of farm anvils seen in the US that are marred to high heaven)

That or he has someone mill the faces, which we all except a few know is a bad thing.

When the weight is not engraved on the anvil, the weighing of the anvil is sometimes wrong because he use heavy chain (about 60 lb) to increase the weighing of the anvil. The weighing of the anvil is not the number writen on the screen, on the screen is the weighing of the anvil and the chain. So the weighing of the anvil is lighter about 60 lb.

I would have thought a fancy set of scales like that would have the ability to be set to zero after the chains were fitted, giving an accurate reading of anvil weight?

I bought a small anvil (187 pounds) from Emerald and got it successfully.  He gave me the name of a person near me and I coordinated the shipping of the two anvils to him and then I picked it up from him.  Was it a bit challenging with the language and Emerald, but the anvil did arrive and I do have it.  Again, not the most seamless purchase, but I am satisfied.  If I saw another I wanted to buy from him, I would, but would also be prepared for the effort it was going to take. 

Here's the ARS anvil (August Reflinghaus and Sons) when I first unloaded it in the driveway.

Welcome aboard blacksmithhammer, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you might discover how many members live within visiting distance. 

Do you know for a fact this person doesn't tare the scale when he weighs anvils? The pale green button second from the right is the TARE button and it appears pretty worn. I'd be very surprised the person who owns the fork lift, scale and sells anvils would be so stupid as to pull a stunt like that. Word of mouth would kill his chances of selling anything.

If you don't know Tare weight is the weight of hooks, chain, bucket, whatever is on the scale you don't want included in the weight. Say a bucket of coal, tare the bucket and the scale automatically subtracts the weight of the bucket. Common normal everyday everywhere. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I was not aware of that term, which I'm sure I will be using some time in the future. Thanks

Weights and measures can be fun. Like the origin of tare weight is from the old French meaning waste or unusable. 

 

I certainly hope you have proof of that statement.

My anvils i got from emerald were dead on with the weights he showed in pictures!!!!

23 hours ago, BillyBones said:

Like the origin of tare weight is from the old French meaning waste or unusable. 

18 hours ago, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

I certainly hope you have proof of that statement.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition:

Quote

Etymology: < French tare (15th cent. in Hatzfeld & Darmesteter) waste or deterioration in goods, deficiency, imperfection, also as in English, = medieval Latin tara, Italian tara, Provençal tara, Spanish tara, Portuguese tara, Old Spanish atara (Littré), < Arabic ṭarḥah that which is thrown away, < ṭaraḥa to reject.

 

Most commercial scales you can either set a tare weight with counterweights on a beam,hit zero on a digital scale or pull a lever to rezero it with the tare material on the scale. I used to weigh pallets of rubber on a huge old Toledo scale and I'd throw whatever type of pallet were being used on the scale pull the lever to re zero it, remove the pallet, and start weighing the loads.

Pnut

The Grandson of the owner of the scrapyard I go to, around 11 years old, knows how to zero the scales when he weighs me in/out.  I always ask or remind the scale person anyway. "Ready for me to load?"

Knew one old skinflint who would try to drink a lot of water before going through the truck scales and release it while he was in the yard.  No it's not me;  I'm happy to give them that dime extra. I want them to stay in business and be happy for me to show up and buy scrap steel!

I've heard of scrap metal collectors trying to make a couple of extra bucks by bringing in hot water heaters without emptying them first.