Greetings from South Carolina. 

I have been playing with metal for a long time, but have never tried my hand at messaging it into submission. I've always been a cut, grind, weld, turn, mill, kind of guy. 

I picked up my first anvil last weekend. Priced fairly for this area. Not in the best shape but should be a good starting point hopefully. Over the next few months I hope to put a basic shop together to build a knife or two. Still deciding on what type of forge I want to use. I'm leaning toward charcoal, or coal but I still have some research to do. 

I look forward to learning what you gents/ladies have to share. 

Thanks. 

 

Howdy howdy welcome to ifi. Good job on putting your location on your profile page. And here is a link that will help you on the forum 

there is a lot of good folks and more knowledge than you could shake a stick at. Have fun!

Your anvil looks to be in very good condition and should serve well for several more generations. How much does she weigh & any name on the other side? I hope you have read about doing no harm to her by grinding on the face. How is the ring & rebound?

I actually managed to read, READ THIS FIRST, first. Hard to imagine I know. I'm glad I did, because my first question was going to be what to do about the damage on the deck and horn of the anvil. The answer to which is nothing. I'll use it as is for the foreseeable future. If it becomes a issue at a later date I'll deal with it then, after I have accumulated a little more knowledge. 

Ring is crystal clear and it seems to ring no matter where you tap it. Good? From what I have read it's not bad. 

Rebound? From some videos and reading it looks to be about 50%. Assuming that means from a 4" hammer drop it bounced back about 2"-2.5" I'm not sure if that is good or not. 

Assuming that numbering on all anvils means the same thing. This one should weigh in at about 106 lbs. I have not stuck it on a scale. The side reads 0, 3, 22. Unfortunate there is no other information to be found. The gent I bought it from only had it a couple of years and had zero information about it. 

 

Get yourself a steel ball bearing and drop it from 10 inches to get a better idea as to rebound.  It's difficult to tell with a hammer drop because of all the variables of dropping the hammer the same, etc.  I'm betting the rebound is more than 50% and probably more like 70%.  My 2 inch thick plate of mildish steel returns 50% drops.  You can order a steel ball bearing online or just get one from an auto bearing set at a junk yard or garage that works on cars.  Another think that affects drop are chisel marks, so try to find spots that are clear or mostly clear of them to test on.

Way to go reading first!  I think you have a very good anvil there just looking at it.  The face will polish as you use it.

One nice thing about the Mousehole-style anvil* is that with that very thick waist, the sweet spot is a much larger portion of the top surface. While it's a bit harder to work thin pieces around that stubby heel**, you get an anvil with the rebound of a much larger one of the more slender styles.

 

*And while your anvil may not necessarily be an actual Mousehole (AKA The Undisputed King of Anvils™), it may well have been made in the shop of someone who trained with the Armitages.

**But you can always make an anvil bridge.

7 hours ago, MC Hammer said:

Get yourself a steel ball bearing and drop it from 10 inches to get a better idea as to rebound.  It's difficult to tell with a hammer drop because of all the variables of dropping the hammer the same, etc.  I'm betting the rebound is more than 50% and probably more like 70%. 

You were dead on correct. I had a hand full of 3/4 bearings in my shop. A drop from 10" got me right at 7" of rebound. 

 

 

That's good to hear Toyman!  70% is a decent rebound and many of the older anvils that style have 70% rebounds I'm told.

Hey there, Toyman.

I live down in the Beaufort area. I am curious as to where you found your anvil. I've been looking, just can't seem to find any in this area.

Thanks in advance