so I got my first anvil which is that one big step toward my final set up, I’ve gone through this feed and looked at all the other arm and hammer ones and I think I have scored a good one, curious to know about the serial number, does any of it state the year it was made or is it simply  the 36651st anvil made by columbus

I would guess it would be 1920-1921 timeframe.  Looks like a nice anvil.

Rebound came back at 85% and sounds beautiful, paid 900 for it but it was a 10 minute drive from my house so I think it wasn’t overly expensive 

All anvil serials are sequential as far as I have seen. As such they generally can be correlated to date at least loosely. 

 A couple of makers; like William Foster or Fisher sometimes date stamped their anvils. (Fisher did it as part of the guarantee) 

If it rings good and rebounds good then it’s a good anvil. If it’s yours and you’re happy with the price you paid then it’s a great anvil. Looks like a clean anvil to me and Arm&hammer is a fine brand. That’s serial number puts it at the end of 1918 or early 1919. 

Granted I would have loved to pay less, however I found several anvils available with a lower price, but there would then be shipping and really nothing I found was this good of quality, and the funny part is the guy I bought it from is now hiring me to do some garage door installs for him so I’ll be making a good chunk of it back 

 

but yes very happy to have this anvil 

Looks like a beauty.  is it not an Arm and Hammer?

yes it is

Sounds to me like you did and are doing OK on this anvil.  We all want to pay less but it doesn't often happen and on top of that  getting a job out it is frosting on the cake,  En joy

 

The edges, cut off and face look like they may have been milled???  Can you see evidence of that or welding on the edges?  The rebound sounds pretty good.

Either way, whether it was milled or ground to that finish, you certainly have some sharp corners on that thing.  They are cold shuts waiting to happen.  I’m torn on whether or not you should use the anvil for a while before doing any modifications (the usual good choice) or go ahead and put a little radius in at least one edge.  Congrats on your first anvil.  I know it feels good.

Certainly hasn’t been milled, there’s a waviness to all the sides but some definitive striations from a grinder, I just joined my local Blacksmith’s association so I’ll be bringing it in one day for them to take a look at, but I’ll just be practicing at the shop so I won’t be needing to use mine for sometime which gives me plenty of time to get a feel for how I’ll want my anvil to be when it comes to that time

Like Lou said, those sharp edges are cracks or slivers waiting to shoot off. It doesn’t hurt to have a sharp edge on a part of your anvil but the majority of it should at least have a tiny radius, 1/16” radius minimum. In addition to preventing your anvil from chipping, you very seldom want an absolutely square inside corner on whatever your forging. I’d recommend just lightly knocking off that sharp corner in the sweet spot above the waist to start with. You can always radius the edges more as needed. 

thanks everyone I’ll be keeping that in mind when I have my home forge up and running, luckily I shall be learning my basics at a proper forge

Milling will show kind of a swirled type of markings I believe from the pictures I've seen of others.  Perhaps someone here can find a picture of a face that has been milled and post it.  Good idea to take it to your meeting and have others inspect it in person.  I'm sure they'll know more once they see it.  If it has been milled, I hope that not too much was taken off it so you have a fair amount of hard steel face plate left.

It's not uncommon for people to get them milled.  When I bought my first anvil I sent a picture to my farrier friend who immediately suggested I get the face milled and the edges squared up.  Luckily, I'd been lurking here for a while and knew that was a bad idea for the longevity of the anvil.  I know that when I was new to this whole thing I didn't realize how thin the face plate of an anvil actually was, so when you take off X amount of steel it equates to 1/3 of the steel plate or more just to get it level and square.  

 

What is welp attached?

I think maybe he meant weld attached?

Looking at the photos again it looks like someone welded around the hardy hole, edges and heal edges.  Not uncommon, but if done incorrectly it could be a problem with all of it chipping away.  It's tough to tell not seeing it in person and there are far better experts on here than I am that's for sure.  

The face was forge welded to the body on my A&H and as they didn't dress their anvils as much as some others were you can clearly see the joint. (I use it to show folks WHY they should not grind/mill the anvils face down as it clearly shows how thin it is!)  I think that one was ground on the side and so what looks like an arc weld void may just be the original forge weld joint ground back. (of course it could an arc weld void....)