Iron Pile Rescue—— But what is it?

[5bigguns]

I was working at a junker’s house last week and asked him if he had an anvil he wanted to sell and he brought me what looks like some sort of an anvil vise. I have surfed the interweb for something like it and found a few similar but nothing like it. Most anvil vises I’ve seen appear to be at the heel and not the side of the face. It is my first anvil and I give 5$ for it and weighs 20#.  Thanks for the help.

[ausfire]

For $5 you did really well! That thing would make a superb doorstop and great conversation piece.

[Daswulf]

For $5. You are not at a loss on it but it is not an anvil. We call that an ASO anvil shaped object. It would be a prime example actually. They are cast iron and not good for anything much more tan light tapping like straightning nails. There is no mass under the face so heavy hammering could even break the thing. Could use it to hold a hot cut hardy. 

You could see if the junker has a solid block of steel to use as a real anvil. People often get hung up on thinking an anvil has to "look" like what they know as an anvil. 

Not trying to me rude, but helpful. And I would have bought that one for $5. too.  But more for what Aus mentioned. 

[ThomasPowers]

Just the thing to clean up and use for cracking nuts on by the fireplace.  (My wife uses a 4 oz ballpeen and a small slab of steel to crack nuts on the kitchen table.  Looks funny to have the micro ballpeen sticking out of the pen and pencil jar...)

[Frosty]

Good score as a conversation or decorator piece, anything but light hammering will break it. There are a bunch of combination tools similar to it in old Sears catalogs, almost every farm had one. Too bad the rest wasn't with it. I would've dropped $5 on it in a heartbeat even if I had to drive to an ATM and back.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Kozzy]

Most likely it's basically half a vice or similar tool--there were dozens if not hundreds of patents back in the day for cast iron vices with an anvil feature.  Fine for tinkering in the garage on light work, wholly inappropriate for actual smithing.  I usually call them "dinking anvils" because if your hammer hits hard enough to make a sound beyond "dink" you are going to break it.

VERY common.  In fact, last night I was reading a 1915 book on farming and it suggested one of those vice/anvil combinations if you couldn't afford a real anvil.  Terrible advice (these were big books sold door to door in farming communities at cheap prices--and often gave bad or superficial advice).

[5bigguns]

Thanks all, Das wasn’t planning on using it to hammer on just couldn’t pass it up, he was going to give it to me and I know he can use the money so I give him $5 bucks and he was tickled. I have a railroad buddy getting me a couple of pieces of rail I’m going to use for an anvil till I find an anvil for the price I want to give. I’ve got 4-5 years before I retire and get to serious about hammering anyway. Funny you mentioned it Aus I have been using it as a doorstop in the shop.