Repairing Anvils - An editorial from 1897

[Eli Taylor]

I came across the following editorial article in "The Blacksmith & Wheelwright" (Volume 37 No. 1 Jan 1898). I know the topic gets some airplay now-a-days and liked how the skeptical reply of Mr. Schmidt echoes the wisdom we still hear today. Thought I'd share:

Quote

"REPAIRING ANVILS."

Not Every Smith Can Do It Successfully.

Editor of The Blacksmith and Wheelwright.

I don't know who B. F. Spalding is that wrote the article in this month's number on .. Repairing Anvils," but I don't believe he ever did the things himself that he takes a whole page to tell how he thinks it might be done. Perhaps there may be here and there .. a natural genius for this kind of work, and a truant disposition,,. in other words, an ingenious tramp that with such directions could patch up after a fashion worn-out .. wrought" iron anvils (none others ever needs it), but it would be a poor job and altogether cost more than a new anvil. Where are the three men in a.country shop with the skill of long training to handle it with the three bars in the three holes while the smith does his nice work of welding on a piece of .. blister" steel-a bigger job of welding than he ever in his life before attempted' And where is he to get that special kind of steel that' he can't find kept in any of the stores in the neighborhood' There is not a hand bellows or hand blower in any shop that will give a .. sufficiently powerful blast" to perfectly weld the steel face, four inches wide by sixteen inches long, of a 150-pound anvil, even if he did "borrow a bellows for an extra fire" from some other blacksmith in the next town. He will find it a sweet job, too, to cut off what is left of the old face and shape the body ready and smooth for the steel. The whole paragraph just above the picture of this wonderful genius is true as Gospel, but it is like that other old saying, "Don't wipe your nose with yeur elbow." 

What would happen to the thin steel plate during all those repeated beatings to get a weld-of burned steel and worthleBS edges' Then he gayly directs how to make a file that will give a fine, true surface all over with two men sawing away on it and the" protuberances," and, as. he says, .. somewhat faster than a planer." How many blacksmiths have ever tried their hand at making a file that would cut, He is right in saying it will take "muscle" to work that machine.

His idea of hardening with tub and buckets might work once in a dozen trials, but would give poor and uneven temper-even new anvils with blister steel hardly ever have the same hard temper all over the face. Every blacksmith knows that a .. butt" weld is about the poorest job there is, even for a two-inch bar, but to succeed in jumping on as big a chunk as the horn to the body anywhere except in a regular anvil factory is next to impossible, and even then they often drop ~ff after a year's work. The best wrought anvils, the" Peter Wright," never are made that way, but the whole upper part, horn and all, is forged out in one piece. None but the poorest anvil is nowadays made with the horn butted on. Following such .. directions," I should say an ordinary blacksmith, not a .. genius" with his three men and their three bars, would take about a week to do the job and have a miserable botch for his pains. There is a regular concern in Chicago who have all the tools, machinery and skill, and make a business of repairing; wrought iron anvils probably as cheap and well as it can be done, and this is the price their circular gives for the work B. F. Spalding describes 1\8 so easy for working blacksmiths of the country, viz.: Steeling, 6~ cents per pound; new horn or heel, 7~ cents per pound; dressing, tempering and grinding, 4 cents per pound. It is a pretty good price to put on an old anvil, but is not one-half what it would cost me or any other blacksmith to attempt such a fool performance. Better send the old anvil to Arthur J. O'Leary in Chicago for fixing up, or buy one of the .. Eagle" anvils that are warranted never to have the face come off or .. settle" or the horn to break, and would cost Iess money. I have worked on one of them, mostly in forging steel, for eighteen years, and it is as good and true and hard as in the first year.

CHRISTIAN SCHMIDT

Trenton, N.J., December 10, 1897.

Several years worth of this periodical exist online and it is often an interesting read. Additionally the many ads (just as bad as trade journals are today : ) are great to look at and imagine what it would have been like to have access to such a plethora of tools from many vendors.

[Stash]

The same article and reference is printed in AIA. Mr Postman must have found it and had the same response as you. Thanks.

Steve