Fisher #9 1887

[Al's Available]

New Member.  Thought I'd kill two birds, say hello and give some info on the anvil I ended up with so it's available to anyone who might find it useful.  Really appreciate the wealth of knowledge on the site!  I haven't had a question yet that I couldn't find a relevant discussion about and being "Rigidizer drying as I type" green there's been a lot.  Looking forward to progressing and hopefully being able to contribute.

I have every intention of using this little guy as is to it's fullest and would appreciate any  input especially in regards to the repairs, (I wouldn't hit that with anything harder than your purse,etc).  I don't have any history on the anvil itself.  The gentleman I bought it off had a shed full of anvils and chuckled when I asked if he did any blacksmithing himself.  Just buys and sells...

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Sorry If the picture quality isn't great.  I assume it once had a pritchel hole and suffered a pretty substantial failure there and was filled in with the weld?  Marked "Fisher" on the front of the base.  With a proud "9" above it.  on the opposite side "1887" with "3 11" under it.  Possibly some well worn markings below that I can't make out.  Weighs in at 85 lbs.  Stands 9 5/8" tall, 17 3/8" horn to heel,  face is 3 1/4"x 11".  Foot profile is 9 x 8 1/2 and a 3/4" hardie hole pretty well rounded, might have started 5/8"?.  Rebound is at about 75% with the rust still on(1" ball bearing).  No ring to speak of as I've read is normal for Fishers, "city anvil".  The welds are not as hard as the face which I hope Is a good thing meaning the temper wasn't messed with?  Hopefully I uploaded the pictures right.  Thanks for looking.

Alex

    

[Stash]

Well, Fisher is a cast iron anvil, with a tool steel top, so it will 'thud' rather than ring. Made in 1887 per the marks under the tail- Fisher warranted their anvils for a year. The '9' indicates it's starting weight, more or less, 90 lbs. The other numbers are pretty much unknown- maybe inspectors stamp or iron batch, or????? Other than the pritchell end whammy and the truncated horn it looks to be in good shape. The edges are nicely rounded, not chipped. Fishers are known for chipping due to the hardness of the tool steel plates. The mounting holes in the feet are probably not factory issue, but no concern there. The welded tail should not cause problems, I would just leave it as- is, and make a bolster type pritchel hole for punching. As for the horn, you could make, improvise or buy a bick to fit the hardie hole if you need a smaller point. As it is, you won't get stabbed in the leg- bonus! Other than that, NO GRINDING ON THE FACE! Just polish it with hot steel. Have fun, and be safe.

Steve

[ThomasPowers]

Note as mild steel melts at a higher temperature than high carbon steel you have it backwards: soft has more of a chance to mess up the temper.

Anyway that looks like a nickel rod weld; as is often used for cast iron repairs; now Ni does melt about 100 degC lower than pure iron does; but as far as tempering affects; well tempering is generally BELOW 315 degC and melting of nickel around 1453 degC.

I'd be more worried about HAZ effects like cracking than the temper around that weld.

[Al's Available]

Thanks Steve!  That's about exactly the plan.  Never occurred to me that the mounting holes weren't factory.  Was going to Timber Lok through them making sure not to over torque into a walnut chunk that hasn't become firewood yet. Diameter works, heads should seat fairly well.  Would  you recommend not using them?

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me Mr. Powers!  Gave me a few more search topics.  Carpenter by trade,  really starting from scratch on a lot of the metallurgy and the like.

[ThomasPowers]

As you don't need to fasten down that anvil tightly to help kill the ring; you could just "nail" it down through those holes.if you don't use headed nails you could lift the anvil off to move it.  (I teach some and so my travel anvils have to be easy to move around...)    OTOH you could hammer out some RR spikes to fit the holes leaving the heads alone and so make it look like it's *really* spiked down!