My +250lb $50 anvil

[AdamTheSaint]

Guy on Craigslist had some 8.5" round stock drops for sale, picked up a 16" piece weighing over 250 pounds... For $50.

Found the stump while walking through the neighborhood sitting out by the curb for heavy garbage pick up the following day, knocked on the door and the lady said I could take it. Thing was about as heavy as the steel drop was. 

Set the drop into the stump about an inch and a half, set it with gorilla wood glue. It ain't going ANYWHERE.

Good score I think.

[ausfire]

2 hours ago, AdamTheSaint said:

Good score I think.

Indeed it was!!

[Cavpilot2k]

Killer find!

[JHCC]

5 hours ago, AdamTheSaint said:

Good score I think.

"Good score"? That's the best score since the New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds 25:13 in 1901!

[ThomasPowers]

I pay 20 cents a pound at the scrapyard myself so decent price, great size/shape for an improvised anvil.  An added bonus is that heavy improvised anvils tend not to wander off quite so easily as London Pattern ones. (I had a 198# LP stolen back in 1982 in OKC)

[Daswulf]

Nice find. I might have left out the wood glue so that you could grind different flats and radiused edges on one end to be able to flip it over when needed.

You'll spend some time using it and learn what will be useful. 

[ThomasPowers]

I thought about that too; but a 250# he won't be flipping it often!   

I remember Honest Bob Cruikshank (sp?) demoing at SOFA using a piece of round shaft as an anvil. He had a stump carved so he could use it standing on end for the flat or laying on it's side making a lovely curve to draw against.

[J.P. Hall]

Awesome. I'm genuinely envious.

[JHCC]

8.5" diameter = just over 26" of circumference. He could grind a radius on the edge that tapers from 1/16" up to 1-1/2" (start with a 2" wide section at 1/16", then 2" of 1/8", then increase the radius by 1/8" every two inches) and still have lots of flat space in the middle for regular hammering.

[Frosty]

Excellent anvil Adam, good score. Radius edges as you need a new radius. No reason to rush anything. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[AdamTheSaint]

Thanks everyone, it sure beats that railroad track you see sitting on the bottom shelf of the cart underneath the forges. Speaking of the track, thinking about setting that up on its end  and grinding out a brazeal style inspired anvil for drawing curves and cutting. 

[Frosty]

RR rail makes a fine anvil, especially on end. Take a look at Charles Stevens rail anvil thread,  URL below. He shows many bottom tools you can grind into the web and flange, it's an eye opener of possibilities. The junctions between cap, web and flange are useful swages of different radius. 

Frosty The Lucky.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/42290-another-rail-road-iron-anvil/

 

[Cavpilot2k]

Heck, at that price, I'd go pick up another piece and bed it in another stump on its side right next to the other one. No flipping needed!

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Did he know what the alloy was? If it is a hardenable alloy you can heat the edges with a torch and quench to toughen them up to reduce mushrooming.

 

[ThomasPowers]

Or every 5 years mill a quarter of an inch off.  (Boy suggesting milling an anvil's face seems WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!)

[Hibby]

well done. How hard it the metal?

[Frosty]

4 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Or every 5 years mill a quarter of an inch off.  (Boy suggesting milling an anvil's face seems WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!)

I don't know what's wrong with you Thomas, at that rate it'll be gone, zippo, pfft, nothing but a memory, in only 320 years! 

I have to say I would've liked to ask for a 30"- 32" length. Standing on end it'd right in MY happy anvil face zone. 

If it's not high carbon and spark testing would tell me enough, it'd be a prime candidate to lay two or three of hard face build up rod and lay another two passes of steel on stone hard facing rod for the final face. Grinding it smooth WILL be a job of work though, believe me. Still . . .

The Gunter method's recommended Stoody rods are perfect, they're just not available to me here so I went with equivalent rods but can NOT for the life of me recall what.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

By which time he will probably have sourced enough london pattern anvils to pave his smithy floor with them!