171lb Hay Budden

[Lsat]

I recently stole ( payed 300$ for)  a 2 gen 171lb Hay Budden In very good condition and I would like to get an informed  opinion about what is is worth. Also the edges have absolutely no Chips in them, but about 7 inches on the...starboard edge is mushroomed down and out about 3/16 of an inch, what should I do about it? 

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Lsat, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many members live within visiting distance. 

Pictures will help, it's hard to render a meaningful opinion via a text description. 

Have you done a rebound test? drop a 1/2" or so bearing ball from about 10" and estimate how high it bounces back. Use a ruler if you aren't good at estimating things like that, it isn't really as easy as it sounds. Drop a pattern over the entire face, watch and listen for dead spots, any sudden change in rebound is important. Expect it to taper off as you test out the heal. 

Remember, pictures, we LOVE pictures.  Taking pics of metal can be hard. If you use oblique lighting details will be more apparent, direct flash washes them out with it's reflection. Put the light at a shallow angle to one side, moving the light around for different light angles is good.

Well, that's about as helpful as I can be for now.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome to IFI... I always suggest reading this to get the best out of the forum. READ THIS FIRST

Like Frosty said, editing your profile to show location and pictures will help with questions/answers. At $1.75 a pound U.S. you got a very good deal and I hope you have read about not grinding, milling or welding on the hardened face.

[ThomasPowers]

Not knowing your location it is IMPOSSIBLE to give you an informed opinion of what it's worth. Anvils can differ in price just in different locations in the USA not to mention the other 100+ countries that participate here on the World Wide Web.

We really need a picture to judge it's condition. (Like a used car the condition can wildly affect the price and people's judgements can also vary wildly---7" of mushrooming would not equate with very good condition to me for instance.)

[Lsat]

Thanks so much for the feed back, here are a few pictures, of before and after I cleaned it up. I’ll get more of the  serial number  And other markings ASAP.

In my excitement I believe I overstated my  initial  Statement, Maybe “ok” is a better description, it seems like it sat rusting for quite a few years. But this is my first anvil and I know enough to know that I got extremely lucky, and in my excitement went a bit too far.

 

 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Well I say, ya done good, looks like she's ready to go to work. That small amount of mushrooming is not a problem, use it for a year like it is before thinking about any modifications. You don't want square edges on a working anvil. Around here the asking price on it would be about $700-750 and with a lucky bit of haggling maybe bought for $550.

[Lsat]

Do you have a lot of anvils in your area?

[Lsat]

Also, I might have the chance to have the face milled perfectly flat. Should I hold off on that?

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Absolutely not only hold off, but do not mill, grind or weld on the hardened face ever. Plenty of discussions about that here. As far as the availability of anvils here there are a few but most are in "antique" shops and are outrageously priced.

You might also want to look into using the quote feature.  The quote feature

[Donal Harris]

Here in Central Oklahoma it would likely sell for $650 to $750, but most are listed for about $1000 to $1200.

The edges on yours are not all that bad. Certainly better than mine. You can always forge a Hardy tool if you need something with a better edge. 

[Lsat]

16 hours ago, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

Absolutely not only hold off, but do not mill, grind or weld on the hardened face ever. Plenty of discussions about that here. 

I’ve looked quite a bit but I can not find a post on this, could you direct me to one, or explain your reasoning?

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

To find info here use your search engine of choice and include iforgeiron.com. it will bring up all threads that include the search parameters. I googled (grinding anvil iforgeiron.com) and this is the results.

https://www.google.com/search?q=grinding+anvil+iforgeiron.com+site:www.iforgeiron.com&client=firefox-b-1-d&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjn2JDJgPHhAhWJHXwKHaP-ARQQrQIoBDAAegQIBRAO&biw=1138&bih=511

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

If you want dead flat buy a new anvil. The top hardening doesn't go that deep, and milling, grinding, etc just reduces the service life. Sway comes in handy for straightening parts. Seriously, just mount it up, and start using it. The scale that comes off your parts will start polishing the top up in no time.

[Lsat]

I guess I’m a bit confused, but I do come from a place of ignorance so please help me to understand. It seems that following logic, you want the flattest anvil face you can get. And if I’m only taking off 1-3 millimeters I don’t see much damage being done to the anvil. I don’t mean to insult anybody but I can’t understand why I wouldn’t flatten it. I guess the argument could be made that 1-3 millimeters is not that much of a difference. But in my rather  limited experience it says that it does.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Did you bother to read the threads I linked for you?

[Frozenforge]

Anvil does not need to be dead flat. Please NO MILLING!

[Chelonian]

Exactly what will you be doing that requires a perfectly flat working surface?

My anvil does not have a particularly smooth or flat face. It has some sway (which is actually beneficial in nearly all cases), some chisel marks, some chipped edges, and three large semicircular dents (presumably from an inexperienced striker). Not to mention, it's missing its heel. None of those surface irregularities transfer onto my work pieces. Also, just in the six months I've had it, the pitting from rust on the surface has polished away significantly from use.

Additionally, if after using that anvil for a while, you do feel need a perfectly flat working surface for a few rare cases, just go to a scrapyard or something and get a nice flat block of steel for cheap.

Please don't damage that fine anvil.

[Lsat]

I’ll be bladesmithing mostly. I won’t touch the anvil with a mill or anything else for that matter. Y’all seem quite adamant and I’m new so I’ll take your word for it, thanks for the help. One other thing, late last night I secured an almost perfect pine stump for the anvil, but it is fresh cut and I don’t know if i need to let it sit for a year to dry out. 

[njanvilman]

Is the pine stump going to be inside?  Just mount your anvil and use it.  The stump will dry out over time.  Letting it sit will make no difference.

[Frosty]

Ditto Josh, you're not making furniture with the wood, no need for special dry time. Mount your anvil, it'll dry just fine. Well as much as anything dries where you live.  

Use that fine old lady in good health.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Lsat]

Thanks frosty. Will do, I’ll post when I get it mounted.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Look at it this way, where does the material lay on the anvil when you are forging? Usually from side to side, not end for end. How flat is it sideways?

To help prevent checking of the stump, you can paint the ends so it dries slower. Any old house paint will do. By sealing the ends it has to dry through the sides, which takes longer and is less stressful on the wood.

[ThomasPowers]

Logic works when you know enough about a subject to evaluate the propositions you are using; otherwise you find yourself having a good blood letting as it's logical that excess blood in your humours makes one choleric!  Right?  Good sound logic and as bogus as can be using modern medicine's propositions.

So if you don't know that in straightening  a bit of a swale helps as it allows the piece to go a bit farther and bounce back to straight rather than a dead flat face whey when you hit the piece on it it wants to bounce up a bit out of straight.

So I have an old anvil where the hardened face is about 3/8"  so milling 3mm of it would reduce it's use life by nearly 1/3.  

Sounds like something a machinist would suggest.  Machinists are not blacksmiths; ask if you can hammer hot steel on the ways of their mill or lathe.  (One can be extremely knowledgeable in a field and not know much good solid information in another.  I taught a beginners blacksmithing class last Saturday and one of my students was a tenured metallurgy professor---one I go to when I have questions on the molecular level about steel and it's alloys.  He was taking the beginner's class as he didn't have hammer & anvil experience.)

[Lsat]

Well one of the suggestions that the introduction post made was to listen to the old timers who know more then you and don’t waist their time...I’m seeing the wisdom in that now.

[Donal Harris]

Some people bolt together 4x4s so a pine stump would work. Frosty and Thomas would have said something if it wouldn’t. 

My current stump is red oak. Oak is said to be less than ideal because it is easy to split, but it was the easiest for me to mount an anvil on at the time because it was just the right height and was heavy enough I didn’t feel I would need to bury the end in the ground. I wanted it to be movable.

If it splits I will use one of the 3 large elm stumps I picked up at the same time I acquired the oak stump.  Elm is said to be better because it is less prone to splitting.  I could band the oak stump, but that is more work than I want to do.

All the stumps came from the city maintenance yard.  When they have to take a tree down, they chop it up and bring the logs in to the yard for people to take for free if they want them.