The anvil weight is 100 to 150 pounds for many blacksmith shops.  Farriers go a bit lighter as their stuff is mobile by necessity. Some blacksmithing work goes a bit heavier

An anvil is a life time investment, as it will most likely out last several owners if the anvil is treated well. Go to the blacksmiths meetings and look at the different anvils and the purpose they were designed for. Try out block anvils, single horn, double horn, London pattern, farriers pattern, etc. You  will need to figure out what you plan on making and purchase the style and anvil weight to fit the work. 

Calculate the price per pound on each anvil. You plan on using an anvil for the next say 20 years. 20 years,  times 12 months in a year, and 4 weeks in a month, you get 20 x 12 x 4 which equals 960 (weeks) which can be called $960 dollars or $1.00 per week. 

If you use the anvil just on the weekends, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and toss $1.00 into the kitty each day, you now have $2880.

Let us limit things to blacksmithing anvils in the 100 to 200 pound range.  DH indicated a double horn anvil.

 

The 100 pound anvil

$588 or 5.88 per pound

$604 or 6.04 per pound DH

$653 or 6.53 per pound

$670  or 6.70 per pound DH

$725 or 7.25 per pound

$775 or 7.57 per pound DH

$790 or 7.99 dollars per pound

$825 or 8.25 per pound

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The 110 pound anvil 

$640 or 5.82 dollars per pound DH

$1150 or 10.45 per pound

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The 112 pound anvil 

$757 or 6.76 per pound

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The 115 pound anvil 

$845 or 7.34 per pound DH

$850 or 7.39 per pound DH

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The 150 pound anvil

$875 or 5.83 per pound 

$925 or 6.17 per pound

$1215 or 8.10 per pound

$1260 or 8.40 per pound

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The 160 pound anvil

$930 or 5.81 per pound

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The 165 pound anvil

$975 or 5.91 per pound DH

$1208 or 7.32 per pound DH

$1395 or 8.45 per pound DH

$1400 or 8.49 per pound 

$2604 or 9,14 per pound DH

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The 167 pound anvil

$1125 or 6.73 per pound

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The 170 pound anvil

$1550 or 9.18 per pound

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The 200 pound anvil

$1149 or 5.75 per pound

$1260 or 6.3 per pound

$1296 or $6.48 per pound

$1400 or 7.00 per pound DH

$1550 or 7.74 per pound 

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The 260 pound anvil

$1450 or 5.58 per pound

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The blacksmithing standard for NEW anvils in the fall 2019 is the $6.00 to $9.00 price range.  

When you see that used anvil for sale, you now have information to compare and make an informed decision about the purchase.

Thank you for this perspective. 

This is an interesting post for those new to the idea of anvil purchase..  New or used.. 

The 460lbs Refflinghaus was 8.70 Lb and not including shipping.  I did get a deal on it or discount so the pricing was decent.  A newer one is more money. 

Hard to believe it's been over a year that I have had it. 

 

And the Middle Rio Grande irrigation district is still having to factor in certain smiths' drool when allocating water...

LOL..  Sounds like as much drool is needed to keep that area from burning up..     

The post brings the high prices used anvils closer to just a little more and you can get a new anvil.

Everything is more money a year later. 

JLP, your working anvil has now gone a long way to paying for itself, even closer to paid off when you consider the price increase.  Good choice and good timing on your purchase.

ShadyGrove has them listed for 4200.00 now..  I imagine it would be even more than that if any are actually available for import. 

Glenn, I've used the anvil many times now and have no regrets on buying it. 

I do agree that today with used anvils and prices spending a few more dollars on a new anvil to me is a great common sense way to go. 

17 hours ago, Glenn said:

The post brings the high prices used anvils closer to just a little more and you can get a new anvil

 For some reason in the last six months used anvil prices have nearly doubled in my area. I'm seeing used anvils albeit in pretty good condition going for the price of new anvils. 

 I tried to buy a smaller PW and the guy wouldn't budge. He wanted 750 usd for iirc a 100 pound anvil. That's only one example but I've heard the same story trying to purchase many anvils in the last eight months or so. 

I decided to stick with my thirty inch piece of heavy rail and an acaccio 66 pound cheapie until I find a used anvil that's selling at used prices. 

Pnut

I think part of the problem is that a lot of people don't KNOW that good new anvils are easily available; it's a very inefficient market in economic terms. 

Back in the 1990's I was buying a good condition, good brand used anvil a year for under US$1 a pound.  I was hoping to take early retirement and open a school. Being laid off in the early 2000's put paid to that dream; but I haven't regretted tooling up back in the "Blacksmith's Happy Hunting Grounds".  I still think that there is a bubble going on, a lot like the classic tulip bulb market bubble and fueled a lot by blacksmithing shows on TV and internet.  I recently sold an anvil I picked up in the hoard and didn't need, 248# Peter Wright, I sold it for US$1000 to a new smith.  Probably could have held out for more from a dealer; but didn't want to deal with dealers and flippers. (I got a lot of calls about "is that price firm?" to which my reply was; "no I'd be happy to raise it a dollar or two a pound..."  And it was so much fun explaining I didn't need an intermediate sized anvil like that...got two over 400# for large work and two at 165# for most shop work and several travel anvils for teaching.)

OTOH we still have folks reporting getting good anvils for $2 a pound or even free by finding the ones NOT being marketed for profit.

I'd say the problem is everyone is looking for a deal. 

Here's an example/reference of someone overpricing anvils.

10lb ~ $140 = $14p/lb

51lb ~ $520 = $10.20(rounded)p/lb

50lb ~ $975 = $19.5p/lb

311lb ~ $3,490 = $11.22p/lb

The only semi-reasonable price per pound he's listed so far (but is still pushing it) is for the 162 lb anvil

162lb ~ $760 = $4.69p/lb

smaller anvils are always priced higher..  It seems in some ways there is the extreme at both ends of the weight scheme with middle of the road being 150-200lbs realm.. 

Under 100 and over 300 seems to change the price point. 

With this said, it seems now that over the 400 mark seems to be where it really goes. 

Used or vintage is my references. 

I just paid $3.75 /lb for a barely used 80lb Fisher. It was originally listed for $900, and dropped in price and sitting at $500 for a week. I made an offer of $300 that was accepted. All those moon money listings for junk (Instead of prices actually realized) seem to skew other sellers sense of value when they decide on listing prices.

I don't feel so bad about paying $350 for a 93 lb. Hay Budden in good shape a few years back.  The only complaint I have is that I had to drive about 90 miles  to the Bronx, NYC to get it.

The last anvil I bought Oct. 2017 was a 106 pound Hay Budden for $1.89 U.S. a pound. The one before that was a MP Farriers 90 pound anvil in excellent shape for $2.20 a pound.

This is mine cleaned (wire wheel and boiled linseed oil.)  I felt the Fisher brand and condition warranted a strong offer, along with it being right for my needs. Was 86 mile round trip drive to get it. 
Like many, was discouraged by high prices, but was ready to jump when opportunity arose.

small quality anvils have always garnered a higher price point vs larger counterparts unless bought new..   At least as long as I have paid attention..  I think it's the collectors aspect of less room needed for storage and easy of moving around. 

Elmoleaf. That is a nice one. 

 

In that condition, I would have paid $300 U.S. for it too, if I needed another smaller anvil.

I think that the anvils around 100# are just more in demand as they are useful to more people for more crafts than just smithing.  They are easy to carry and to store and to people used to the 9# cast iron bench "anvils" 100 pounds must seem large indeed!

My last *buy* out here in anvil poor NM was a 112# Peter Wright in excellent condition---save that one foot was broken off. (How do you break off a foot on an anvil showing NO signs of abuse otherwise?) Anyway I paid US$150 for it.  The amusing part was that the transfer was to be done at the University 75 miles to the north and it was our wives who would be in town to do it----My wife told me they snagged a passing student to do the lifting from one car to the other.

Now I have been *given* anvils since then...

So really, the best practice is to know a price point you want to reach ($2, $4, $6 per LB) and then shop around and haggle to get a solid anvil at the price you want. I'm looking at a 125# Trenton that has been on CL for over a month, and figured that I would haggling down from $4/LB to $2/LB and that would be a good way to get a better quality anvil than my cheap starter anvil from Harbor Freight.

At $250 U.S. that would be a very good deal indeed. For a 125 lb Trenton in very good shape that passed the ring & rebound test, I probably would go as high as $300.

Not sure on the testing, but it looks like OK shape. Here's a snip of it, I'd appreciate the thoughts of more seasoned smiths.

Will be loud without muting.  Lots of face left.  Good design for ornamental work, less good for heavy work---smaller sweet spot, easy to transport, thin heel handy for doing toasting forks and other items you can slot over the heel to work.  If it meets your needs and your price point it's a great one!

I generally find that the cheaper good anvils are NOT the ones being sold online by folks *TRYING* TO MAKE A PROFIT from them.  TPAAAT goes into detail on how to find those; but it involves getting up from in front of the monitor and *talking* with people!

LOL thanks for the input, and I totally agree with you, I would rather do transactions in person than over the web! But that's part of what drew me to here, to meet other smiths in the area and learn from those who have "forged ahead" of me, heheh.

That said, I've been voraciously consuming the knowledge you are all sharing on here, and using that to make much wiser decisions on what pieces I need as I start out. Not needing to buy huge sets of tools or crazy forges to get started has been a big help in making this a great hobby and maybe more in the future.

This anvil would be a huge upgrade from the cheap 15 Lb anvil I am using right now, IF I can get it in a good price.

Choose the anvil that you will most likely not be able to wear out in your lifetime. It is sometimes scary to think that anvils are a life time investment.

Just for amusement, put a dollar into a kitty each time you use the anvil. Think of it as rent.  Down the road that rental fee will be the anvils way of saying thank you.