The new price standard for anvils

[anvil]

Lol, and the mighty do fall. After my last conversation with Frosty and Thomas on  bounce and the relative difference between most good anvils  is just that,,, relative, I visited my local antique store looking for scaffolding and found a Hay Budden with my name on it. What can I say. A good smith years ago said a 'Bud I'd the Cadillac of American anvils. So, now to find out just how it matches my PW's and my Trenton. If I find a noticable difference, I'll have no problem eating my words. And if it just makes me feel better,,, I'll just call it bragging rights. 

The price was $595. It is stamped 166#. No scale, so I'm assuming that's the weight. The face is pristine flat with a scattering of welding dingleberrys, but no welding dings on the anvil. All  side edges are chipped to ~3/8" radius. A little grinder work to clean up these chips and, if i want to forgo my preferred sharp edges on the sides of the heel and tapered bevel from cut off plate to the start of the heel  it's ready to go. 

I certainly don't need another anvil, but I've never come across a Budden before. With money burning a hole in my pocket, I just couldn't say no. And the cute lil turned up nose was the real selling point. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Great looking HB from the serial number 92601, it was made in 1904. Sure looks like it has led a charmed life, I see why you couldn't pass it up.

[Frosty]

Good anvil score, Anvil! That would've been hard to walk away from.

Enjoy

Frosty The Lucky.

[jlpservicesinc]

Haybudden is my favorite anvil MFG..  Congrats on the purchase.. I'd love to hear your take once you get some time on it. 

[arkie]

You did very well on the HB.  Reasonable price, good condition.  My first and only anvil is a 168# HB and I love it.

[ThomasPowers]

I love the nose on that one too!

[anvil]

 The antique store usually charges top dollar for anvils. Its torn On the offside of the turned up nose. Easily fixed with a torch and bailing wire, and at the same time a rosebud and a little double hammer work will straighten it right up. I believe this is the reason it was priced so low.

Thanks for the anvil date.

What a rush! 

[CrushDepthCrucibles]

Other than online, where else would be a good place to look for an anvil? I live just outside Buffalo, NY, and as a former steel town, I am guessing that there has to be some solid pieces around here, just not sure where to look. 

[ThomasPowers]

EVERYWHERE!  There is a thread about the TPAAAT and the gist of it is to talk to everyone about wanting an anvil to *use*.  People I have found anvils by talking to, include a 92 year old lady who went to my church, (also a retired rancher, who was also a church member), Fellow in the SCA who had a 410# Trenton but wanted a 125# PW (got tired of moving the big one when he wasn't using it; but may someday want to smith...), Guy in his 20's selling greasy car parts at a flea market, middle aged guy selling plumbing parts at the same fleamarket, a swordmaker, a farrier, and a bunch of people I don't know much about; but I talked with them while waiting in a line for things. Shoot I traded a wilton cadet vise for 165#HB to a guy who collected vises, (I paid US$15 for the vise at the local fleamarket).

People keep restricting their search to folks they think will have an anvil; which are usually the folks wanting the most to sell them!  There are mega tons of anvils out there hiding in garages and basements that used to belong to great uncle SoandSo and they would be happy to see it go to a good home!  Note that old industrial cities had more anvils per sq mile than farm country did! (Factories, car repair, hospitals, Ships, Aviation repair, machine shops,...)

Having "blacksmith business cards" to hand out with your name and telephone number helps too.

[CrushDepthCrucibles]

You're right, I never would have thought to look at a flea market! I'll have to go there this weekend, see if I find anything. I know there are tons of old machine shops around here, I'm going to start looking around at those too. 

And I love the idea of the business cards, but I am literally three weeks into this, and probably shouldn't be advertising anything at this point LOL.

Thanks for the ideas!

[ThomasPowers]

I seldom saw one at the fleamarket; but when I spotted folks selling "old barn stuff" or old tools; I'd ask them.  Sometimes there was one but "too heavy" for them to bring.  The afore mentioned fellow selling plumbing parts; there was a hardy in one of the boxes, 3/4" stem.  I bought it and asked where the anvil it went to was?  100# Vulcan Still with the original paper label on it sitting in his carport!  The farrier had around a 125# Powell missing the heel but had a lovely hard flat undinged face and a usable horn, $40 back when $1 a pound was the going rate.  I still have it, (sold the Vulcan on as I don't like them...), it's a great anvil for students who have strength but no control. (Pair them off with that anvil and a softer hammer and no worries about miss strikes...)

The business cards don't have to be advertising your wares; just a convenient way to give your name, number, e-mail to folks you meet.  They are a lot less likely to lose them and the term Blacksmith reminds them about why they have it.  A lot faster than writing everything down on random scraps of paper!  A lot of older folks won't do cell phone contact stuff and they may be the folks you want to deal with.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

33 minutes ago, CrushDepthCrucibles said:

flea market!

Don't forget yard/garage sales. We stopped at one while looking around.  I mentioned that I was hoping he had an anvil or blacksmith tools. He said come with me. Just inside the garage door sat a 106 pound Hay Budden in pretty good shape. It followed me home for $200 U.S. Just be sure you have cash in your wallet because those deals don't last long.

[CrushDepthCrucibles]

Well, I feel much more equipped to continue my search for a good anvil. Glad I found this forum and I appreciate all the tips!

[ThomasPowers]

Money on hand is important!  Half life of a good anvil deal is measured in hours if not minutes. Also take possession immediately!  Had a "here's your money back; a friend wanted it" happen to me *once*.

[anvil]

Absolutely on that one! I had $500 in my pocket for another project when I stumbled on my HB above. Lol, a rare situation, I must admit. I knew it would be gone within a week or sooner. I jumped on it and it's now home.

[Frosty]

Ask the paper boy if he's see any blacksmithing tools. Print out some pics so he'll know what to keep an eye out for. Offering a finder's fee is a solit tactic. The neighborhood kids get in everything, it's what kids do. Turn it into something useful, eh?

Frosty The Lucky.

[jlpservicesinc]

paper boy..      Sheesh we got paper people down this way..  they live a town or 2 over and drive their car throwing papers out at 30+ mph.. 

[JHCC]

Same here. They've almost hit me any number of times when I'm out walking the dogs in the early morning.

I have a friend whose uncle used to run a paper delivery option in New Haven, CT, with two guys standing on the running boards of an old touring car, throwing like a pair of machines, spot on the doormat every time. My friend (about ten at the time) asked if he could give it a try, and on the first throw put the paper through Thornton Wilder's front window.

[jlpservicesinc]

A buddy of mine when I was about 15 and he was 13 would deliver papers..  He had a bike and man was he fast.. He could cover all of town in about 1hr on his bike..  He was in such great shape.. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

10 hours ago, JHCC said:

standing on the running boards

I did that for a couple of years, but it was an old Plymouth and my older brother was the driver. We made quick work of a paper route with about a hundred customers. One of our customers was an old black gentleman in his 90's and almost blind. He could read the headlines but not the story. When the route was finished, I would ride my bicycle to his house and read the stories to him that he was interested in. He would tell me stories about his service in the Spanish American war. It broke my heart when he passed away.

Thanks for prompting that memory, I haven't thought about him in decades.

[George N. M.]

Irondragon:  After all these years do you recall if the gentleman told you what unit he was in?  He could have been in the 10th Cavalry (Colored) which charged up San Juan Hill in Cuba along side Teddy Roosevelt's Tough Riders and were commanded by Captain John (Black Jack) Pershing.  (so named because he commanded Black troops.)  Or, he could have been in the 24th or 25th Infantry which was sent to Cuba and later the Philippines on the then current theory that African-Americans were naturally more resistant to tropical diseases than white troops.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

He never said which unit he was in but did tell a couple of funny stories about The Rough Riders and Teddy Roosevelt. I got the impression he was a "horse solider" (his term). When I told him my grandfather served with Pershing in the Mexican expedition, he  had nothing but praise for the General.

He also taught me a life long lesson about honesty. I was 13 or 14 at the time and paper boys would collect the subscription fee weekly from customers. He said that money was on the table to take what you need. He said I won't know how much you took, but you will. It is a lesson that has stayed with me my whole life and I never took more than the right amount, which was 75 cents if I remember,

[Frosty]

That's a good life lesson, I wish I'd learned it at a younger age. It's worth a lot to a person to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and like what you see. 

I used to get guff from a couple drillers that'd been drilling a long time before I started helping. I was asked to transfer when the Foundations operation moved fro Fairbanks to Anchorage and none of the crew wanted to move. A large reason I was asked was because I was a fabricator. I'm putting things together and doing repairs on the foundations drills and doing what I always do, torch cut outside my lines and grind to the mark, break edges, corners and scarf. It's how I learned and it makes for better product all round. Anyway, the two old timers keep asking and eventually publicly mock me about grinding things nobody will ever know about.

Did it an office BBQ, in front of everybody. I replied, "I'll know." They gabbled on a bit until I asked, "Has ONE of my welds or repairs failed? YOURS?" 

It was almost sad and worse, I had to start repairing THEIR equipment. <sigh> 

I'll know and I'm my worst critic. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

There is a story of a medieval stone sculptor who was carving statues of saints to be placed high in a cathedral and was carving the backs of the statues, which would never be seen, with as much detail as the fronts.  When asked why he wasn't just putting a rough finish on the backs of the statues he replied, "I would know and God would know." 

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[HondoWalker]

And I thought $1 per pound was too steep. I guess I will never own an anvil. Growing up cartoons gave the impression that anvils were common. I have never seen one in real life. I reckon my little circle of steel will have to continue being an anvil for me.