New member with another anvil ID

[ChiefLittleBair]

Hello everyone. I am new here and couldnt find a new members intro page so I'll introduce myself here.

I'm a 24 year old (young lol) machinist. Been machining for 6 years now after going to a trade school. I'm also a hobby blacksmith, been blacksmithing for about 8 years now. I'm from NE Indiana. I also do leatherwork, buckskin tanning, flint knapping, and garage gunsmithing. Let's just say I enjoy working with my hands lol. 

I'd like your guys input on this anvil I have, mainly the maker. I love this anvil, and theres no way I'd sell it. I'm mainly just interested because I like to know these sort of things.

First a little story on how I acquired it. The fab guy at the shop I work at came up to me one day and said he had something for me. He wouldnt tell me what it was, just told me to swing by his house after work. I stopped at his house and we went to the garage and he drug this beauty out from under some shelves. He said it was his grandpas, who died in the 1960's if memory serves, and it's just been collecting dust in his garage ever since. He said if I can use it, I can have it. I've been forging with it for the past 2 or 3 years since he gave it to me, and it was painted a hideous light green/yellow color.

I was forging over at my buddy's last night where I keep the anvil and I decided to clean it up. I wire brushed all the paint and rust off of it and wiped it down with boiled linseed oil. The only markings on it is a W over a 5 and they are proud of the surface, not recessed. The anvil is cast, and I believe cast steel. It appears to have a steel plate face, but there are spots in the face that have air bubbles as if the face was cast. Rebound is amazing on this thing. As close to 100% rebound as I've ever seen over the heel and even on the chisel plate (which is why I believe it to be all cast steel), and probably in the range of 75% over the center part of the face. A file wont touch the face over the heel, but bites a little over the more central part of the face. Weight is around 140lbs. The best guess that I have is that it's a West? 

Thanks, cant wait to find out some history on this anvil. 

Keith

[Steve Sells]

if you scroll down the page you will see https://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/22-introduce-yourself/

but since most of this is about the anvil you posted in the correct place, Welcome to IFI

the local smithing group meets the 2nd Saturday of the month at Jefferson park ( steam engine) fair grounds in New Haven

[Chelonian]

That looks like a really nice anvil. I would suggest creating a radius on the edges somewhat (a variety of edge radii is best), since they look rather sharp right now. This will help avoid forming cold-shuts in your work and make the anvil edges less prone to chipping.

[JHCC]

Welcome to IFI! If you haven't yet, please READ THIS FIRST!!!

Nice looking anvil. That's a generous friend you have there.

[Marc1]

Nice anvil. 

People used to test the hardness of chisels and punches on the body of the anvil, however those marks are in rather odd places to be test marks. 

My suggestion is to do nothing besides forging on the anvil, that seems to be in pristine condition. The need for radius will come according to what you forge, meaning, you may not need it at all.

Remember that whatever you do to it, you can not undo. 

It is refreshing to see a post about an anvil that does not want to grind, cut, machine, abrase, rectify, weld or sharpen any part of it and call it "restoring" .

A small anecdote from my younger years. 

My father had an antique shop and acquired a lot of old stuff including paintings when they become available. He had a business partner who did the woodwork and restoration of antique furniture. One day I remember to seeing him rather upset so I asked what was the matter. He told me Antonio ( the partner) has taken to one very valuable painting with a rag soaked in turpentine in an attempt to "restore" it ... it was an oil painting ... You can imagine the rest.

[ChiefLittleBair]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the welcome. I plan on taking a grinder to put the tiniest radius on the corners, like 1/16 inch max, but other than that it's about perfect for me. I already have a PW that had one edge pretty well all but wiped out. My brother is a welder so I had him grind out any cracks, preheat the anvil until water sizzled on it, and rebuild the edge. I just had him use 7018 rod as the rest of the face seemed fairly soft anyway. Between that and wiring paint off and applying BLO, that's the extent of "refinishing" I'll do to an anvil. As I had mentioned, the main thing I'm interested in is if anyone recognizes the markings and can tell me a manufacturer on this charm. I'd like to be able to tell my friend that gave it to me some history on it. I'm sure he would be interested just to know some about it. 

 

Thanks again

5 hours ago, Marc1 said:

People used to test the hardness of chisels and punches on the body of the anvil, however those marks are in rather odd places to be test marks. 

And the marks are more like air pockets from casting than center punch marks as if someone were testing a punch. Some of them even open up a tad the deeper they go so I'm darn near certain they are air bubbles. The thing that I find interesting is how theres bubbles on the "steel" plate and inside the hardy at a depth that would still be the plate thickness. It's like the plate and body were all cast as one, but the plate was made in the mold to overhang the body. Then the "plate" was ground on the top and sides to make it look like a separate piece. But if the plate and body were cast as one, this thing for sure is cast steel and has a nice heat treat to it, not cast iron. 

[ThomasPowers]

Cast Steel for sure; now I don't have my AinA to hand; but I do know of at least one cast steel anvil makers name that started with a W---West and while I have seen two of their 700#+ anvils out here in New Mexico; I don't recall having seen any smaller ones.  I'll check AinA tonight when I get home.

[ThomasPowers]

AinA said they did make smaller ones---like 100 pounds and were cast from Vanadium Steel and were good anvils.  The smaller ones had W as a trademark.

[ChiefLittleBair]

On 2/25/2020 at 10:02 AM, ThomasPowers said:

AinA said they did make smaller ones---like 100 pounds and were cast from Vanadium Steel and were good anvils.  The smaller ones had W as a trademark.

Thanks for that info. When was West in production with smaller anvil like this? If never heard of West until I started digging into this one

[ThomasPowers]

Probably have to ask Postman if he knows; I don't recall a date in AinA but I will check again.

[ChiefLittleBair]

What is AinA? I've seen you mention it in other posts too

[BillyBones]

Anvils in America by Richard Portman. 

[JHCC]

Postman.

[ThomasPowers]

Pretty much the best currently available source book on anvils.  It covers brands that were imported to the USA as well as home grown ones.

I checked AinA as I was going out the door this morning: West Steel Casting Company of Cleveland OH, cast anvils for several big retailers as well as under their own name. They were mentioned in a 1932 article quoted in AinA as using Vanadium Steel.  West SCC was incorporated in 1906 and mentioned in a NLRB case in 1946 so I would GUESS the anvil dates between those years or perhaps a bit later.