July 30, 20205 yr I picked up an anvil that I thought was a Hay Budden but the serial # doesn’t fall in the date range I’m seeing on the Internet. (A1 - 57,000) mine says A106883 on the front there’s a diamond shaped logo. Left side of the base says 200.
July 30, 20205 yr Diamond logo means it's a Trenton; another great American brand made in Columbus Ohio. It should have a caplet indentation in the base instead of the Hay Budden hourglass; also the skinny heel is very Trentonish---why did you think it was a Hay Budden?
July 30, 20205 yr Hey Bob- that's a Trenton, the 200 is the weight and the other # is the serial #. We'll wait for someone with a copy of AIA to stop by and give you the date. Real good anvil, too. Steve
July 30, 20205 yr Author Ok Trenton, the extra digit through me off, that steel plate is very obvious. What's more preferred, Hay Budden or Trentons ?
July 30, 20205 yr Ford or Chevy? I's say it's if the style fits you needs rather than if it was made by Hay Budden, Trenton or Arm and Hammer. The long skinny heel can be quite useful for ornamental work; but the narrow waist cuts down on the size of the sweet spot.
July 30, 20205 yr Anvils In America dates your anvil to 1912. That year Columbus Forge & Iron Co made 7,999 anvils with yours being one of them. The last serial number that year was listed as 114000. I'd like to see a closer picture of the diamond logo though. That looks a little low on the anvil. It should say Trenton inside that diamond. I hope that helps.
July 30, 20205 yr Author Thanks for the information. Here is a closer picture. If you want to see any others let me know.
July 30, 20205 yr Author 8 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said: Can we get a picture of the base? Sure which angle?
July 30, 20205 yr Shape of the indentation on the base of younger Trenton anvils. (Sometimes also found on Arm and Hammer anvils.)
July 30, 20205 yr As I recall Trenton anvils started out with flat bottoms, went to hourglass indentations and ended up with caplet indentations. Hay Buddens have an Hourglass indentation, though early ones can be worn almost flat---I have one that's worn that way. A lot of anvils have flat bottoms with or without a handling hole. If you are really into the differences "Anvils in America" by Richard Postman is *the* research book on them. He also wrote a companion book just on Mousehole anvils.
July 30, 20205 yr Is it me or is the diamond on the wrong side of the anvil? I thought the horn should be pointing right.
July 31, 20205 yr Author Thanks for the info guys, I was convinced it was a Hay Budden. I have a few anvils I have to decide which to keep for my only one. I’m a woodworker but I’ve always wanted one, I want to learn a little metal working to incorporate into my work. I have a 250 lb Henry wright this 200lb trenton a smaller but nice 175lb Peter Wright and a really nice condition 228lb Peter Wright that looks like it was hardly touched or repaired. Surprisingly my hall bearing shows the last one I like the most has the lowest rebound.
July 31, 20205 yr Use actually hardens an anvil face; it's called work hardening. Also the larger the old anvil generally the softer it is as an artifact of the hardening process. So why the surprise? The biggest "softeners" for anvils are structure fires---fairly common back when cooking and heating was done by fire and folks grinding/milling through the hardened faceplate thinking making an anvil look "flat, smooth and pretty" increases it's value, (when actually it can cut the value in half or worse!)
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