Grandpa's Unusual Anvil

[LukeDM]

So I found this anvil halfway buried near my grandpa's barn. What can y'all tell me about it? I haven't had much time to inspect it yet, but I saw that it had "225" stamped on the side. I'm guessing that's English hundred weights because it felt much heavier than that to me. It has a pretty worn hardy hole on one side and no Pritchel hole.. I'll be able to get a better look later today. 

It's hard to see because of how it blends into the bed of my work truck, but the rectangular base is part of the anvil.

[ThomasPowers]

Looks like a standard bridge anvil commonly used in the oilpatch to reforge cable tool drill bits before the rotary drilling rigs came along; what's unusual about it?   I know about a dozen folks who own them, including me.   That would NOT be CWT as I've never seen one that was imported from England.  Spark test it as they were often cast iron and were used as a consumable.

The unusual thing about yours is what good shape it's in!  (I was talking with an old cable tool driller Saturday who was telling me about swinging a sledge reforging the drill bits when he was in his 20's about 50 years ago...)

[ThomasPowers]

Here's mine---we refaced it as it was CI.

There was a 5th generation blacksmith in Stroud OK, USA; that had one where, as usual, the top was badly abused; he had flipped it over and made a stand to hold it upside down and used the bottom as a flat plate to true up things like plowshares.  I met him about 1982 and he was retired back then so his smithy may not be there anymore.

[LukeDM]

That's great, thanks for the info! Exactly what I was looking for. A quick Google search didn't really tell me much, so it was only unusual in that I hadn't seen any before. My grandpa was a tool pusher for years so it makes sense he had one laying around. 

Stroud is only about 1.5 hrs from me. Would be neat to see if any evidence of the old smithy still remains. 

This anvil has definitely been used, but the face is in decent shape. Refacing it seems like an interesting idea. It wouldn't take a lot of filling to true it up.