Flynn Posted May 13, 2021 Share Posted May 13, 2021 Just picked up this fella the other day. Just one mention of them in AiA, but it looks like the company is actually still in business just outside of Boston. I may contact them and see if they have any more information on when they were made, and by whom. Anyone else have one or know more about them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 13, 2021 Share Posted May 13, 2021 I'd go with a rebranded HB as I think I can make out an hourglass on the base. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flynn Posted May 13, 2021 Author Share Posted May 13, 2021 No, the base was flat, no indention. I saw someone else speculating that they were made by American Wrought based on one of Postman's comments, but I'm not familiar enough with that maker to judge. After looking at some photos online, it certainly looks like a possibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 13, 2021 Share Posted May 13, 2021 OK, but I have a well stamped HB where the hourglass is very hard to make out as it has worn almost flat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flynn Posted May 13, 2021 Author Share Posted May 13, 2021 Just took some more photos of the base. I can't detect any hourglass, but it's rough so it's hard to be 100% certain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted May 13, 2021 Share Posted May 13, 2021 I would also go with Hay Budden made for Butts & Ordway. They were listed a distributors, just like Sears & Roebuck which had Hay Budden's made for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted May 13, 2021 Share Posted May 13, 2021 5 hours ago, Flynn said: it looks like the company is actually still in business just outside of Boston. [...] Anyone else have one or know more about them? Looks like the company no longer exists; they don't have a website, and their only web presence is old directory listings. Google Maps Street View shows a different business in their old building. I'm guessing that the company went out of business some time after Old Man Butts retired in 1987. His obituary is worth a read: http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2004/04/04/frederic_h_butts_at_84_ran_watertown_manufacturing_firm/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flynn Posted May 13, 2021 Author Share Posted May 13, 2021 IronDragon, I found this comment on another forum in reference to another American Wrought Anvil (Not the Horseshoe label): "That is quite the rarity! According to Anvils in America (the only reference book on anvils), that is a product of the American Wrought Anvil Co. of Brooklyn, New York. The company seems to have been founded in 1899 by Walter Ring, the former Secretary-Treasurer of the Hay-Budden Manufacturing Company, the famous anvil maker from Brooklyn. He apparently had a difference of opinion with Mr. Hay, and started his own company to compete. The company seems to have stopped making anvils around 1911. Mr. Postman, author of Anvils in America, says they are very good anvils. The stamps indicate that one weighed 127 lbs when new. The body is wrought iron, forged from a single block in a closed-die press (Ring patented that in 1908) with a high carbon steel face plate. You can see the line between the iron body and steel face in that picture just to the left of the step. The face is about 3/8" thick. That is the only hard part of the anvil, and it's only hard for about 1/8" deep, so don't mess with it! " I'm still researching to see if I can verify his statements, but haven't gotten there yet. JHCC, the company is still listed on Google Maps with a phone number so I gave them a call. They purchased the Butts & Ordway company at some point and the person I spoke with said that a gentleman name Andy would be very interested in speaking with me. I've left him a voicemail, we'll see if he gets back to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 13, 2021 Share Posted May 13, 2021 That was an interesting obituary John. Mr. Butts built an addition on his place on the Cape but wouldn't allow any Butts but his to sit in it. Sounds like a character. Flynn: A LOT of folks spend a lot to time when breaking into this craft obsessing on age, maker and "history" of their tools. After a while they begin to use them instead. I have a maybe as much as few minutes of interest in an anvil's history unless it's significant. Say certified evidence that this is THE anvil James Black used to forge Jim Bowie's knife on. Then I'll spend some time looking for the maker, taking pics and learning what I can about it. I know what I do about my Soderfors because it's cast proud and stamped into her sides. 1923 (maybe 1926, I'd have to go look to be sure) is clearly marked as is the weight. The fellow I got it from had quite a bit of documentation about Soderfors foundry and the anvils they made. I have a 206lb Trenton and that's what I know about it other than it's a fine anvil I wish someone hadn't welded up the edges on, they did a poor job of grinding them smooth. It did teach me square edges aren't as important as I thought so I don't think about them anymore. They're tools, some rare and all worth respect any tool deserves. I'm not saying I didn't spent a bunch of time "researching" blacksmith tools, I did. It wasn't nearly as much fun nor as profitable as spending time at the anvil sweating and getting burned. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flynn Posted May 13, 2021 Author Share Posted May 13, 2021 I absolutely get it, Frosty. For me I am a hobby smith and make different things as I'm inspired to do so, but my real passion is collecting old rusty tools and repairing/cleaning them up to be used again. Learning all the history of my tools is what gives me the fizz if you know what I mean. I know it's not important as the usability of the anvil, the history just what makes me happy about having a tool that is centuries old. I'm hoping to have a call with the current owners that bought out Butt's & Ordway and maybe getting the anvil back to them for a display in the storefront. If it were my storefront, I would think that would just be the coolest thing in the world. Or heck, apparently they make hydraulic presses. Maybe they'd like to arrange a trade! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 13, 2021 Share Posted May 13, 2021 I've seen Elfego Baca's anvil, still in use at the Pound Ranch; IIRC it is a Peter Wright. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted May 13, 2021 Share Posted May 13, 2021 1 hour ago, Flynn said: JHCC, the company is still listed on Google Maps with a phone number so I gave them a call. They purchased the Butts & Ordway company at some point and the person I spoke with said that a gentleman name Andy would be very interested in speaking with me. I've left him a voicemail, we'll see if he gets back to me. Interesting! Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 Restoring old tools and equipment is a worthy passion that begs to know as much history as possible. I did the same thing when I was actively fossil hunting. I'll just read and enjoy whatever you discover and share. I had to look up Elfego Baca, Thomas, the WIKI article is fascinating and I'm not finished with the Frisco shootout entry, Holy Moly! What a story this is going to be, thank you for the name! No wonder Disney made a series and movie. If Deb and I get close enough to the ranch I'm having my pic taken as close to it as they'll let me get. Will dropping your name help, maybe get me kicked out in a suitably Elfego way? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 Re restoring and using old tools: This is more touchy-feely or spiritual than I usually get but I sense that there is a presence or "soul" in old tools and they want to be used for the task they were created. If I restore an old tool and put it to work I feel like I have rescued it. And it seems that it enhances my skill too. Maybe the tool is "happier" being put to use. It kills me to see old tools hung on a wall for decoration. I have been very tempted a few times to liberate something on the wall of a restaurant. And seeing old tools being used as furniture bothers me. When I see a chair made from the parts of old spinning wheels it is almost as if it were made of human bones. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flynn Posted May 14, 2021 Author Share Posted May 14, 2021 I am right with you, George... A few weeks ago I was minutes late to get a 242# Hay Budden anvil, and the guy that beat me to it had no intention of using it. He wasn't even a flipper, he just thought they were cool and wanted to display it in his man-cave. Broke my heart, it was a beautiful anvil. Oh, yeah. And the nice lady only wanted $300 for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 Frosty I can take you to meet Billy Jack Pound of the Pound Ranch in person and let him tell you the tale of *why* they have Elfego's anvil... If you can find it somewhere there was an online collection of transcriptions from the Oral History project(s) during the 1930's on the settling of this area. I tripped over it several motherboard/disk crashes ago. Full of tales about life out here in the "wild and wooly days" One I remember was about a a fellow deputized to track down a killer and includes swimming the flooded Rio Grande with his horse and tracking down the bad guy in his home area only to have the local lawman tell him that he'd be shot if he arrested the bad guy where every other person was related to him. So he returned home---but he wasn't going to get paid for his trip without returning with the bad guy and this was the write up from when he was asking for an exception to be made. More interesting to me because all the place names are local... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 DEAL! Our missus can sit spin and tell tales about us while we go do stuff! Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.