January 14, 20224 yr Good afternoon, I recently stumbled upon this beauty and have been cleaning off the layers of paint and neglect. So far this is what I have found for identification. I am fairly new to this community and have only followed YouTube as to cleaning her up. Edited January 14, 20224 yr by DDayton Lack of photos
January 14, 20224 yr Author I accidentally hit submit instead of attach. There should be several photos attached now.
January 14, 20224 yr Author Current progress on restoration. Any recommendations for oil for the surface of the anvil. I’ve got banding to put on and 2 more coats of teak oil to help the base.
January 14, 20224 yr Trenton, a top grade American anvil made in Columbus Ohio, the base should have a caplet indentation on it. The stampings on the foot is weight in pounds and a serial number that can be linked to a date of manufacture. The X stamping is a well known variant that folks have been speculating about for YEARS! Why would you oil the face; just USING it will keep it shiny and rust free
January 14, 20224 yr Author To be honest, yes. I have idle hands at the moment and would like to make her right before putting it through the ringer. Any advice on preservation and restoration of the face and table would be much appreciated. How would I go about finding the date of manufacture? All I’ve found is Trenton stopped making anvils decades ago, and even that info may not be accurate. Any insight is much appreciated as well!
January 14, 20224 yr Pounding hot iron on the face of the anvil will make it shine better than anything else you can do. If you get concerned, a quick wipe with ATF auto transmission fluid will help protect the face from rusting. Just a light film is all that is needed. You do not have to clean the ATF off when you want to use the anvil again.
January 14, 20224 yr Anvils have a hardened face of limited thickness; so that anything done to it that removes face thickness is cutting YEARS of uselife off. If you want to clean off surface rust a wire brush on a drill or angle grinder *lightly* applied to the face and perhaps a bit more heavily to the body can be used. Afterwards, painting or using BLO on the body and a light coating of oil or wax on the face should help. Not knowing where you are at makes it very hard to know what environment it needs to protect against! We talking salt spray on a beach front or the middle of the desert, jungle or glacier? (Hmm Antarctica could qualify for 3 of those 4...) World Wide Web you know.
January 14, 20224 yr Author I had done some slight reading on Cupping stones being a viable option to resurface without taking off too much face. Also, I have heard/read mixed opinions on painting the non-working surfaces of the anvil. What are some preferences?
January 14, 20224 yr THAT ANVIL DOES NOT NEED GRINDING ON! THAT ANVIL DOES NOT NEED GRINDING ON! THAT ANVIL DOES NOT NEED GRINDING ON! Non-working surfaces it doesn't matter much what you do to them. I have painted anvils, rusty anvils, BLO coated anvils living in the desert I usually don't do anything to their "patina".
January 15, 20224 yr Author Read you loud and clear on the grinding! I’ll probably end up tossing a coin about the paint though! Thank you!
January 15, 20224 yr 1 hour ago, DDayton said: How would I go about finding the date of manufacture? There’s an awsome book I highly recommend picking up, called anvils in America by Richard postman, it’s full of awsome information AinA list it as made in 1941-1943 pg 361
January 15, 20224 yr Author 6 minutes ago, TWISTEDWILLOW said: There’s an awsome book I highly recommend picking up, called anvils in America by Richard postman, it’s full of awsome information AinA list it as made in 1941-1943 pg 361 Thank you, I shall definitely look into getting a copy. I have a feeling I am going to develop an obsession with metal working. 10 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said: How does the Navy protect steel items in your area from rusting? Haze gray paint. Usually if it isn’t a moving part it’s painted.
January 15, 20224 yr 3 hours ago, DDayton said: I have heard/read mixed opinions on painting the non-working surfaces of the anvil. The working surface of the anvil will be bright and shine with use. If you paint the anvil, the hot metal will burn off any paint on the working surface, face or horn. A quick wipe with a little ATF is all that is needed on the working surface if you do not plan on using the anvil for a short period of time.
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