Picked up this rather large anvil an at auction. Not sure of weight but its extremely heavy. Base was welded on. It has 3 handling holes, no markings. Face is 5.75” wide, from tip of horn to heel is 36”. Its 15” tall. 

Welcome from the Ozark mountains.

Knowing where you are located might help with the ID. However without any markings it will probably just be a guess. In one picture it looks like someone may have milled/ground the hardened steel face as it seems thin and tapered, and not much step left. Have you done a ring & rebound test, which will show if it's a good anvil no matter who the maker is.

I pulled this from a metal fab shop in Rocelle, NJ. 

Edited April 22, 20224 yr by Mod30
Excessive quoting

Ok... so we now know in the U.S. as so many answers depend on where in the world you are located. Did anyone at the fab shop have any info on it?

Also you might want to edit your post to remove the quote. The quote feature

It was an equipment auction. No one there knew anything. 

with the horn pointing to the right, do you see any markings on the side? Anything on the front of the feet?

That one will serve you well. My biggest anvil is a 306# Soderfors, and it is a joy to work on.

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming.  Glad to have you.

Very nice anvil, hardly broken in.  It has generations of use left in it.  I'm going to guess that it is no less than 300# in weight if not more.  If you don't mind saying, how much did you have to pay for it?

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Nothing that I’ve found so far. 

Its between 300-400#. I paid $880 for it at an auction. Drove over an hour to get it. 

Edited April 22, 20224 yr by Mod30
Excessive quoting

Assuming 350# that is US$ 2.51/pound.  Not a bad price at all.  You would find buyers at that price all day long.  Auctions can be strange, sometimes the prices get astronomical if there are a couple of people who want an item and sometimes no one is interested in what is really fairly valuable and the person who knows something about it can get a real bargain.  I was once at an auction in Julesburg, CO (very NE corner of the state) of the estate of a guy who was a document and autograph collector and I picked up a document signed by Abraham Lincoln for $350.  It is worth about $7-10,000.  I was the only one there who knew much about old documents.

An hour's drive is not bad at all by Wyoming standards.  We'll drive 100 miles for a cup of coffee witha friend.  Back when I was single I would think nothing of driving 80 or 100 miles each way for a movie date. Wyoming has been described as a small town (570k folk in the whole state) with really long streets. 

BTW, if you put your general location in your profile you will get better answers to your queries.  A surprising number of answers are geography dependant, even within the USA.  Also, there may be other smiths within visiting distances.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Good Morning Victor,

It doesn't matter who it's mother named it. It is your now and you can make up any story and name you wish, (Bam Bam)? Too many people want to know it's previous life and who it is called. It is now called, YOURS!! You have a heck of a nice working Anvil, it will outlive you. Call it nice names, unless you bang your thumb, then, accept the reality and accept your responsibility for creating the 'OOPS MOMENT'. Don't blame the Messenger!! Except (or Accept) the truth, it was the boy downstairs. LOL

Neil

The handling hole in the front foot will help to narrow down the possibilities---is there one in the back foot as well.  Usually when someone tells me they cleaned up an anvils face I tell them they dropped it value *a* *lot* as the thickness of the anvils face is the life of the anvil and some roughness of the anvil's face usually doesn't matter!

Page 448 of "Anvils in America" has information on identifying anvils; though being welded to the base doesn't allow you to check the bottom for the indentation shape or handling hole.

Cutting it off that "stand" would be my first action once it got home! 

It sure looks like it was cast by Soderfors foundry and they don't put their name on everything they cast. They cast anvils for many retail suppliers and put whatever logo, name, etc. the buyer paid for. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Good score!  It looks a lot like a John Brooks to me, but I'm far from an expert.  Matter of fact, I'm just learning this stuff.

Just to close this thread. Ended up selling it, buyer is going to repair it. He did determine it was a Hay Budden.

I would have been hard pressed to let that one go.

It was to big for me, also had a crack in the horn. I broke a little over even on it which was good. I don't have a dedicated space to blacksmith in right now. I need my tools somewhat mobile. My garage is mix of classic cars/motorcycles, lathe, and tools. If i want to forge I got to move my dedicated tool cart and anvil over to one bay and roll my utv out. Not optimal but got to work with what I got.