Jump to content
I Forge Iron

Does my old Fisher have significant sale value?


Recommended Posts

It is YOUR anvil and you can do what ever you wish with it, or to it.

Your anvil being marked 1883 means it is only 139 years old and has no doubt supported several blacksmiths and their families during that time.  

In third world countries blacksmiths can turn out product and make a living on what ever is available to them, including a sledge hammer head, or just a piece of metal, be it square, rectangular, flat, etc.  It is not the anvil or anvil shaped object but the blacksmith that is doing the work.  Some videos will show the blacksmith working on just a block of metal being used as an anvil, with a London pattern anvil sitting in the background, not being used.

What is the value of your anvil as it stands now?  That depends on what amount of money someone is willing to offer and what amount of money you are willing to accept.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd say here in Boston... Someone would post that for $650.... It would sit for a while, probably sell for closer to $500.. 

Don't do any milling to it... Sell it and buy a new one if you'd like. But there is nothing wrong with that anvil. 

A good smith (not me), could use yours, a railroad track or a brand new one made by Holland and produce very similar results.   You 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The way I think about it, is when I need a perfectly flat surface or crisp sharp edges for a project I make a hardy to do that,

You said you have no intentions of doin any really heavy work on it just little light projects, That’s cool! Not everyone is forging 2”-3” solid stock, some peoples projects never go above 1/2”, but I would think it would take more time, effort, money ect.. to have an anvil face milled then it would to break out the welder an spend a couple minutes welding a hardy tool up to accomplish what you need to do your small projects, hardy tooling is easy an cheap to make and is only limited to your imagination, and if you break it or wear it out just make another! Lol

But removing the tool face is much more costly to replace,

I recently took on a very abused 130 pound mouse hole, much worse condition than your fisher, an just for giggles I looked up the cost of stoody rod and at $100 per 10 pound box it doesn’t take long to figure out why to leave a good usable tool face alone! Lol  As far as the anvil value goes, I can say I regularly buy old beaters at $1 - $2 a pound here in eastern Oklahoma, but like others have said that anvil could be worth twice that in a tool desert, if it was me an I was gonna go through the hassle of milling then I’d go ahead an follow the Gunther method and build the face up first, then I would have it milled flat an crisp, that way I still had a plenty thick tool face to work with, that’s just me though,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The last few replies have been helpful and gave me the sort of practical information I was looking for to guide me. I am convinced to leave it alone. At some point I will likely find a more suitable anvil/block for work that calls for a flat, smooth surface. Thanks to all, even those who got angry at me. It shows that you care about these things.

Now, back to making the stand...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welding a tube or solid shank that fits the hardy hole (square hole) and welding a piece of steel to that as a block and polishing that up will serve you very nicely as an anvil block for your jewelry work.

Looking something like this:

image.png.e66ea2b915546f7d92352dfdf9023865.png

~Jobtiel

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gravy; do you know any mechanics?  My local one has several tons of scrap out back their shop.  A nice section of a large axle would make a fine jewelers anvil and a local smith could probably do the heat treat for you to get the best hardness for your use.  They dumped a load of axles over 2" dia at my local scrapyard 25 USCents a pound.

Or you could talk to local smiths and see about trading that one for a smaller brand new anvil. A 60# anvil would be great for jewelry, easier to move too where a smith profits from a larger anvil---100# is about what I consider the lowest for blacksmithing.  My Fisher is 469#.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My son made this stake anvil:

ECA2D59F-C93B-4F1B-9276-1673AF747A09.jpeg.e465c5ad41ba4c4a448a88caf104a68a.jpeg

Of course I was there to supervise his work on the power hammer. The face would need cleaned up a lot more for the work your planning on doing, but just this and a stump and you’d be good to go.
 

It was a fun project to work with him on. Maybe you could get hooked up with a local smith and make it into a fun project… Some nice copper work as a “thank you” maybe?

David

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thomas, as it happens, I am a mechanic (retired) and have laying around a broken semi-floating truck axle with a nicely domed end that I eventually intend to cut down for a forming stake. I do want to be able to do some actual blacksmithing, so I'll stick with the Fisher rather than swapping for a smaller anvil.. I also have some jackhammer bits that should make nice tools. I've already made a small ~1lb hammer from one piece. Unfortunately, the scrapyards in my town don't seem to be interested in selling to individuals. I do know some heavy truck mechanics who might let me dig through their scrap pile when I get to the point of needing more material.

Goods, that is very cool that you got to do that with your son. I'm a bit jealous of him! I will likely make a hardy block/anvil for the brass/copper work and put a hole in my workbench to hold it as well (if I ever actually get back into that - it's been nearly 45 years).

In the meantime, I'm welding up a fairly sturdy stand out of 4" sch 40 pipe, 1/2" plate and 2"x1/4"square tubing for the diagonal bracing. I will solidly secure the anvil to it. Should be plenty stiff for the lighter work that I anticipate doing, and I can always move it with the tractor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Gravydavy said:

is there a good reason why I shouldn't mill/dress the top?

First of all let me say, I think you have made the right decision about leaving the Fisher as it is.

I am posting this to give you my experience with milling an anvil face, so you understand my stance, and others who may see this thread and have similar questions but don't post. We have a large number of guest members worldwide who never join or log on reading the threads. This is to let everyone know why I say milling/grinding the face will or can ruin a perfectly good anvil.

The first anvil I acquired back in the late 70s was a 90 pound Vulcan. They were constructed like the Fishers cast iron body with a hardened steel face welded on (I did not know that at the time). I was working at an auto parts store with a machine shop. To me the anvil face looked rough, about like your Fishers. I used the shop surface grinder (used for resurfacing cylinder heads) and ran my anvil over it several times till the face was flat and nice and shiny. I didn't think I had removed very much material.

About the third time I used it hammering on hot steel, about a third/half of the face right over the sweet spot broke off down to the cast iron base. When we moved from Florida to Arkansas, I gave the anvil away (lesson learned the hard way).

PS. Sounds like your stand should hold it. Are you planing on a 3 leg stand? I ask because 3 legs will be more stable, especially on uneven ground.

Edited by Irondragon ForgeClay Works
add PS
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Davy, I will add that some of the strong negative opinions regarding the idea of milling your anvil is because of the respect and reverence with which many of us regard old tools.  This is not surprising given that we practice a traditional craft.  Your anvil is a survivor.  It has performed its function in 3 centuries and that is to be recognized and honored.  I don't think that many of us would be very bothered by seeing some cheap, Chinese made, tool misused or damaged but it hurts our souls to see an old tool which was in use before our grandfathers were born to be treated badly.  It is not an arbitrary, "Thou shalt not . . ." Rule which must not be violated upon pain of a terrible penalty but a sense that the life of an old tool should not be cut short or unnecessarily diminished.

Not to get too touchy feely but some of us feel (I do) that we do better work with old tools.  New tools have not acquired any "soul" or "karma" from use.  Maybe it is a sense of responsibility to the memory of the smiths who have used the tool before to do better work with it.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Edited by George N. M.
typo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As anvils were often "free handed" under steam hammers; there is often a slant between top and bottom.  I've seen 2 so far where they clamped the anvil to the mill and machined the top flat and parallel to the bottom. Machining completely through the hardened face at one end!  (Why if it *must* be done you mill the base parallel to the top and then "kiss" the top.  I've seen thousands of anvils, Quad-state usually has several hundred for sale, and so far I'm up to 3 that I would advise machining before using.)

I had a friend who had his anvil machined leaving the face too thin to hammer on.  He carried it around for 20 years until we had an anvil repair day where a a top notch smith and welding instructor spent 5-6 hours after the preheat using industrial sized welders to build a face back thick enough to be used---if he had charged for his labor it would have been cheaper to buy a brand new anvil!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

George, I feel what you mean, never seen it written down like that. When my grandfather passed away last year I inherited his toolbox, and all of those tools see regular use, it just feels better to use them knowing they were used before, and still work perfectly. I even patched up some chisels and hammers so they were good to go again.

Interestingly, I feel that tools I made myself have this same "soul" as well, I recently made a wooden plane and the precision that it took to get everything flat and level makes it an absolute joy to use. With old tools, and self made tools, you kind of just know that good effort is put in making the tool usable and of good quality. something that can't be said for all modern tools.

Thomas, when I got my anvil (forged in 1778!) I followed advice from here to use it and after a while the dimples will get out of the face from use. Glad I followed it as the sweet spot is much cleaner now. It had a piece broken of before I got it, and the hardened face is merely 4 or 5 mm thick. The life I would have taken out of it had I not stumbled upon this place.

~Jobtiel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

PS. Sounds like your stand should hold it. Are you planing on a 3 leg stand? I ask because 3 legs will be more stable, especially on uneven ground.

The stand is a pedestal design with the 4" pipe being vertical under the center of the anvil to minimize flex under hammer blows. The base is still to be determined depending on what I can drag out of the metal pile in the woods. If I expected to use it on a hard surface, I would give it three legs because a tripod rarely rocks. But I mostly expect for it to live outside on on a gravel surface, so having a broad footprint to minimize sinking into the ground seems to be more of a priority. I'm leaning toward a fairly large plate with diagonal bracing, but I'm open to other ideas. I've even considered a concrete-weighted base. I'm open to suggestions. 

BTW, the stand project is shoving my nose into the fact that my welding skills are far beyond rusty. I definitely won't be posting any closeups of my weld beads.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since you will probably doing mainly small stuff you probably won't need to add much, if any, extra mass to the base to keep the anvil and base from walking in use.   If you were doing heavier work with larger hammers on your smaller anvil you might need more weight in the base but I think it is unnecessary in what you describe as your situation.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The local want adds where I live have 4 people looking to buy anvils, there is a trunkated fisher and two Vulcan anvils that have been for sale for months in the same want adds. When a Columbian, Swedish, Trenton, Hay Budding, or any English anvils goes up for sale they are usually gone in less than a day. Maybe that gives you an idea of how different anvil manufacturers are valued in my neck of the woods.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A tripod is always stable, to get one to rock ti would have to be leaning so far it'd fall over. A pipe stand with a flat foot needs a smooth surface or it'll rock.

Large feet on a tripod will prevent it from sinking in anything you'd want to set up on.

Frosty The Lucky.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/25/2022 at 3:08 AM, Gravydavy said:

Boy, this has gone sideways, and I have definitely contributed to it. Please let me try again:

One part of my question amounts to "How much could I sell it for on this forum?". (Note: I'm not looking to sell it, just trying to get an idea of what it's worth to help me decide how to proceed toward having the tools that work for me). Does $200-$300 seem reasonable? That would be my guess.

The other part was "If it's not worth much, and it's not rare, is there a good reason why I shouldn't mill/dress the top?) The universal response has amounted to "Don't you dare do that!" OK, I get that it's agreed that I shouldn't do that, but I'm still not sure why. On all kinds of machine tools it's normal maintenance to resurface working parts. To my mind, by definition the high spots are the parts that aren't being used, so why not skim them down a bit to even out the working surface in order to get more usable flat space, especially for work where surface finish is important? Maybe the question could be rephrased as "How thin is too thin, and how flat is flat enough? I'm leaning toward flatter, but I'm definitely open to other opinions, especially if backed up with solid reasoning.

With all due respect, most of the replies so far have run awfully close to "Because we've always done it this way" or "Don't question your elders". 

Contrary to some comments, I have by no means made up my mind. I won't do anything to the face until I am convinced it's a good idea. I am fully aware that I can't readily put the metal back on. On the other hand, if taking some bumps off and creating useful flat spots makes it work better for me, I'm willing to do that. Please, folks - don't just tell me "Don't do that!". Explain why it's a bad or good idea for the way I expect to use the anvil. Maybe I'm wrong, and it's rare or historically valuable. Maybe there is a history of the faces cracking after dressing. Maybe I'm just one of those annoying people who just has to understand why.

Anvils are not intended for thousanths of an inch tolerances. Thats not what blacksmithing is about. If thats what youre into Id suggest machinist work. Sharp edges tend to damage work. 

With the questions concerning value as if youre wanting to sell it....correct answer it it depends. The trade has had an influx of wealthy dilettantes lately that have inflated prices. Location can have a bearing on it but I can say with a good degree of certainty that if you take any angle grinder to it youll definitely knock the value down to zero.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will say this.

It is a Fisher in fair shape.

It is an ideal size for most people. 

The 10 is the weight in tens.

Made in America, it is marked in pounds, 10 at a time.

My best by far Anvil is my Fisher.

Among the other reasons mentioned

the Fisher body is cast iron as opposed to wrought iron which is softer by far than cast iron. The Fisher anvil also had a much thicker top plate. As you can see it is a superior  anvil.

Though much harder to repair  than other anvils it is less likely to need repair.

That is likely why the US Navy chose them, and there is an English  powerhammer built just for them.

T

 

We like them so much that there is a Fisher museum on the East Coast with a giant collection of Fisher so yes it is special  and precious. 

Finally,  it could ultimately  (eventually)be "restored". 

It has a workable face now. 

Use it for a while before you make any changes and you will know what to do.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...