ZzzDerekzzZ Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Hi everyone, I just joined this form to try and find some info on an old anvil I picked up years ago. My name is Derek, and I was driving through Cape Cod Massachusetts about 15 years ago and spotted this anvil in a flower garden beside an old house. I knocked on the door and an elderly woman answered. She said it was in an old building when they purchased the home, and had moved it out and built a flower garden around it. Jokingly, I mentioned that it a shame to see such a wonderful tool retired into a flower garden, and that I that I would really to put that anvil to good use in my machine shop. She said she'd like to remodel her garden, but had no way to move that hunk of metal, so she sold it to me and my wife and I struggled to loaded up into the back of my GMC Blazer. Now I'm retiring and I'm selling off my machine shop. Can anyone offer any info about this anvil, and what it's worth? Thanks https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNaYKD1qo5JbHPMhiiARnxC_QYikNbKRRhMqFpx https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipM9lE4O7HageAGTJEd-Sh3gazNIFxdT4zdD374i https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPlT6O_Kn139xIaQaVnqhlR39z_bwiOHqY2ljFL https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipOXXxXrfFAdPIGTesflxhGvsrBMUVtm7ehqlKHa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Hibbert Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Welcome aboard! Please edit your profile to provide your general location. Anvil value depends a great deal upon where you are located and this is a worldwide forum. The links to the pictures you provided are broken. I just get 404 not found errors on them. And provide whatever other information you have on the anvil, manufacturer, weight, condition, etc. Every bit of info helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZzzDerekzzZ Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 Sorry for the link errors. I'm new to this site. I tried to do a links to photos in my Google Drive. I'm not sure how to upload photos and or do links here. I'll try to figure that out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZzzDerekzzZ Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Welcome aboard Derek, glad to have you. You figured that out quick, good work! I wish I knew more about anvils, I'm thinking that one could be Colonial period. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZzzDerekzzZ Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 Thanks for the warm welcome message. I think when I first posted this posting, because I didn't have an account here yet, the "Add Files" button wasn't visible. I only noticed it after I replied to your fist reply, and then felt pretty dumb after I noticed the "Add Files" button...lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. Your query about the value of your anvil is more problematic than most we see here. Generally, anvils do not have any additional "antique" value unless they are 200+ years old, which yours is and very few we get asked about are. First, do you know how much it weighs. Anvils are usually valued by weight. I am guessing that yours will be about 100 pounds. The next criteria is rebound whcih is a proxy for the hardness of the face. You drop a ball bearing from 10" above the face of the anvil and measure how high it bounces. Anything over about 80-85% is very good, 60-75% is OK, and anything less than 50% is pretty punk. I am gong to guess that rebound will vary across the face of your anvil because it appears that the steel face plate is broken and not complete acrtoss the face. You will get a higher rebound where the face plate is intact. The final test is the ring. Does it have a sharp, clear ring when struk lightly? Is the ring consistent across the whole face. Most good anvils usually have a good, musical ring but there are some brands of anvil which are very good but are very quiet. A really sharp ring can be annoying in use and there are a number of methods to quiet them down, Depending on the area of the country the price per pound for used anvils can vary. In the eastern US they are geerally a bit cheaper than out here in the west which was more sparcely settled and there are fewer anvils originally and even fewer after WW2 scrap drives. New anvils can range up $6-7 per pound. Used anvils can range from $2.50-$5 per pound. This does not take into consideration any antique or coolness surcharge for yours. This is a SWAG but if I am right about size and rebound I would think about $400-600 if I were selling or buying it. But in the end it is worth what you are willing to take and the buyer is willing to give. Look at ebay, craigslist, and various auction sites to see what anvils are going for in your area. Finally, you might want to get into blacksmithing as a hobby in your retirement. There are quite a few of us here, myself included, who are in their 70s and 80s and who find hitting hot metal a very good past time in the latter parts of our lives. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZzzDerekzzZ Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 Hi George, thank you for the insight on my anvil. IMO, I'm thinking this is more of a wall hanger than a fungtionaly anvil for actual doing meaningful forging with. I don't know it's weight, but 15 years ago when I could easily lift 100lbs, I'm thinking this weights considerably more than that. Although perhaps I was a just a 250lb weakling back then...lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Well, you could dimount it and weigh it on the bathroom scale (check with you wife first). Or you could compare the height, width, and length dimensions to an anvil of a known weight. If you post them I'll compare them with the dimensions of my 2 anvils (100# and 200#). Or you can kind of estimate how large a cube of iron would equal your anvil and calculating the weight of a block that size (volume x density). Any of those will get you into the ball park. I really can't offer any thoughts on the value as a pure antique as opposed to a working anvil. I don't see any reason why it couldn't be a working anvil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZzzDerekzzZ Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 It's about 18" or 19" long x 10-3/4 tall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 And how wide (base and top of the face)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Welcome from the Ozark Mountains. The lack of a pritchel hole will date it to around 1840 when they first appeared or earlier. Hope you have read about not doing any grinding, milling or welding on the hardened steel face, which does more harm than good. I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s. Semper Paratus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Good evening, From what I recall, the step on the horn was one of the big things differentiating the London pattern anvil from the English pattern or colonial anvils (colonials tended to have smaller horns and for awhile often had the fifth step or leg on one side in the middle. Ones with stepped horns go back to between 1780 and 1800, I think...it's been a minute. Pritchel holes really started being a thing 1820-ish, and more prevalent from 1830 or so on. This puts yours at a fairly narrow probable time range, probably between say 1780 and 1820. Later anvils not only had the pritchel but also got longer and thinner. I have a William Foster Anvil that looks almost identical from 1816, except in mine the heel is broken at an old forge weld, which is common for the brand, especially due to its age. Wiliam Fosters were at that point the third most common import, and yours has the look, but many brands existed at the time that looked similar, especially the wide sweet spot (the spot over the main body). I'm not sure why they got away from the wider faces; it makes mine my favorite anvil, to work on broke heel and all. You may be able to find faint markings by tilting it slightly sideways and rubbing the side with flour, corn starch, powdered chalk, or my favorite, baby powder. It really, really brings them into relief and even partial words, numbers, and markings can help identify a maker. As a tool, with the face damage I wouldn't go very high in Massachussetts, maybe three bucks a lb unless you find someone that is sentimental over the age. As an antique? Depends on what you can get some poor fool to part with. The sky is the limit if you have the gift. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZzzDerekzzZ Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 It's 19 17 hours ago, George N. M. said: And how wide (base and top of the face)? It's 19" long x 10-3/4 tall x 5-3/8 wide.. Sad day, I just let this beautiful anvil go. Thanks to all for the feed back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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