Unknown anvil?

[Tcb204]

Hi all. I’m new to the forum. I’ve bought an old British anvil for £50 (bargain) which appears to have no markings but fully intend on taking the wire wheel to it to find out. It measures 13.25 inches high by 32 inches long by 5 inches wide. The face is slightly pitted as shown in the photos. My initial question is: does anybody recognise the shape and dimensions, is it cast or forged from what you can see, and do you have any ideas as to its weight? Thanks. Tom

[Will Brouwers]

tcb, with only 2 pictures it is hard to tell what you have there. Some places to look for answers would be at the waist, the narrowest part of the anvil, for any lines of weld where they may have arc welded two pieces, or even harder to tell, where they may have forge welded.

The next part is about 3/8-1/2 down from the face of the anvil. Many anvils have a high carbon steel face welded to the top, if it doesn’t have a line where it looks like two pieces of iron meet, odds are it is cast.

When wire wheeling, look on the sides of the anvil for markings, or look on the front foot. I’m not sure how different U.S. and UK anvils are, but that is where I look on each anvil. 
 

I’m sorry to see all that pitting. Is the whole face like that? Before you go trying to fix that, maybe see if you can use other parts of the anvil. It is easy to remove metal from an anvil, not so easy to replace it properly.

Edit: This is a forged anvil, because of the square hole (mousehole) in the front. The makers of anvils would stick a big bar in there to help them manipulate the heavy chunk of metal they were forging into an anvil.

[Tcb204]

Thanks Will- update following wire wheel. Weight 2-2-11. Or 291 lbs/132kg. No makers mark yet. Definitely forged. What a bargain. Pitting about 3mm deepest on face.

[Tcb204]

Looking like a Peter Wright anvil

[Frosty]

11 hours ago, Will Brouwers said:

Edit: This is a forged anvil, because of the square hole (mousehole) in the front. The makers of anvils would stick a big bar in there to help them manipulate the heavy chunk of metal they were forging into an anvil.

Not necessarily, the tong holes were used to grind anvils of all kinds, forged cast or cut. Not always but they aren't a solid indicator of forging.

Peter Wright stamped in the side is a pretty good bit of evidence. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Tcb204]

Would you suggest getting the face machined down in a shop or having a go myself with various grinding discs?

[Frosty]

Neither. Removing steel from the face will shorten it's useful life further. Use it. Hammering HOT steel on it will slowly drive the high spots down and raise the low spots. Steel, even hardened high carbon steel is plastic, it will move under the hammer, a little cushion between hammer and anvil face will prevent damaging the hammer and make chipping the anvil face less likely. 

For what it would cost to have that anvil rehabbed properly you could buy a new one. Making that extensive a repair is no trivial thing, just professional heat treatment IF you can find a shop that knows how to heat treat an anvil would cost hundreds at a guess. 

I know, it IS a bummer but some desires just cross the more than it's worth line. There are lots of things it's still plenty good for. Display at a lifing history facility or as a bottom tool holder, etc. I certainly don't think you should scrap it! I just don't think it's worth the rebuild time and expense.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Daswulf]

No! Do not machine or grind the face. As frosty said it will take away the hardened steel faceplate and it will be more prone to damage.

It will smooth out some with use and if you need a flat surface find a bit heavier flat chunk of steel and use it just for the finish work. 

The one part of the face towards the horn looks good enough. 

Use it and find out how it works for you. 

 

[Will Brouwers]

Thanks for educating me on the use of mouse holes Frosty! Any chance you remember where you learned that information?

[Les L]

My SISCO, solid cast Swedish steel, anvil has the mouse holes, also called handling holes

[Frosty]

My Soderfors cast Swedish steel anvil has handling holes. 

I read about making anvils, the tools, etc. on a site linked here IIRC. Unfortunately I don't recall who posted it or much about it. It was posted while the "last water powered blacksmith shop" . . . somewhere was being discussed. In England maybe? I don't recall. It didn't talk about the handling holes but you could tell from the tongs and what they were doing they had to be there or there wasn't anything to hold onto. 

If I see them again I'll post it.

Frosty The Lucky

[Rojo Pedro]

That looks so rough that if it were mine, I would grind it a bit make it something more useable.

It was a bargain after all and there may be some good steel under there. 

I would at least put a flap disc to it. Just me though...

[Nobody Special]

On 2/24/2024 at 6:55 PM, Will Brouwers said:

Thanks for educating me on the use of mouse holes Frosty! Any chance you remember where you learned that information?

It's fairly common knowledge and is mentioned in a few of the more available books and online. Couldn't tell you if it made it's way into Anvils in America; I can't afford it. I've also seen it done a couple of times in manipulating anvils to work or heat treat by one of the formerly major German anvil makers.