Hey everybody

I've always wanted to try blacksmithing, so when my neighbor down the road put an anvil out for sale I grabbed it. I don't really know anything about blacksmithing beyond some of the most basic stuff. It looks like it is a forged anvil because it has mouse holes. I was able to pick it up to get it in my car. I would guess it weighs at least 100 lb but probably not too much more. I don't see any kind of maker marks anywhere on it. It looks like there is a mouse hole that didn't get forged all the way or something, it has the shape of a mouse hole but there is metal inside it. It looks like it has a crack near the horn, and there is also a large chunk broken off the back end of it by the hardy hole. How can I figure out where this thing came from? Should I be afraid of damaging it further while I use it? Like is it gonna break at the crack, or should I not use the hardy hole? I'm wondering about grinding some kind of shape where the chunk broke off. I'm also wondering about making a jig to go onto my Shopsmith 10er that could hold it upside down and pass it over a sanding drum to flatten the face of it. I saw someone using and angle grinder on Youtube to clean up their anvil. Does this hurt the temper at all? I can turn the sanding drum down really slow. Like I said, I have no experience, but it seems like metal bounces off it real nice. How much of a difference will that even make for me? What would you do with it?

Welcome aboard BensonForge, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you'll have a much better chance of meeting up with members living within visiting distance. Maybe get yourself some hands on instruction, even just between smiths, nothing beats face to face.

It looks sort of like, I don't know the  maker though there are a couple guys can make informed guesses. Still . . . Does it matter?

The important thing I can see in the pics is the face looks good, no dings, chips of worst of the worst, torch cuts. She's seen a hard life for sure so a cracked face isn't too surprising. The broken heal is sad but doesn't ruin her for working.

NO, DO NOT grind the face flat!!! A flat face isn't that important, but preserving the thickness of the face IS. Every bit of steel you grind, sand, whatever off the face is gone forever. The thinner the hardened high carbon face is the more it can be effected by the impact forces of hammers. Too heavy a hammer for the anvil is what happened to the heel and cracked the face near the step. Probably broke the horn off too. 

Wire brush the sides and rub a little chalk or flour into it, then wipe it off gently. The flour will be retained by depressions like stamped characters, numbers, letters, logos. 

If you have a really light ball pein hammer, gently tap it in a pattern covering the face. The sound and rebound will tell you if there is a potential problem. A sudden change in sound or rebound indicates the face may have lost it's hardness probably by torch. A buzzing sound, clack or just dead can indicate a delaminated face, the weld joining it to the body has failed or is failing. A dead ring tends to indicate softening.

Don't worry about the rounded edges, this is a good thing and probably the result of missed blows chipping the old sharp edges. Someone in her past hit her way too hard so grinding out the chips after missing blows on the edges wouldn't surprise me.

If you need a little sharper edge there's some remaining on the side with the horn facing left in the pic. 

How the horn got broken off indicates a too heavy handed user OR maybe it fell off his pickup going down the road. I wouldn't worry about it, horns aren't as useful as folk think. I only use mine as a bottom fuller or occasionally to true up a ring. 

The chipped up hardy hole is sad but can be lived with. There are easy ways around needing a good hardy hole. There has been lengthy discussions of free standing hardy holes though the name slips my mind. John probably knows he has a much better memory than I and has made a couple versions.

Not knowing what you paid I can't guess about the deal, the ONE thing that matters as far as good deal bad deal is how you feel about it. But don't make  up your mind right now, I could do good work on that old lady but I've been at it long enough I can adjust to meet the conditions.

I think it'll bake a fine starter anvil, you can learn the basics to a point of proficiency and in the process make products to sell and save up for an anvil you like better. 

An old pickup truck axle on end flange up makes a VERY effective anvil and has no hardy hole, horn or heel. It has depth of rebound and you can hammer it into the ground with an old tree limb anywhere and go to work. 

An anvil is JUST a thing you use to beat other things on with hammers. Smooth boulders work a treat as do RR car couplers and the much beloved RR rail. 

Next time you're looking for smithing tools, anvil, tongs, hammer, hardy, etc. do NOT get in a rush. The ONLY thing hurrying is guaranteed to do is make mistakes permanent more quickly. 

There is also a tremendous amount of  good information like the answers to virtually ANY question you might have here on the forum but you'll have to look for it. Start on the IFI main page and scroll down through topics, section titles, then subsection titles and when you see a thread that looks like we're talking about what you're interested in select it and start reading. If not, oh well nothing lost, try again. 

Don't be afraid to ask the forum but don't be irritated if someone just links you to one of those thousands of threads that have covered your question before. 

Frosty The Lucky.

It's not pretty, but looks to be in relatively good shape. Wrought, old, English. I would use it as is. The hardy hole is a bit wallowed out but...probably okay. I agree strongly that the anvil would not benefit from grinding and might suffer for it. Hot metal will clean up the surfaces fast enough. You need a vise; they will work for a lot of the things you'd want a hardy hole for anyways. Remember, you can always take metal off later; putting it back on is a lot harder. Welcome.

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

I agree that you should NOT do any grinding, etc.. on this anvil.  It will work fine as is.  The loose hardy hole can be lived with.  Or, you can make a sleeve to go in the hardy hole and use hardy tools with a smaller shank. 

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Thanks everybody!

De nada. And I meant to add, you need a post vise, also called a leg vise Don't go wailing on something in a regular shop vise, most can't take it and will be severely damaged. Take your time finding one, but they're one of the most important tools in the shop, after the anvil, hammers, tongs, and fire.

I paid $50 for the anvil. Good deal?S

Frosty said too heavy of a hammer is what probably caused the damage to the anvil. How heavy of a hammer should I be using on this anvil?

And holy smokes, I've never seen old rusty simple tools go for as much as post vises. I see one already sold for $1200 near me. most are in the $250-$500 range. I'm all for getting a good old one when I find the right deal. I have a couple Yost vise screws that I was going to use in my wood shop. Are those anything I could use to try to fabricate a post vise? I'm also trying to learn welding, haven't gotten a chance to try stick yet.

Welcome from beautiful Benson Arizona, Yes that was a good deal on that old anvil, as stated, it appears quite usable 

I wouldnt worry about hammer size unless you are using a 10 pound sledge hammer and even then I would carefully swing it.

My go to hammer is 2.5 pounds. I use a lot of different hammers when needed but anything heavier wears me out after awhile.

Keep looking for a post vise, they show up around here pretty regularly for under $200, size and condition dependant of course. You can do a lot of twisting and light work on a bench vise if you are careful.

Have fun and keep us posted on your progress :-)

Yeah, don't pay $1200 for one. You can buy them new for around a third of that. Like finding an anvil, get your money ready, be patient, know what you're looking for, and tell people you're looking. Used to pick them up for next to nothing at farm/horse auctions a lot of the time, or do a "drug deal", i.e. barter for them. Don't think I've ever paid more than $75. I've traded beer, iron work, and tools. One I got for $40 and making a branding iron for woodworking.

The biggest thing is the condition of the screw, which is also the part that's incredibly difficult to make; the screw can be made, but the internal thread box is difficult - the vise takes a heavier screw, similar to acme screw but on a different pitch so it opens and closes faster. Acme screw can and often is used to replace worn or damaged threads and thread boxes, but that's not really an amateur task. Franken-vises are common. Don't sweat a missing mounting bracket or spring; they're easy to make and one of the most common missing bits.

Heavy hammer, old welds, an overzealous striker, and they seem to break most often when it's really cold out. For a beginning forger, most of the time a 1.5 to 2 lb hammer will do almost everything you need. I would think you could use up to a 4 lb hammer safely on that anvil generally; I wouldn't want someone using an 8 or 12 lb hammer on it. Doesn't matter though because you don't want to use a hammer that size.

Biggest I normally forge with is a diagonal peen about 3 lbs or a little over that I ground down from a 4 lb flea market hammer, and I honestly reach for a 2 lb ballpeen as much as anything, especially with as little as I've done in the last year. Even with as little as a 4 lb hammer starting out, you'll not only give yourself tennis elbow, but it moves metal less accurately and efficiently. There's a lot of discussion in the old forums at hammer to anvil weight ratios.

$50 is a heck of a deal on an anvil. 

IIRC, you want to use a hammer no heavier than 1/10 the weight of your anvil. 

TPAAAT, the Thomas Powers Applied Anvil Acquisition Technique. You can apply this to post vices as well as anvils.  There is a whole subforum on it but the gist is ask everyone. Ask every single person you meet everyday. The mailman, the grocery clerk, the gas attendant, people in your church, VFW, Amvets, etc. Everyone. Sooner than you think someone will say "hey, i got one of those in the corner of my basement i would sell cheap". 

A post vise is what got me into blacksmithing. I was looking for a bench vise on craigslist and kept watching this post vise come down in price. 

After a few weeks it got down to $125 and I bought it for the novelty. After I got it home I studied its use and thought blacksmithing would fun to try. Built a washtub forge with plaster of paris, charcoal and a hair dryer.

First hot metal was twisted in that vise and I was hooked, the rest is history and I still use that vise today :-)