Ironscot Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 I didn't know where else to put this, so here it be. I have a Champion bridge anvil that's been sitting in the barn for too long now. I know what I paid for it, but don't have any idea what it's really worth to users. I don't want to see it parked in a garden again. :roll: It's in pretty decent shape, nothing that couldn't be worked out with decent sanding. Some lunkhead did bend some cold stock in the pritchel hole in the tail at some time or another and left a ding in the face. :x :x I have no idea what it weighs, I use the front end loader on the tractor to move it around. NADA doesn't have any pricing estimates. How do y'all valuate these things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 Anvil prices vary quite a lot by location---they cost about twice as much here in NM as they did in OH. As a starting place have you researched bridge anvil sales on e-bay? Generally I find e-bay vastly overpriced compared to what I can find but it's a starting place. I paid a dollar a pound for mine around 25 years ago. If it's in good shape I would expect the low end price to be around $2 a pound and the high end price around $3 a pound depending on where you are at! Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironscot Posted February 15, 2006 Author Share Posted February 15, 2006 Thanks Thomas. That's pretty much the average price that I'm aware of for London pattern anvils. I didn't know if it were plus or minus of average for something as different from the norm as a bridge anvil. I keep thinking I need one of Mr. Jaquas finest, but then again I think I oughta hang on to thissun, for gang waleing. Decisions decisions... :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 I once visited a 5th generation smith in stroud OK (IIRC) who had a bridge anvil with a pattered face. He had built a stand to hold it upside down and used the smooth wide base to flatten plowshares on.---I need to do that with mine for large blades... Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironscot Posted February 16, 2006 Author Share Posted February 16, 2006 Where abouts in Stroud was he located? I pass through there from time to time, but have never stopped to enquire about a blacksmith. It's usually the weekend when I go through, and the place is deader than ethics in D.C. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 16, 2006 Share Posted February 16, 2006 Durned if I can remember; it was about 20 years ago, fellow had a nice masonry forge, triphammer, etc. I found it idly wandering around but I bet if you asked at the cafe or coffeeshop---hopefully they still have one---all the old timers should know. Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironscot Posted February 17, 2006 Author Share Posted February 17, 2006 Been my experience that the old timers know everything. The hard part is to get them to talk one at a time instead of all at once. 8) I've chased hints and rumors of anvils and trip hammers all over the back forty. I think it's just a game they play to see where they can get me to drive next. :roll: :roll: :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 We missed discussing the ACTUAL value of the anvil. When the seller puts a dollar price on an anvil, it is HIS value, what he thinks he can get for the anvil when sold. When you put your money on the table, that is YOUR value for the same anvil. When you use that anvil, only then does it becomes a VALUABLE tool. After you use the anvil for a while you can then put the ACTUAL value on the tool. Show us a photo of the beast and it's location and I am sure someone will put a value on it. :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 Ironscott. I did that one day---started at the annual fleamarket at the dog&gun club looking over some smithing tools I met a fellow and he mentioned a triphammer about 30 miles away. Tracked that one down but the welding shop wanted to keep it but they mentioned one about 40 miles back the way I had come. The farrier with it was still using it---made his own shoes; but he asked me to leavy my phone number cause he might know of another one.... 3 days later he called me up and said his wife had told him that he had been kicked in the head too many times and was retired, come and pick up the hammer... I'm afraid I might be responsible for your problems---I picked up a 25#LG in Shawnee for $75 back in 1981 and a no name 50# fullering hammer from an old oilfield welder out near Roll ($250 for the hammer + a massive forge + some tools + a blower + some heavy duty flowline pipe for a cannon...) and took them over to AR when I moved... Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironscot Posted February 19, 2006 Author Share Posted February 19, 2006 We missed discussing the ACTUAL value of the anvil. When the seller puts a dollar price on an anvil, it is HIS value, what he thinks he can get for the anvil when sold. When you put your money on the table, that is YOUR value for the same anvil. When you use that anvil, only then does it becomes a VALUABLE tool. After you use the anvil for a while you can then put the ACTUAL value on the tool. Show us a photo of the beast and it's location and I am sure someone will put a value on it. :wink: Sure we did Glenn! This is the South man. Any topic is approached like high headed cows. If you go straight at em they'll hit the thicket and you'll not see them the rest of the week. You kinda have to angle at em obliquely and never look em in the eye or, they'll hit the thicket and you'll not see them again for mebbe two weeks. I'm trying to figure out why my camera and 'puter don't like talking to each other. I'm suspecting personality differences. :roll: :wink: :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironscot Posted February 19, 2006 Author Share Posted February 19, 2006 Ironscott. I did that one day---started at the annual fleamarket at the dog&gun club looking over some smithing tools I met a fellow and he mentioned a triphammer about 30 miles away. Tracked that one down but the welding shop wanted to keep it but they mentioned one about 40 miles back the way I had come. The farrier with it was still using it---made his own shoes; but he asked me to leavy my phone number cause he might know of another one.... 3 days later he called me up and said his wife had told him that he had been kicked in the head too many times and was retired, come and pick up the hammer... I'm afraid I might be responsible for your problems---I picked up a 25#LG in Shawnee for $75 back in 1981 and a no name 50# fullering hammer from an old oilfield welder out near Roll ($250 for the hammer + a massive forge + some tools + a blower + some heavy duty flowline pipe for a cannon...) and took them over to AR when I moved... Thomas Didn't happen to leave em in Arkansas did ya? I'd hate to think of you having to tote that stuff all over creation. Just concerned is all. :wink: :wink: :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 Yup, the 25# ended up with a smith in Fayeteville AR area and the 50 with some friends near Toad Suck Ferry---never realizing that in OH the prices were several times higher and the selection much lower. I about swallowed my tongue when that 30# champion hammer ran me $700 and then all the OH smiths were telling me I had made out like a bandit! I moved that hammer to NM with me having already been warned about prices out here... Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironscot Posted February 22, 2006 Author Share Posted February 22, 2006 Is that the same Toad Suck Ferry that's just a little south and west of Slick? I've only heard of one such place, and cannae think there'd be too many others. :? :? Course, my dad was from Yonkers, and the only way you could live there now is with permanent scuba gear. Like you say, things is what they is where they's at. They's a whole nother sumthin somewheres else. :wink: :wink: 8) Do you think the dynamic of post modern local industrialisation, the impulse of art versus practical application and latent need will ever generate a broadscale industry in support of the art as it exists? There are a great many hammer makers, a few anvil slingers and a whole slew of ancillary supporters of the median ancillaries. Seems to me with the resurgence of interest in arcanae both agricultural and industrial, you could be on the cutting edge, and the rest of us could ride on yer coattails. :wink: Oh yeah, we were talkin about the price of an anvil weren't we. :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 Whoa there! Just sit down easy like and sniff a little coal smoke until the fit passes... Our family used to collect odd town names as we travelled everything from Bucksnort TN to Bugtussle OK I can still remember driving out of our way to take a ferry over the Mississippi back in the mid 1960's I've been on picnics at Toad Suck Ferry, Near Little Rock, don't expect there would be others. Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironscot Posted February 23, 2006 Author Share Posted February 23, 2006 The fact of yours and the knowing of mine makes me believe that there must be some infernal paradox. :? :? :? I was driven by Toad Suck Ferry a few years ago. Actually it was a long time ago but recognisance would have me confront the liability of my age. :? So, should I ask more thtn three bucks a pound for the anvil?!? :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 You can ask whatever you want---just don't expect folks to come breaking your door down to buy it. I don't know of anybody paying a premium for bridge anvils---now if you really want to do it right you get some big name smith to do a demo at Quad-State using a bridge anvil and letting on as to how it's his secret to doing great work. At lunch time you just hapen to have your one for sale near the demo area and wait till you get a live one... It's interesting that I have bought several items that had been talked up at previous Quad-States and then were re-sold by their new owners several years later as they just didn't suit them the way they did the demonstrator---how I got my sweedish cross pein that Rob Gunther likes and I was too cheap to buy new---now I wisht I had. Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironscot Posted February 24, 2006 Author Share Posted February 24, 2006 LOL! I think I'll paint it up real pretty, maybe even put some pinstriping on it :wink: , and call it a Whack-O-Matic Hammer Stop. Then on the other hand I might just keep it. It's pure heck being so decisive all the time. :? :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapman1077 Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 your anvil is worth what someone is willing to pay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironscot Posted February 25, 2006 Author Share Posted February 25, 2006 your anvil is worth what someone is willing to pay. I'm gonna take a page outta Tom Sawyer. The less I want to sell, the more they'll want to pay. Besides it's got provenance, it's been in MY barn. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quenchcrack Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Ironscot, y'all ah not from aroun' hea'h, ah ya? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironscot Posted February 27, 2006 Author Share Posted February 27, 2006 Ironscot, y'all ah not from aroun' hea'h, ah ya? Nah, but I been through there a time er two. :wink: :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strine Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 My brother lives up the bush about 3 hours drive away. A few years ago he rang to say there was an anvil at a garage sale just around the corner. All he knew about anvils was that I was keen on blacksmithing and should he buy it for me for the $100 asking price. I gave him a few points to check out before he parted with any hard earned; i.e. my hard earned! 1. could he lift it with ease, with a struggle or would he need assistance? 2. did it have two holes up one end...one square one round? 3. did it have a conical end opposite the holy end? 4. is the flat top flat or is it sunken in the middle? 5. are the corners and edges of the top sharp, slightly rounded or really rounded. 6. did it show signs of being a big lump of cast iron 7. generally speaking did it look maltreated. Ten minutes later he rang back with all the answers. By the sound of it it was a 'complete' anvil of about 200lb. He could lift it but it took a bit of effort. All the edges were rounded and the top was reasonably flat..."flat enough for what you want" he said. Beats me how he knew what I wanted :!: As for its genaral condition he said it was "weathered" meaning I suppose that it had lived outside for quite a while and was rusty but didn't have any dings or cuts or chips knocked out. Three hours later I had it on the back of the ute for a total cost of $100 plus a visit to the sister-in-law. Once home, the only treatment I gave it was to wash off the $100 written in chalk. I stuck it in the classifieds (this is long before eBay) and sold it four days later, on the evening of the paper being published, to a second hand dealer for $250, which I shared with little brother. So what was it worth?...... it depends :!: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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