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Show me your ANVIL

BFBOB

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Joined
Sep 20, 2011
Messages
5,073
They got it wrong. The first number is multiples of 112, which is a hundredweight, the second can only be 0,1,2 or 3, which is multiples of 28, which is a quarter hundredweight and the last number can only be between 0 and 27, that is the pounds.

This made ABSOLUTELY no sense, so I looked it up:headscrat :

HundredweightFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search

The hundredweight or centum weight (abbreviated cwt) is a unit of mass defined in terms of the pound (lb). The definition used in Britain differs from that used in North America. The two are distinguished by the terms long hundredweight and short hundredweight:

The long hundredweight is defined as 112 lb (8 stone), which is equal to 50.802345 kg.[1] This is the definition used in the imperial system.
The short hundredweight is defined as 100 lb, which is equal to 45.359237 kg.[2] This is the definition used in the US customary system. This is also the usual hundredweight in Canada. The short hundredweight is also called a cental, especially in places which normally use the long hundredweight.
Under both conventions, there are twenty hundredweight in a ton, the long ton being 2,240 lb and the short ton being 2,000 lb.

The long and short hundredweight are both descended from the French avoirdupois weight system, which became established in England in Late Medieval times. British custom came to widely use the stone weight, which is 14 pounds, and wished for the hundredweight to be a whole number of stones (and 100 is not a multiple of 14). The stone was not one of the avoirdupois units in Medieval France, and never became customary in the British American colonies or the USA. In 1824 in the UK, new weights and measures legislation made it illegal for merchants to use the word hundredweight in the sense of a hundred pounds. A merchant could be sued for fraud for doing so. In 1879, the hundred pound weight was re-legalized for trade in the UK under the name "cental", in response to legislative pressure from UK merchants who were importing wheat and tobacco from the USA.[3]

The short hundredweight is commonly used in USA in the sale of livestock and some cereal grains[4] and oilseeds, paper, and concrete additives and on some commodities in futures exchanges[5] A few decades ago, commodities weighed in terms of long hundredweight included cattle, cattle fodder, fertilizers, coal, some industrial chemicals, other industrial materials, and so on. However, since increasing metrication in most English-speaking countries, it is now less used. Church bell ringers use the unit commonly[6], although church bell manufacturers are increasingly moving over to the metric system.[7] Before the 15th century in England, a hundredweight was a different unit equal to 108 lb.[8]
 
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NASTYZEN

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Jun 11, 2010
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St-Colomban,Que. Canada
Some real nice ones in here.

My old no name anvil.

imgp5099.jpg
 

GeorgiaHybrid

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Sep 9, 2008
Messages
3,763
Location
Extreme NW Georgia
This made ABSOLUTELY no sense, so I looked it up:headscrat :

The first number on an anvil (hundred weight) is 112 pounds (8 stone) the second number is the quarter hundred weight (2 stone) and the last number is in pounds. That is just what the man listed above. It might not make sense to you but then again, this was back in the days of stones, rods, fathoms and other strange (to us) measurements.
 

Man of Many Vices

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Joined
Aug 23, 2012
Messages
366
...So I made a small stand for it tonight. Nothing crazy but just a good base for whacking things on.... This one is just 55lbs... Its gonna be painted as well just need to figure out a color..

<a href="http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk227/jakobgribble/?action=view&current=a1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk227/jakobgribble/a1.jpg" border="0" alt="Anvil"></a>

Suggestions:
1. The top of your anvil should be the height of your knuckles when you are standing straight next to the anvil... probably 30 to 32 inches. This allows you to develop a good swing and contact with the working piece without doing all sorts of damage to your wrist, elbow and shoulders. It also allows your other arm/hand to hold the work piece without contortions = better control, less fatigue, fewer hammer strikes needed.

2. The anvil stand transmits the shock of your hammer blows to the floor. The stamped sheet metal wheel is too flexible and weak... almost like mounting an anvil on a trampoline.

3. Never strike the anvil with hardened hammer or other tool; such a tool is meant to strike the working piece that is placed on the anvil.

4. Paint? OK, if you must. Anvils look great bare naked. Paint would jazz it up a bit.

Have fun hammering!

Dan
Indio, CA
 

leon renaud

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2006
Messages
23
Location
North Eastern Conn.
The rebound test is the best test for an anvil weather you use a steel ball or just drop a lightly gripped hammer on the surface. Some very good old military anvils have very little ring to them and if you work alot with an anvil your soon looking for a way to "kill" the ring anyway! it's the rebound quality that lets you work long hours at an anvil and any smith that works long hours has learned to use that rebound quality to keep his stride and not tire out an occasional strike to the anvil surface will rebound your hammer taking out some of the strain of continuous striking and not break your rhythm ,This is something you learn as you go. To "Kill" an anvils ring there are several methods an old lenght of chain wrapped loose around the base works,also a big magnet stuck to the base (old speaker magnets work fine) also a spring stretched from the pritchel hole to the anvil support works.I've seen one anvil that had a hole drilled and tapped under the heel with an eye bolt threaded in for the spring to hook in so both pritchel and hardie holes were clear.A lot of old anvils were plain cast iron with a piece of tool steel welded to the top you can clearly see the difference in material from the side the top 1/2 inch or more will be steel plated this will run on the flat face from the heel (end with holes in it)to the step at the horn. at the end of the steel face is usually a flat section left for cutting on that is just cast iron a few inches long and the width of the anvil then the horn will taper from there. It's a massive amount of work but this type anvil can be re steeled there is video on the web of this being done https://www.google.com/search?q=bla...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a You can find lots of good info on smithing here including the one on anvil repair.here is a link to blacksmiths refacing a cast anvil with a new steel top
the video is compressed into a few minutes but it took over 8 hours to get the anvil heat soaked enough to bring it to welding temp!
 
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Outlawmws

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Joined
Aug 9, 2011
Messages
39,080
Location
The Badlands
OK I picked up another anvil today. This one is a bit smaller than the average anvil.. :D

Shown here with my 2-1/2 lb Brass jewelers anvil for contrast, is an 11-12 oz, (yes, I said once) brass anvil. It's now my smallest!

It actually shows some signs of use, and abuse, There is some sort of logo on the side, but all I've been able to make out is is an "R" with some sort of curved or arched something over it. :dunno: Some maroon beat the side where the logos is... :mad:


attachment.php


Two shots of the logo area enhanced as good as I'm able:

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attachment.php
 

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Zeke

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Joined
Aug 13, 2009
Messages
17,176
Location
Long Beach CA, the sewer by the sea.
The rebound test is the best test for an anvil weather you use a steel ball or just drop a lightly gripped hammer on the surface. Some very good old military anvils have very little ring to them and if you work alot with an anvil your soon looking for a way to "kill" the ring anyway! it's the rebound quality that lets you work long hours at an anvil and any smith that works long hours has learned to use that rebound quality to keep his stride and not tire out an occasional strike to the anvil surface will rebound your hammer taking out some of the strain of continuous striking and not break your rhythm ,This is something you learn as you go. To "Kill" an anvils ring there are several methods an old lenght of chain wrapped loose around the base works,also a big magnet stuck to the base (old speaker magnets work fine) also a spring stretched from the pritchel hole to the anvil support works.I've seen one anvil that had a hole drilled and tapped under the heel with an eye bolt threaded in for the spring to hook in so both pritchel and hardie holes were clear.A lot of old anvils were plain cast iron with a piece of tool steel welded to the top you can clearly see the difference in material from the side the top 1/2 inch or more will be steel plated this will run on the flat face from the heel (end with holes in it)to the step at the horn. at the end of the steel face is usually a flat section left for cutting on that is just cast iron a few inches long and the width of the anvil then the horn will taper from there. It's a massive amount of work but this type anvil can be re steeled there is video on the web of this being done https://www.google.com/search?q=bla...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a You can find lots of good info on smithing here including the one on anvil repair.
Tough read, but some good info. Thanks.

General question, is railroad track actually a good base for an anvil? I have an unmolested 2 foot section but I've not beat much on it. I sure do understand why the HF POS anvil is not a good tool. But, I do beat on it. Better than beating metal on the concrete. ;) :D
 
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leon renaud

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2006
Messages
23
Location
North Eastern Conn.
Tough read, but some good info. Thanks.

General question, is railroad track actually a good base for an anvil? I have an unmolested 2 foot section but I've not beat much on it. I sure do understand why the HF POS anvil is not a good tool. But, I do beat on it. Better than beating metal on the concrete. ;) :D
first sorry about the hard read I have dyslexia and ADD posting threads is hard for me because punctuation and sentence structure just doesn't work in my brain it has gotten better since finding the "Journals" but I know it's not right spell check was a huge discovery for me! Rail is good steel and a fine light anvil the most overlooked thing about any anvil is make it immobile! This might seem like a little thing but if your anvil no matter what size moves as you work you are loosing a lot of your work force.You have to scale your tools to the work being done and a lot of work has been done on rail anvils if you visit the link I gave there are lots of directions for making them. I don't know the type of work you want to do but making your rail "look" like an anvil may not be your best move if you don't actually need a horn. using your 2 foot section as is might be better since there's more mass in it. HF cast anvils work ok for HOT work but working cold steel on them will ****** up the surface quick any big chunk of steel will function as an anvil it must be mounted solid and not move under your blows, Even anvils are tailored to specific types of work and most people don't realize that farriers anvils for example are slightly different than a general blacksmiths anvil a company making chain would use a different style anvil as well as one forging ships anchors. the link I gave should get anyone started in blacksmithing if their interested. I don't know that it's worth the work but a HF anvil could have a steel face applied just like they did in the old days it's one job I want to try "just because". One last note here any mark in your tools will transfer to your work so treat your tools well remove any dings or nicks from the tools and anvil face think of your black smith tools as super duty body working tools.
 

Rusty Musket

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Apr 5, 2012
Messages
434
Location
Pacific Northwest
Hey guys. I bought a couple of anvils at a sale this morning. So far I found half a logo on one and was wondering if anyone recognized it. The small one is 130lbs and the large one is 200lbs. Ask my back how I know this. My blacksmith friend is coming over in a day or two so hopefully he will help me learn a bit more about them. I bought them from a guy who was helping out at a garage sale I attended. He had them in the back of his truck with a bunch of scrap metal that he was hired to clean out of a old building. He wouldn't name a price and kept telling me to make an offer. I suspected he was going to counter anything I said so I offered $100 to which he immediately said $150. We settled on $120 for the pair.
 

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nhblacksmith

New member
Joined
Sep 30, 2012
Messages
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It is undoubtedly a Trenton as their logo was the name "Trenton" inside a horizontal diamond frame, both of which are visible in your photo. If you have access to the book "Anvils in America" by Richard Postman, there is a good section on Trentons which were made by Columbus Forge and Iron Company of Columbus Ohio from 1898 to 1952. The dashed line in the diamond first appeared in 1927, before that it was a solid line. If you find a serial number it is possible to date the anvil.
 
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geomagno

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Joined
May 17, 2011
Messages
88
Location
Indy
This is my makeshift anvil (behind the vise). Granddad was going to turn this over, weld a pipe upright and use it for the base of a grinder stand. I've primer and painted the I-beam like base and converted it into a pounding surface. Weighs just at 100 pounds. Any idea what a slab of iron like this would have been used for?
Majestic 35 & anvil.JPG

8036032717_95d93d7fe7.jpg
[/url] Majestic & anvil by back2denali, on Flickr[/IMG]
 
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Rusty Musket

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Apr 5, 2012
Messages
434
Location
Pacific Northwest
It is undoubtedly a Trenton as their logo was the name "Trenton" inside a horizontal diamond frame, both of which are visible in your photo. If you have access to the book "Anvils in America" by Richard Postman, there is a good section on Trentons which were made by Columbus Forge and Iron Company of Columbus Ohio from 1898 to 1952. The dashed line in the diamond first appeared in 1927, before that it was a solid line. If you find a serial number it is possible to date the anvil.

Thanks for the great info guys! We found a bunch more numbers on the Trenton's base today. However, both anvils need a serious cleaning before we can get a real good look at em. I just made my smithy friends very happy.
 

Steroblan

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Jan 31, 2012
Messages
259
Location
Northern Calif
This is my makeshift anvil (behind the vise). Granddad was going to turn this over, weld a pipe upright and use it for the base of a grinder stand. I've primer and painted the I-beam like base and converted it into a pounding surface. Weighs just at 100 pounds. Any idea what a slab of iron like this would have been used for?

8036032717_95d93d7fe7.jpg
[/url] Majestic & anvil by back2denali, on Flickr[/IMG]

Heavy plate has many uses in industry such as boiler plate tube sheet, ship building, armor plate etc.
 

Exceller8

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Jul 19, 2012
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Location
Banning, CA
I just picked up this RR track anvil at an antique store. I thought it was cool that it already had a horn and pritchel hole.
 

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The Copilot

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Apr 24, 2012
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Rusty:

The numbers on the Trenton anvil base are likely the serial number. The serial can be looked up in the book "Anvils in America" to tell you what year the anvil was made by Trenton.
 

Tarnished

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Feb 8, 2012
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721
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SW Ohio
Will add my anvils to the list. Small one is Vulcan, 45#, and the large one I don't have a name for yet. Was my Grandfathers, and although it has been used hard, I will keep it around because...
 

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nhblacksmith

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Sep 30, 2012
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How do you even do that sort of damage to an anvil?

A lot of anvils were made with a wrought iron body that had a steel work surface forge welded to it. Some anvils were even forge welded together from six or seven pieces in layers. Over years of pounding, the softer wrought iron can sag while the steel face stays straight, leading to separation. A bad blow with a heavy hammer can break part or all of the face loose, especially if done by a striker with a heavy sledge hammer. In this case it looks like part of the wrought iron stayed welded to a chunk of face that broke off leaving that large irregular area of broken metal. I have a small Hay Budden that is missing about 1/3 of the face but it was a much cleaner break.
 

Exceller8

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I picked up this beauty at the Swap Meet yesterday. Somebody put a ton of work into this one.
 

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Danny Boudreaux

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Jan 10, 2012
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Some of my larger anvils:

The first pic is my 500# Soderfors Anvil (Early 1900's vintage).

The second pic is my 300# Hay Budden anvil with a 200# Trenton in the background.

The third pic is my 300# Arm & Hammer anvil and on the right is a 25# Little Giant Power Hammer.
 

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KEH

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Jan 31, 2010
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Great thread! Yesterday I saw a LARGE Peter Wright anvil in a pawn shop, priced $650.
Looked to be about the same size as Greg5709's?(sorry if I have the number wrong) anvil. Not going to get it. I have a short piece of railroad iron.

KEH
 

Exceller8

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Location
Banning, CA
Some of my larger anvils:

The first pic is my 500# Soderfors Anvil (Early 1900's vintage).

The second pic is my 300# Hay Budden anvil with a 200# Trenton in the background.

The third pic is my 300# Arm & Hammer anvil and on the right is a 25# Little Giant Power Hammer.

Danny, you have a very nice shop! :thumbup: The anvil's and swage block aren't too shabby either. ;)
 

Mickey O

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Oct 25, 2009
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Chicago, IL
What if you have anvils, more than one, do you want to see them? The title says anvil, singular, not sure if it's for people with only one anvil.
 

BMW Rider

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Apr 8, 2010
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346
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
This old anvil was my grandfather's, I inherted it from my dad who got it from my Uncle with a bunch of other tools and equipment. I have no idea of a maker, there are no markings that I can determine to indicate that. It's about a hundred pounder.

IMGP0748.JPG


IMGP0749.JPG
 

Alan Douglas

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Jun 4, 2011
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295
Location
Cape Cod, Mass.
PA300195.JPG

PA300196.JPG

Is this a hardy tool, and if so, what would it fit? It weighs 10 lbs; the tang measures 1 5/8" square at the bottom and 1 3/4" at the top. It was either my grandfather's or was in the barn when we moved here in 1955.
 

nhblacksmith

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Sep 30, 2012
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4
It is likely part of the 4-piece Pexto (originally Peck, Stow & Wilcox Company) set, #949 for forming sheet metal. There is a long holder that fits into a big stake plate and three forming tools that fit the end of the holder. I don't believe this will fit directly into a Pexto stake plate. The long holder sticks out to the side for allowing one to work inside a cylindrical shape like stovepipe or a sleeve on a suit of armor. I picked the whole set up from a man who does armor. You can check it out at this link:

http://roperwhitney.com/misc/2-26.cfm

They work well for a multitude of forming tasks clamped in a vise if you don't have a plate they fit.
 

Tarnished

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Feb 8, 2012
Messages
721
Location
SW Ohio
Allen,
dought that your tool is made for the hardy hole, but probably for a "stake plate. As Outlaw states, it is to large for the hardy hole. I just picked up a set of these Stake Anvils and have been researching them to find out more.
See this thread: Pexto Anvil Stake Score: URL="http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=172987"]http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=172987[/URL]
Here is what I came home with.
 

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Exceller8

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Banning, CA
I've wanted one of these little Sears anvils for a long time now. I keep getting out bid on ebay for one but I got lucky and somebody listed one with the "buy it now" option and I snagged it. Probably paid too much ($30) but I really wanted it.
 

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