Show me your ANVIL

[ncgun99]

Picked these two up today. They are never for sale where I am or crazy expensive. Still paid too much but been wanting one for a while.
The smaller one will get cleaned up and go back for sale.

Delayed post but here it is cleaned up. The other one went to a friend locally.

 

[WisJim]

I found an anvil for $25 at a garage sale, the only interesting or tool related thing that they were selling. I thought that it was worth getting to have a heavy hard object to pound things on. My son was looking it over and cleaned it up a bit and we found it is a Peter Wright and is 140 pounds. It's a bit beat up and looks like someone used it to support material that they cut with a torch.

 

[Outlawmws]

Jim just remember, Anvils were made for bendnig HOT Iron/steels, not cold; if you want something for beating on cold steel, get some RR track section.

 

[rustyzman]

This is my Peter Wright. 147lbs (1 - 1 - 7). I bought it from a farmer for $120 while buying some firewood from him for a friends wedding. (Outdoor wedding at a nice state park about 25 years ago). At the time (sorta pre internet) it was the ONLY one I had been able to find. I showed back up to the wedding with firewood, an anvil and no more cash. The farmer had owned it since around WWII and it was old when he got it. He said he took his blacksmith's forge welding test on it. I looked at some dating of it and I think it ended up being from the 1880-ish era? I forget exactly. It has wear on the face and chipped edges, but it is still quite workable.

For the pictures, I had just finished making a new base for it out of some pieces of a shipping pallet from a very large machine tool. The base legs are two pieces of solid wood with a cross tie in between. The top plate was also a single piece of the pallet that I skinned with a sheet of copper. The base is all assembled with Loctite adhesive and big SPAX screws recovered from the pallet. The two tie straps are heavy copper bars tied together through the legs with large threaded rods and some custom semi flush nuts I made. I laid down some polyurethane automotive window adhesive I had left over between the base, the sheet copper and the actual anvil. It is chained through the top plate to heavy stainless steel spreader bars on either side. I coated it with some old stove polish for the heck of it.

It always had a nice sharp ring to it, but that can be a bit noisy at times. I am sure my neighbors were not always thrilled about that. With the new base in place this way, I still have the same great action on it but with no ring. Very muted. I am Very pleased with the results.

 

[Outlawmws]

Nice!! the stand does look Beefy!

 

[rustyzman]

Thanks,
When they told me they were scrapping the pallet and I saw what the two base rails were made of, I knew that this was the time to upgrade the anvil stand. The boss said we could take any of it we wanted, but it had to be used for something neat and not just be firewood. There was a time constraint too, as it was leaving quickly. Think they paid something like $9500 to have it built when shipping the machine in from Switzerland. Those are the pictures I sent to prove it was a worthy project, and she approved.

I cut off about 12' of it in two sections and still have about 6' left. Barely made a dent in the pallet as a whole. I think it is just yellow pine, not oak.

I also got some great angle iron that I built my new Bridgeport base out of, so overall that pallet provided a decent amount of material for me.

I saved some additional choice pieces in a stack away from the scrap pile and told our people they were not to be scrapped, but I could not load them right away. Somebody moved them while the wood scrapper was there and he took it all...bummer...
They were nice pieces about 6' long, between 3" & 4" thick and about 13"-15" wide, all rough sawn.

The pallet held a new Tornos 8x26 Multiswiss machine.

MultiSwiss 8x26 | Tornos

It is like the one in the second video down

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

This is my Peter Wright. 147lbs (1 - 1 - 7). I bought it from a farmer for $120 while buying some firewood from him for a friends wedding. (Outdoor wedding at a nice state park about 25 years ago). At the time (sorta pre internet) it was the ONLY one I had been able to find. I showed back up to the wedding with firewood, an anvil and no more cash. The farmer had owned it since around WWII and it was old when he got it. He said he took his blacksmith's forge welding test on it. I looked at some dating of it and I think it ended up being from the 1880-ish era? I forget exactly. It has wear on the face and chipped edges, but it is still quite workable.

For the pictures, I had just finished making a new base for it out of some pieces of a shipping pallet from a very large machine tool. The base legs are two pieces of solid wood with a cross tie in between. The top plate was also a single piece of the pallet that I skinned with a sheet of copper. The base is all assembled with Loctite adhesive and big SPAX screws recovered from the pallet. The two tie straps are heavy copper bars tied together through the legs with large threaded rods and some custom semi flush nuts I made. I laid down some polyurethane automotive window adhesive I had left over between the base, the sheet copper and the actual anvil. It is chained through the top plate to heavy stainless steel spreader bars on either side. I coated it with some old stove polish for the heck of it.

It always had a nice sharp ring to it, but that can be a bit noisy at times. I am sure my neighbors were not always thrilled about that. With the new base in place this way, I still have the same great action on it but with no ring. Very muted. I am Very pleased with the results.

What kind of fasteners are those on the bottom????

 

[rustyzman]

What kind of fasteners are those on the bottom????

Those are Pin Spanner nuts that I made. There are four total and they thread onto a threaded rod that goes all the way through the leg. They are over an inch long and you can't really quite see the threaded rod in the picture. This way I bind the leg so it won't split and stop the A-frame from spreading open under hammering loads.

Basically it is a shouldered nut, threaded thru with two pin holes on the face so they can be tightened with a face pin spanner. I wanted it to be as flush as possible. Turned them on my lathe and put the pin holes in on the mill.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Those are Pin Spanner nuts that I made. There are four total and they thread onto a threaded rod that goes all the way through the leg. They are over an inch long and you can't really quite see the threaded rod in the picture. This way I bind the leg so it won't split and stop the A-frame from spreading open under hammering loads.

Basically it is a shouldered nut, threaded thru with two pin holes on the face so they can be tightened with a face pin spanner. I wanted it to be as flush as possible. Turned them on my lathe and put the pin holes in on the mill.

Of course you made them. I keep forgetting this is Garage Journal. Great job!

 

[rustyzman]

Of course you made them. I keep forgetting this is Garage Journal. Great job!

Thanks!

 

[PolishAvenger]

My pair of boat anchors......JHM Shaper and a century-old Hay Budden.
-Mark

 

[rustyzman]

My pair of boat anchors......JHM Shaper and a century-old Hay Budden.
-Mark

Nice Stands!
Those anvils are in Fantastic shape! A century old too!

 

[PolishAvenger]

Yeah, I lucked into that Hay Budden. Was owned by a gentleman who was one of the volunteer smiths at the Fort Vancouver smithy for 12 years. He just got too old to swing a hammer.
The stand under the JHM is one I built from 4x4s, all-thread, nuts and washers. It's a pain in the **** to drill the holes and glue up, but it sure is solid.

 

[RivennHewn]

Not mine. I ripped the pics from the Instagrams.

Posted by https://www.cergolforge.com/?variant=31972467572825

Hope I don’t get sued, but thought it was too good not to share.

Check out his hammer!!!

 

[rustyzman]

Wow, don't accidentally back up into that horn! Very unique.

 

[Hiatt1991]

Found this beauty today on Facebook Marketplace for $200. There’s a ton of brown paint all over it but I believe it might possibly be a Hay Budden. There is some damage to the edges but not the end of the world. The anvil weighed in at 107lbs. Not bad at less than $2 a pound!

 

[HeelSpur]

Lots of mini anvils in this auction.

JS18 | Welton Auction Inc.

Buy At Auction. Miniature Solid Brass Anvil, Miniature Cast Solid Brass AFGI A1 Anvil, Sm. Aluminum Purdue Anvil, sm. Solid Brass Polished & Sealed Anvil, Sm. Aluminum Anvil, 16oz. Salesman Sample/Paper Wt. German Anvil, Sm. Chas Peace Solid Steel Anvil, Sm. Solid Steel Anvil, Sm. Ozark Pattern...

weltonauction.hibid.com

 

[four.cycle]

1890 Simmons Hardware Co. catalog Eagle Peter Wright ad pp 232

1893 Iron Age Vol 51 Peter Wright Anvil ad pp 87

1894 Manning Maxwell & Moore Co. catalog American Armitage Eagle Hill Peter Trenton Wright anvil ad pp 868
1916 H. Channon Co. catalog Bullock Illinois Vulcan Peter Wright Anvil ad pp 359

 

[Plastikosmd]

New Rat Hole 460#






Sledge and can for reference

 

[drivesitfar]

PK: new to you or brand new and an anvil anybody with deep pockets can purchase?

Looks great and you’ve always been above average on tools and machines you’ve put in your awesome shop.

 

[Plastikosmd]

Brand new, still in production.

Steve stopped making them and sold the business but new owner sunk it. Steve bought the business back and has restarted

Here is his fb page

Facebook

www.facebook.com

 

[Jacko264]

This is mine more a garden ornament then anything now a days
Anvil by night light
Graham

 

[Outlawmws]

Not an Anvil, just a "Wannabe"




But a part of the ad from 1941 indicates it should be ductile CI rather than Gray - I still won't do anything beyond light stuff on the anvil...:

 

[Plastikosmd]

Anvil moved into smith area
Nothing too fancy, sander and hammer rack moved out for some arranging atm

 

[Hephaestus29]

Anvil moved into smith area
Nothing too fancy, sander and hammer rack moved out for some arranging atm

Is that an old type of Gantry crane by the wall or the hammer rack you mentioned?

 

[Plastikosmd]

Yep, age unknown. All square head bolts
Pic when I was moving in

 

[finn]

I didn’t read all thirty pages here, but I have recently been inundated by the YouTube and Facebook algorithms with anvil adds and postings. They are for Chinese cast steel anvils from 66 to 132 lbs, for not much money, all things considered. Vevor is one brand, but the same anvil, from the same factory goes by other brands.

Anyone have real world experience with these imported case steel anvils?

I’m not paying $400 for something to beat on, and I don’t have time to chase once in a lifetime deals on a piece of history.

Just need something better than the rail I have now, and mainline rail isn’t common by my house since everything was pretty much ripped out fifty years ago.

 

[Outlawmws]

Find a section of RR track to beat on.

A cast iron Anvil had no rebound, adn is likely to break (I cant recall seeing any MIC CI that was ductile iron)

 

[jwilson645]

Left to right.....180lb Fisher, 70lb Fisher and 300lb (maker unknown)

The 180 was my first and still favorite. Fisher don't have a lot of ring which is good for my hearing. The 70 is my travel anvil and the 300 my main shop anvil. It had aloy of ring on the horn but the bed is fairly quiet but still no Fisher.

 

[Duker]

My 508lb Augustus Refflinghause anvil.



My son’s 400lb Chinese cast steel anvil which actually has surprisingly good rebound and sound…



And what I now have started as a bad habit of using as a quick anvil…..

 

[Outlawmws]

Duke, that 508 Augustus needs a UMD on it for reference! Awsome anvils!

 

[Duker]

Duke, that 508 Augustus needs a UMD on it for reference! Awsome anvils!

Lol… thanks. I thought I had a pic with a 4lb hammer which made the hammer look small but this was the only other pic I had with the temp base I made… the tubing is 3” tubing…

 

[Plastikosmd]

Ok updated smith shop pic w sander and hammer rack

 

[atch]

This is something I would never pound on. It's really just a conversation piece. I picked it up at an auction after it had sat outside for who-knows-how-long. It was rusted very badly. When my grandson stayed with us for a week or so a few years ago he took it totally apart, sandblasted every piece (except for the threads), chose the color, painted it, and reassembled it. I left it all up to him. I would not have painted it but he wanted to.

I've heard that these are not terribly uncommon but I've seen only two in my lifetime. The other was in an antique store and they wanted stupid money for it.

 

[finn]

This is something I would never pound on. It's really just a conversation piece. I picked it up at an auction after it had sat outside for who-knows-how-long. It was rusted very badly. When my grandson stayed with us for a week or so a few years ago he took it totally apart, sandblasted every piece (except for the threads), chose the color, painted it, and reassembled it. I left it all up to him. I would not have painted it but he wanted to.

I've heard that these are not terribly uncommon but I've seen only two in my lifetime. The other was in an antique store and they wanted stupid money for it.

I have one like that. It was in my grandfather’s basement when he passed away forty some years ago.

Mine is essentially hollow inside, and I’m afraid to pound on it, but it looks cool.

I wonder if its original intent was for something other than metalworking, ie leather working, brass grommets, or something else not involving brute force.

 

[Hephaestus29]

You could fill the under side with cement or something and you might be able to use it for light work.

 

[akasrick]

I have one like that. It was in my grandfather’s basement when he passed away forty some years ago.

Mine is essentially hollow inside, and I’m afraid to pound on it, but it looks cool.

I wonder if its original intent was for something other than metalworking, ie leather working, brass grommets, or something else not involving brute force.

Someone posted advertisements of your style vises. You'll have to scroll to see them.
Finn's question

akasrick

 

[finn]

Someone posted advertisements of your style vises. You'll have to scroll to see them.
Finn's question

akasrick

From memory, it looks similar to the Austin’s vice in the link. It’s probably wort the $3.00 it cost new. Wrought iron body and chilled face.

I also have a Combination vice, or what I always thought was a Blacksmith’s vice like the one above the Austin’s vice in the link. Paid $75 at an auction maybe ten years ago. It’s well used.

I use the Combination vice regularly, although the jaws need dressing badly. The Austin’s vice seems relatively useless, although it might clean up and make a nice display piece. The two vices came from within 75 miles of each other, so it’s possib le they came from the same wholesaler and catalog.

 

[35k0]

I found an anvil for $25 at a garage sale, the only interesting or tool related thing that they were selling. I thought that it was worth getting to have a heavy hard object to pound things on. My son was looking it over and cleaned it up a bit and we found it is a Peter Wright and is 140 pounds. It's a bit beat up and looks like someone used it to support material that they cut with a torch.

That is a steal!!

 

[four.cycle]

come on... srsly?
you found a Peter Wright anvil for $25 bucks?

were you using a gun?