Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Any Anvil Experts On Here?

I have an old anvil I'd like to know more about. It appears to be a Fisher and Norris made in 1896. I can't seem to find out much about it.

How many pounds is your anvil?

Here's a bit of info. https://fishernorris.com/museum/

It's marked 170. I'm assuming that's the weight. It certainly feels like it.

Antique anvils certainly have a following, and collector value.

When I was dabbling in old west memorabilia years ago, I learned a bit about anvils.

Condition and weight. How flat the top working surface still is, etc.

They can bring some pretty good money.

That may not be pounds. I remember seeing a discussion about the markings on an anvil referring to the old hundredweight system. Give that a look see.

Blow it up with gunpowder

Ask the question at the Garage Journal Forum, and you'll get a good answer. There are some very knowledgeable, anvil and vise collectors there.

I'd like to have one - just cuz seems like a good thing to have. Like chainsaws and 20gauge bird guns.

I know nothing about anvils, except I would like to own one. At an auction a few months ago and one sold there for $300. It was a pretty big one and seem, to me at least, to be in pretty good shape. I was hoping to maybe buy it for $50-$75, but they opened the bidding higher than that.

I don't know anything about yours James, we have this old Peter Wright that has some age, and use on it.

Lot of work to beat the top off that one, Richard!
My brother has Grandad Shubert's anvil. Old miners used to "shoot the anvil" on weekend get togethers. Put a charge under an anvil and see how high you could get it to fly. Grandad sheared the top half of his from the bottom half, during one of these escapades,
The miners took it to the mine shop, drilled through it with a hand operated drill press, and bolted it together through straps - 5/8" bolts, IIRC.
I sometimes wonder if alcohol was involved in the repairs, also.

That anvil could be rebuilt, but it works for what we need it to do.

They are hard to find.
Collectors make it super hard to get one to get into blacksmithing.

Look on Pinterest for them.

Essential Craftsman has a lot of good anvil info on YT.

I know where one is at now, that I can have. I cut three 30” oak trees down for an old womern at my church. I saved her about $4500 on what a tree man was going to rip her off for to get those trees out.

She told me I could have that just because I simply asked about it.

However her 54 year old rat like, skinny veiny meth smoking son pitched a complete fit about her wanting to give it to me. His pos ass didnt even help me with any of the tree work. I sawed into rounds all of that white oak and ran it through my splitter and made about 2-1/2 cords. Not a finger. Sat on their porch and smoked a carton of ciggs for 4 days and gave me ‘advice’

Hell with it

I need a new picture of the bronze anvil my grandmother had.

James, that's an "Eagle" anvil.

I like it!

All I know is that it is cast.

That one is in really good shape. All of my anvil knowledge came from the end of a shaping hammer. We generally used modern anvils built for shoeing. Did own one old Peter Wright. That’s a great old anvil.