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.

The anvil belonged to my great grandfathers brother. I think I know where another one is, but it may be buried under a bunch of stuff. I still have a lot of the old horse drawn equipment that my ancestors had. If fuel prices continue to go up, I may have to use them again.

The bottom is.

Fisher Norris patented the welding process where the steel striking surface was affixed to the cast bottom.

Send Billy goat gruff a PM bet he had a good idea....mb

You will see most anvils mounted on an old stump. The reason is the wood stump helps absorb the shock and saves the elbow. Also the stump is set directly on dirt. I have one that has been on the same stump for close to 100 years.

I wonder why they did that?

A cast steel anvil is not inferior to a forged anvil.


Must not have had good cast steel at the time.

The website, anvilfire.com, is a good source of information on anvils.

You hit them? My dad always had us carry them around in the yard when we did something wrong.

This one was mounted on an old oak stump. I had left it in an old barn, and when a windstorm blew the barn down, the roof fell on the anvil and stump. The impact split the stump in half. I need to find another one to mount it on.

Haha! Thats pretty extreme.

My dad had a standard production anvil in his shop. No idea what happened to it.
He also had a portable anvil he used when he was setting horse shoes. It was made out of the drive rod from a junked, Baldwin 9600 steam locomotive. The horn wasn't offset like those pictured, but the face was wider than standard production anvils. It was good for making sure the shoe was flat.
I know where that anvil is.
My "anvil", such as it is, is a 20" section of 90 lb rail.

Hell yeah!

They used to do some anvil shooting down this way….

Not sure if they still do.

Your anvil is worth bank. They sell for hundred or sometimes thousands of dollars. I watched a local ranch auction that had 2 anvils, one sold for almost $1500 or so.

I have a machinist friend over in Missouri that's an anvil guru. PM me an email address and I'll be glad to put you in touch with him. He's got something like 25 anvils in his collection at the moment.

I used to have a fine, old anvil. Then someone stole it. Bummer. They are great to have around. Very useful.

How close is your Missouri Anvil guy to Kansas City ?

My son was getting into blacksmithing and ran into that problem. Prices were well past what he wanted to spend to get one.

Jim;
Top of the morning to you my cyber friend, I hope you and your fine family are well and you're getting decent weather for crops.

When we were into horses I went down a wee bit of a rabbit hole with anvils.

As well the Quebecois farrier who did the hot shoeing for our horses was into it so we'd learn together.

You're correct in that James Jr's is cast by the way the logo and year protrude outwards and is somewhat ornate or better said complicated. At least the base where that is has been cast for sure.

The one wabigoon has is more likely forged and the letters put in with letter punches and we can see the difference.

This guy is fairly easy to listen to and I believe he knows his stuff.



All the best to you all Jim.

Dwayne

Edit to add;

This guy had a lot of useful info on making a shop anvil quieter. Just in case that's useful for anyone out there this morning.

Great... Now I'm going to struggle to work on encryption software without succumbing to the temptation of sliding down the "everything you never knew about anvils", hole.

Steve;



Top of the morning to you sir, I hope that other than avoiding rabbit holes you're well.

It sounds like you might be a wee bit like myself in that regard and if so, all I can say in the most sincere Canuck way possible... I'm sorry...

I've always been that way though, so whether it's been knives, axes, anvils, horses or saddles - well or guns of course but that goes without saying hopefully - I've been prone to diving in while carrying a pick and shovel.

A buddy works up in the Yukon and says that the old mine sights nearly all have a blacksmith shop with an anvil still sitting there. Well the hard to get to mine sights do. He also said that the storage room at the Dawson City museum is stacked with old anvils.

It makes sense though as even today its super expensive to freight anything anywhere up there, so when a mine stops producing the very last thing they'll carry out is a 200lb anvil.

Hopefully the rest of the day is a good one for you sir.

Dwayne

An anvil is a great thing to have around. For most of us, a foot or foot and a half of steel rail makes a good "poor man's" anvil for most uses.

I don't know anything about anvils except the obvious, but my grandad used to tell me I could tear one up with a rubber hammer.

here's an old anvil that came from my Step Grandads house on the Bowie plantation near Winnsboro, La. Couple of Homemade from RR track anvils also.

The huge vise is one my Dad bought used in Roswell NM. Maybe it has alien origins. Grin.

Wow! That’s in great shape. Fishers are a highly valued anvil.

Are you keeping it?

Probably get information on
Iforgeiron.com

I think my wife carries one in her purse, and a forge.

I've been looking for a "reasonably priced" anvil for quite some time just to have around. I'm surprised at all the times I need something to shape metal or pound on for other chores and wish I had one around. Seems like the going price for an old anvil is around $5 -$7 a pound and possibly a bit more if it is a recognized name and in good shape. Some of these in this thread might cost more than that to rehabilitate and probably don't have any rebound left in them so aren't worth the trouble.

There are a lot of good videos on youtube concerning anvils if you really want to do a deep dive into them. Keep in mind that you can still buy brand new anvils for around $5-$6 a lb. I saw some at the Eugene Knife show a few years ago and they were beautiful and had a ring to them like a church bell. I'd love to have one in about 90-120 lb size...

That poor anvil has been abused far beyond it's usefulness. The hard plate has separated, making it pretty much useless for anything but an anchor. But I bet at one time it got more use than any tool around and it could tell some stories for sure...

I have one that belonged to my great grandfather. I’m going to have to take a closer look at it after that video. I can remember it sitting on a stump by their u-shaped driveway in Sebastapol. . My father eventually ended up with it and over the years it’s gotten pretty rusty.

We had it sitting out on our front porch but several years ago there was a lot of metal items like cast iron lawn chairs, etc. being stolen and sold for scrap so I bought it in and set it on the hearth.

My Dad just passed away at 87. he said it was old when he was a little boy.

I own a Ridgid Peddinghaus 77lbs anvil.. Single / One piece drop forged anvil.

Great anvil for my use, which is not work or farm related.
Good enough to make knives on and other projects.


I would do everything I could to dampen the ringing!!!

Agree... That's in very good condition. Difficult to find with nice sharp corners like that.

As far as buying an anvil to use in the shop, they NEVER go for less than a dollar a pound. Two is more realistic. Then if they have any collector value, like that one very well might, it's the buyer's decision from there. Typically, the BIG ones have more collector value, but a sub-200# in that kind of condition with some good age and a known name, it's very possibly got some value.

Dampen the ringing?

Just have your husband use his anvil away from your trailer.

Why would you dampen the ringing? Ringing is the sound of a great anvil- once the ringing is gone the anvil is dead for most blacksmith type purposes...

We was poor, just always used a piece of railroad track for beatin on chit

All I have is this. Landlady I had back in the early 90's had this one sitting out back. Either was her deceased husband's or some boyfriend's who ended up locked up. When I moved up the hill when my wife and I got together, she gave it to me as she had no use for it. When I moved back east I gave it to my shootin' and bs'n buddy as he had a forge and could always use another anvil. He passed a few years back, and I was out this way, so I drove over to the coast to get it from his widow.

Only marking I have ever found was an "L" or "7" depending on which way I looked at it, as I recall





While I was picking it up, his widow asked if I'd like the vice on a stand also:



Cole Tool Mfg



I should get after restoring them one day.

Mine is a Peter Wright, although in much better shape than wabi's.
108 stamped in the side. May be the weight, at least similar to actual weight.

No , but I’ve known some people that could wreck an anvil in sandbox.

3 dollars a lb and up

Because I am fond of my hearing... and like to listen to music.
Hammering on an anvil that rings for hours and hours and hours will ruin it.

It doesn't reduce the efficiency of the anvil to dampen the ringing.

All of the dipwads who watch “Forged in Fire” have contributed to the escalation in price of anvils.

You can’t find anything for under a grand around here.

I had to make mine out of an old forklift tine. It looks more like a pregnant pelican than an anvil, but it works for my needs.

Peter Wright anvils are stamped on the side and measured in english hundred weight ..the first number is stones which is 112 lbs the second is quarter stones which is 28 lbs . the last number is lbs .. So if Marks anvil is marked 1-0-8 it is 120 lbs 112+0+8= 120 lbs . They can also be aged by markings . They are very good anvils and i saw a nice one on a remote colorado ranch last year and another on a wyoming ranch .. I have aquired 3 over the years but they are in recent years spendy as farm auctions have collectors watching .

It'd be interesting to see the ships that freighted those Peter Wright anvils from England.

Bro in law/nephew have my great, great, grandads anvil. I need to go over to his shop and clean it up and take a pic or two. No clue how old it is, but my great grandad (his son) was born in 1907.
I don’t have any kids, and nephew is getting into some metalworking. Plus, at 17, he’s got his whole life to use it.
I’ve got my grandad’s chinese anvil, which will work for whatever I do (think I’ve used it twice in 5 years).