Buying an Anvil.....

[gizamo]

God, how things have changed...even up here in Rural Maine.

Anvils use to sell at auction for 50 cents a pound. Not no more!!! I'm seeing prices range from $2 to $4 dollars a pound depending on it's quality. A famous maker anvil from the olden days in in the upper atmosphere. So I'm left with the question...how do you test a anvil for sale out of a barn for life? How do you know if they are dead or live?

Heard of the ball bearing drop test, and know enough that even a dead anvil with little ring is still a good working tool. All the anvils I'm looking at haven't been beaten cold, so the early owners knew what they were doing. It's just such a expensive investment, that I'm looking for all the advice I can gather...thanks.


giz

P.S...the first guy that suggests that I just use one of my Rugers is going to get it....

 

[35Rem]

I have no input on anvils....
Other than I've been accused of being able to tear one up with a rubber mallet as a child...

 

[Andy Griffith]

I'd give Acme Anvil a call.
Ask for a catalog of the current Acme offering.

 

[Mickey D]

My buddy Wile E. Coyote is an expert.

 

[wheelgun28]

I had a Hay Budden that I sold on eBay several years ago. I think I got around $3.00 per pound or so. What I know is, hit the top with a hammer, it should ping and sing. If its a thud, move on. Other than that is condition, square edges on the top and sides. How worn is the Hardy hole. I am far from an expert...

You can ask over at Practical Machinist - Largest Manufacturing Technology Forum on the Web - Powered by vBulletin lots of folks over there know about these things.

Good luck
Tom

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Dumb Question

I didn't know one could wear out an anvil or "kill" it. Would someone please explain??? I think I'm gonna learn something new .

 

[gizamo]

Caj,

You work an anvil. Ever notice that a blacksmith only has to turn two sides of a piece of square stock, rotating it only 90 degrees. That is because a live anvil is responding to the hammer blow and returning it on the opposite side of the piece of stock being worked. In other words the anvil returns as much energy on the bottom of the piece being struck by the hammer above....

Nearly as much energy is being returned as is being given....


A dead anvil has been worked cold, instead of hot. It's been beaten to a point where it doesn't return any energy back, just absorbs the blow. So now you have to work all four side of a piece of square stock. Twice the time as the metal is cooling...


giz


P.S.

Funny story, but as a lad we had a real Blacksmith working about a mile from where I lived. Swedish Gent...and was scared to death to strike a piece of cold steel. Religious sort that said to hit cold steel was to drive the Devil out of it, and release him... Believe me when I say he truly believed that....

 

[badguybuster]

I have a TFS Future anvil it is a 120 pound anvil but the replace the base of it with aluminum plus a rubber stopper in between so it actually weighs about 75 pounds which is much more portable. I paid $400 for it BUT you can get a TFS 70 pound one from Nature Farms Farrier for around $250.

 

[woodsltc]

Caj,



A dead anvil has been worked cold, instead of hot. It's been beaten to a point where it doesn't return any energy back, just absorbs the blow. So now you have to work all four side of a piece of square stock. Twice the time as the metal is cooling...


giz

..

Huh?? I have no idea what you just said !!! Don't bother explaining, I wouldn't understand the explanation either.
Don

 

[gizamo]

Don,

It's easy. Work the metal hot, not cold....An anvil hits the piece of work back from the bottom, with each hammer blow...struck above.

giz

 

[oldfella]

Here is an interesting article on anvils:

Anvils-3 Quality, welding and other anvil miscelania - anvilfire.com FAQ

Pete

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

So what you're saying is that repeated blows can alter the metal so the anvil "dies"? I understand what you said-I just can't see how an anvil "wears out"-is it the way you hit it? Do you have to let it rest? Not trying to be funny-but this is interesting.
Posted then went back and reread the comments and also Pete's link. I learned something tonight-i never knew an anvil was anything but a big chunk of iron. I always tell my children that one should try to lerarn something new every day and tonight I just did. Gawd I love this place!!

 

[gizamo]

Caj,

If you ever see an anvil with a lot of dings, dents, or what looks like hammer marks and long straight lines indented into it...you'll be seeing one that was struck cold. Someone put cold metal on it and hammered it.

Imagine doing the same thing to a Sax and expecting it to still play in tune....

giz

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

So what you're saying is that anvils are meant to be only struck hot-I didn't know that. Very interesting to learn about unfamiliar tools and such-thanks for giving it to me in language that even a lawyer could understand.

 

[model10]

ouch , the art of blacksmithing is interesting , never pound cold metal on it lots of information on the net about it just do a search

 

[rimfired]

Electricity, trust me, once they bring that stuff into your
house, ***addabouditit.

 

[Bassamatic]

Giz, I love anvils. Have several and use them all the time. I mean c'mon, how else are you going to straighten out a bent lawn mower blade?

Oh, I had no idea they had gotten so expensive.

 

[WR Moore]

Depending upon just what you intend to do with an anvil, quite a few small anvils have been made from main line (140 lb/yard or better) railroad rail. I've got one with a top dimension about 18-20" long and a half-assed horn that I've never gotten around to final shaping. Never have done any horse shoes so the horn hasn't really been an issue.

Have to see if it'll ring, know there's no dull thud.

 

[USAF385]

Best solution I can think of.... use one of your Rugers.

 

[shadowrider]

Can't they be re-heat treated? What type of steel are they made out of? I would think they are plain low carbon steel. You might take a "dead" one to a heat treat facility and tell them to normalize it. This will have the effect of making it softer, if that's a bad thing and you need it to be hard have them carburize if it's low carbon steel and if it has enough carbon they could just do a normal quench and temper heat treat to it. But any heat treat process will redistribute the molecules back into the pattern they need to be in.