Poor Boys Anvil...

[gizamo]

I'm pretty thrifty.... ( OK, some would call me cheap)...

Anyrate, I'm doing a little blacksmithing. Nothing major but mostly fun projects. Good anvils are costing anywhere's from 4-600 dollars these days...way up here in Maine.

I located a Peter Wright original at 188lbs and it's gonna cost me the national debt to buy it.

Lucked out a few months ago and found a very heavy and large Blacksmiths leg vise. Well over 100lbs. Anyrate, decided to cheap out (in a thrifty way) and do the railroad track trick. Thought I'd share the idea here. If you already have a heavy vise, you can mount a section of RR track into it. You'll be amazed at how the track will rebound your hammer and sing. I found a 14" section at a barn sale. Owner wanted 10 bucks for it. With a few power tools I managed to take off the rust, flatten the bottom and smooth the top. Bit of Rustoleum black and it's now mounted upside down in my leg vise.

10 bucks will get me there, until I can pay for my Wright anvil....but, having already found this lil gem....I'm already looking for a 24" section of bigger track to mount to my bench.

 

[gizamo]

Instantly, when I post.... I get 5 to 8 hits and no comments.

I always imagine it's the Moderators and Lee just checkin' to see if I did somthin' wrong....and Caj seein' if he can't add some fuel to the fire.....

Oh yeah, and I used the word "Thrifty" so I already know Dick Burg is lurkin'....

 

[Retired LTC USAR]

My Father used the same thing, an old piece of rail road track for an anvil also.

Funny how thrifty minds think alike!!!!

 

[Iggy]

I grew up using one of those. Shaped horse shoes on one. We took it with us when we pulled windmills. That was just part of the tool box.

Still got one out in the shop, even though I live in town and don't do a lot of that kind of stuff.

Wouldn't feel right not having one available.

 

[Blacksmith58]

gisamo:

Not a bad find for $10.00 bucks! Nicely done with the clean up too!

I hate to tell this story to you, but I will, because it really happened to me:

The Red Hat Ladies from Rochelle, IL. were in the shop for a tour. (I'm the Master Blacksmith at the John Deere Historic Site in Grand Detour Illinois) I was talking about the anvil and the sweet little old lady says, "I have one of them anvils like that in my garage!"

Now you gotta understand, I'm a buy Low, Sell High - kind of guy, like most of us are. I know what anvils are going for and I know what I want to pay for a used anvil. So I typically say, "I'll give you twenty Dollars for it sight unseen!" Most people realise its a joke and just blow me off!

Not this lady, she paused for a moment, tilted her head and said, "I'll take $20.00 for it!" I pulled out my wallet and handed her a $20.00. She wrote her name and phone number down on a paper and gave it to me! Some how, I lost that piece of paper!

After three weeks, we got a letter in our mail box from this sweet lady saying she had sold an anvil to the Blacksmith and he must have lost her name and number. She provided this vital information and I called her. She gave me directions to her house, I told her I'd be there after 5:00 PM. It took me about an hour to get to her house, it was cold, raining and getting very dark.

I pulled into her drive way and she was out in the Garage waiving me over. I back my truck right up to the door, went in, she pointed to this old rusted anvil sitting on a bench and said, "There it is, get it out of here!" I picked it up, placed it in my truck, I never really got a good look at it, I shook her hand and thanked her keeping the faith and making contact with me.

The next day, I was looking at this old really rusted anvil in the back of my truck and it was in pretty good shape. It was dark and raining the night before so I didn't get a good look, but for $20.00 bucks, it was a great deal!

I started scraping and wire brushing this anvil and some letters on the side started to appear. I took the Angle Grinder with a cupped wire wheel to it and started going to town with it. There on the side of this $20.00 anvil were the words:

Peter Wright, Wrought Iron, Made in England, with the number 1 0 27 stamped on the side. My jaw hit the tailgate!

Peter Wright anvils have a system of number indicating their weight as follows:

The first digit is how many 112 lbs are in the anvil.
The second digit is how many 5ths of 112 lbs or 28 lbs are in the anvil.
The last two digits are how many pounds up to, but under 28 lbs are in the anvil.

So I end up with an Antique Peter Wright that weighs 139 lbs, in great shape for $20.00! All my blacksmith buddies tell me, they'll double my money and take it off my hands. NFWBB!! It is now my legacey anvil in my shop at home!

See, every now and then your bread falls butter side up!

 

[The Last Standing Knight]

Railroad track makes excellent anvil-in-a-pinch material. There are many places where railroad tracks ARE anvils.

Thought about getting a piece to experiment in knife forging. I gave up that idea when my current situation occurred.

 

[gizamo]

gisamo:


See, every now and then your bread falls butter side up!

Yep....

So you know what I mean when I say that the 188lb Peter Wright is gonna cost me the National Debt. Widow lady owns it, but her husband priced it before his day. He had a fair price on it...So I'm just gonna pay.

Remember when we could buy anvils for 50 cents a pound....

 

[Blacksmith58]

Yep....

So you know what I mean when I say that the 188lb Peter Wright is gonna cost me the National Debt. Widow lady owns it, but her husband priced it before his day. He had a fair price on it...So I'm just gonna pay.

Remember when we could buy anvils for 50 cents a pound....

Yes I do!!! How much more than $400.00 are they asking? I know depending on your location they get real pricey! I saw a 140 Peter Wright in terrible shape on FleeBay for $500.00. Some people are just nuts with their prices!!! My buddy bought a 340 lbs PW for $100.00. I just saw another PW 600 lbs for $3,500.00 in Nebraska! It ain't right!

 

[Iggy]

I have a friend that grew up near Buffalo Bill's home in Nebraska.

The owner of the place many many years after the place had changed hands, offered the anvil in the blacksmith's shop to him if he could carry it out to his pickup.

He said his back hurt for weeks, but he got that anvil. He still has it and uses in his own shop.

 

[Centenniel]

I have long wanted a good anvil. For well over 20 years, I have used a nice piece of rail road iron as a cheap substitute. It is in my basement shop now, and will serve until I find that anvil I can afford.

 

[gettysburg]

If you have a scrap yard near you that might be a good place to check. We have taken in a dozen or so this year and resell them at low cost. They always go.

 

[ancient-one]

I have one that my dad made from railroad rail. He cut and shaped one end so that you can bend around it like a regular anvil.

 

[gizamo]

ancient-one,

They are pretty versatile. A quick internet search will turn up some interesting projects that folks have done...building rail anvils...

My poor boy anvil is now sitting in a blacksmiths leg vise that I restored. It's ready for some work.

 

[2152hq]

This ones probably a touch on the light weight side for the work you have in mind!

Picked it up some years ago, don't really remember where. Probably a garage sale.
Weighs exactly 6# 0.0 oz on my postal scale.
Some sort of a sales/marketing thankyou gift judging from the 'compliments of..' on the side.

It'll be good for something even if I never use it.

A gunshow ammo find in the pic for size comparison (Metal Point Bullets!)

Seems like most every old farm & barn used to have an anvil of one sort around. Usually a home-made affair, and a piece of a RR track was fairly common. Some had a short stump of a machine shaft from sumthin'orother for an anvil. Used to be lots of heavy industrys around where such scrap was available.

'K R Wilson' started in the 1920's in Buffalo. Mainly automotive repair tools and fixtures. Maybe an anvil was an appropriate repair fixture for a Ford back then,,,,maybe it still is.

 

[ColbyBruce]

I saw this anvil for sale two days ago in north Georgia, $350.00. Peter Wright, 0 3 15, is this a 99# anvil?

 

[Rick in IA.]

Gizamo,

How did you flatten the top ?

Thanks Rick

 

[Marksman]

Railroad rail has undergone some serious work hardening from the tons of freight that has passed over it. Forget about milling to flatten, it will even burn up carbide cutters. Grinding is about the only way to go. If you have a machinist friend who has access to a Blanchard grinder that is the way to go to rough the top down. Final finishing can be done on a surface grinder. That's how I made mine anyway.

 

[perrazi]

just in case you don't know, railroad rail comes in different weights depending on the amount of use and weight it will carry. a 24inch peice of mainline rail will weigh over 200lbs. i use to get pieces of rail for friends when i worked for a railroad. lots of abandoned railbeds these days. to cut it you need a good torch or gasoline power saw.

 

[Blacksmith58]

I saw this anvil for sale two days ago in north Georgia, $350.00. Peter Wright, 0 3 15, is this a 99# anvil?

Yep! That's a 99# (3x28=84+15=99 lbs)!

 

[HCD]

Just jumpin in here cause this aint my area, but some will know I got a heck of a deal on a Bodyguard at a local farm auction 2 weeks ago. And while there I noticed a bunch of commotion at the auction ring in the barn, as it turns out they were selling 3 anvils and some tools for them. So I watched and it seems that anvils are bring about a buck a lb. but then someone grabs a tool and holds it up and the crowed goes quite, the bidding starts and keeps going up to 200+ bucks. It seems everyone wanted this tool I don’t remember what it was for but it stuck down in the anvil and you I assume make bends or weld two pieces together or some such. First time I saw character building tools bring any kind of money.