Anvil collecting

[smtwins]

I am a fan of anything old. I bought a 120 lb Peter Wright Anvil today. I don't know much about anvil's but it appears to be a good anvil. I also have a 100 lb Trenton and a 200 lb Trenton. It just seems like my fever for this old stuff will not break How many different anvil Mg's were available. Thanks Mike

[John G. Simpson]

A bunch!!!!
anvils should be carried in suitcases to shows, just like the salesman in ( the music man)
i have a 75# vulcan.

[Chris J]

some are pricey too, a fisher anvil that was only 100 pounds that looked to be new old stock from 1895 sold for about $365....WOW and the 350 pound fisher is almost at $700 i bet those people bidding on them wont use them

[Andrew Albrecht]

Of all the old iron i have an anvil is not one of them. You would think they are worth there weight in gold at the prices they bring at auctions. I know my local industrial auctioneer collects them and has many in his auction warehouse. And If i am not mistaken an aquantance had one of those Peter Wright anvils and sold it for over 300.00. Maybe its better i don't have one i would probably just break it or drop it on my toe.

["TheToolman"]

I have collected a few anvils. One I really love is a FISHER that looks like it has never been struck but a time or two. marked 1915 came in the dog house when we bought an old spudder

["TheToolman"]

Ebay has a few REAL nice ones now. put in antique anvil

[Kevin Beitz]

I bought a 580 lbs Peter Wright at Scranton lace factory sale for $100.00...
I took it home in the back of my Jeep Wangler... I was just hoping I would not have to stop fast... I also have my grandfathers anvil that he bought in 1935 at Montgomery wards... An a few more... I also have a ring anvil or cone anvil... I seen a swage anvil at our junk yard and I did not take it because at the time I had no idea what it was... I still kick my but for that one...

[Chris J]

how did you get that deal, a 580 lbs Peter Wright at Scranton lace factory sale for $100.00... i have been looking for an anvil, i still dont have one yet! Theirs a guy near me that has a 100 pound swage block, their is one chip out of the corner, but other than that it is in great shape, he wants $100 for it, i dont know if it is worth that much, he also has a 80 pound anvil for $130, i dont know how good of deals they are, he still has them as far as i know.

[Craig A]

The last time I checked on new STEEL anvil prices they were around $2.00 per POUND....... ...... (I think that's a REALLY good pun....... )

ANYway.......it's apparent that was long time ago because.......

http://www.centaurforge.com/departme...FSIGQAodxgPXqA

[Gene O. Carpenter]

Saturday I went to the Collingswood Auction, the only Flee/Flea (that's a story in itself) a 30 minute drive and spent 45 minutes hobbling from table to table just looking. Was coming to the end of the East side fence row and still had no "bootie"!
There was a younger guy there in the last spot with a lot of older HiFi Stereo equip sitting on his PU tail gate.
I looked up front of the bed and there was a tarp covering something. I asked what was under there, he replied "junk" from his uncles barn, was cleaning out and taking to junk yard on Monday.

Did you ever notice how some peoples ear's twitch when someone says "barn" and "junk" in the same breath?

I walked around to the side, lifted a corner of that tarp and there was a lot of rusty broken pieces of all kinds of kinds of "stuff" which was truly junk EXCEPT for one heavy looking horned object which I knew had to be an Anvil as it surely wasn't a Rhinoceros 's head.
I asked what he wanted for it and he said the junk man would probably pay $5-$6 because it's so heavy! I told him that it's worth more than that to me and that I'd give him $40 plus another $10 if he'd throw it in my Trooper cause I surely couldn't lift it!
He said OK and I covered it back up hoping that no one else would come along before I could get back and said that I'd go get my truck and be back in a few minutes! Well at my walking speed "right back in a few minutes" translates into 25 minutes or so.
When I pulled up he said that he thought I'd changed my mind!
Well he grabbed hold of that thing, leaned back and his eyes bulged out of his head! He sat it in the back and I'll swear that Trooper's bumper went 2" closer to the ground!
While I watched him struggle with it I thought to myself "why couldn't I be 20 years younger, I'd a thrown a piece of rope in a couple loops around the horn n tail piece for a hand hold and picked that thing up with one hand"!
And I coulda done it too!
I handed him the $50 ,gave him my phone no. and told him to call me if he finds any more "junk" especially if it's CI, has big wheels on the sides, rusty or just plain heavy..
When I got home I decided to leave it til the next morning to unload it.
Well it snowed and or rained all day so about 4;30 I put my coat on, threw the garbage can on my lift table and pushed it to the street, opened the door and pumped the table to floor height tilted the Anvil on it's rear legs and walked it over so when I set it down the front legs would be on the table, then walked it on to the center.

Struggled to get it to the back yard, gave it a quick once over but it was too dark to really see much! It does appear to be in fine shape, I could read Germany and a date of 18?? or other.

This $200 HF Hyd lift table was well worth it, otherwise I'd have to lay a piece of plywood down to protect the blacktop driveway, drop the Anvil down onto that then rig a snatch block up with a line way out back to a fence and back to the Trooper's bumper and pull it along in 40 to 50 ft pulls, then re hang the snatch block for another direction of pull. Getting old sure does suck, don't it! Then I'd had to throw a line over a tree limb, get the chain fall outta the shed, hang it then lift the Anvil up to a workable level, throw a couple saw horses and that piece of plywood on then lower it to the table.
Now I just pump it up to working height!
Then I'll use the Pep Boy's $119 Engine crane to lift it off and put it where I please.. These two Hydraulics's will make it easier for me to continue playing with these heavy old toy's. Wish I'd had the crane when I was working on the boat's out drive unit!

After the "water pills" quit working I'll go out and take a better look at it and take a few photo's to post, if'n I can figure out how to do it!
I'm wondering how Paul missed this piece of Antiquity, he musta skipped that end!
Photo's later, I hope!

[Ed Noli]

I was at the local scrap yard a month or so ago, sitting on the tracks of an excavator/shear, B'S'ing with the operator. Looking in the pile next to us I see a horn sticking up. I pull the anvil out, it is a Peter Wright, little rough on the edge, but very usable. I get it to the scale, and it weighs 105lbs. Had to give them 20 bucks for it. Makes up for a bigger one I bought at auction a few years ago for $300.00. Ed

[Paul Spence]

Gene: I was their early, saw all the old hi-fi stuff and didn't look any further. My mind was on the model I went to get in south Jersey. I do miss out on some good stuff ocassionally, but that's OK
, I'm willing to share. I have two big ones and a few of the smaller types around in the shop. Use them every week for something or other .

[Farmall]

If you are REALLY interested in anvil collecting, a real must have is Richard Postman's book, Anvils in America. Never knew that someone could write 552 pages on anvils.

Here's a link to a description of it....


http://www.powells.com/biblio/9780966325607

[Peter]

some are pricey too, a fisher anvil that was only 100 pounds that looked to be new old stock from 1895 sold for about $365....WOW and the 350 pound fisher is almost at $700 i bet those people bidding on them wont use them

This is a popular mis-conception, but I have enough experience collecting and even using anvils to say most definately, those who pay the highest prices for anvils are the users. Those who appreciate them the most are the users.

If you get a good one for $2/pound thats a very ok deal. Nothin to be Wow'in over. yea, its a lot of money, but thats life.

I love to hunt iron and seek out bargins, but if I need a tool to do my work or enjoy my hobby I am not going to sweat the price as much as the quality and utility of the tool. I dont really have to have an anvil, just saying those who do, tend to think this way.

A 100 pound anvil with perfect flat top and good edges is worth more as a tool than 250 pounder even a little beat. And yet, a bargin price heavy weight can be hard face welded, ground and made into and excellent worker.

Its too bad the way Anvils and everything else has gone up in price, or to put it another way its too bad the dollar has been in a steady decline my entire life.

Edit: For those who are not ashamed to be thinking about collecting Anvils, there is a definative work on the subject: "Anvils in America" by Richard Postman. The cost is around 60 bucks. Available from Nation Builder Books. Its serious money and you do get what you pay for.

[Taale]

Here's mine in my shop, It is a 440# Refflinghaus, South German pattern with two horns, pre-anvil and upsetting block. You can see the 150# Peter Wright under the bellows, though the 75#Ajax is out of the picture.

["TheToolman"]

TAALE ,
tell me how to make that anvil stand. Or any y'all I need a stand I am tired of stooping over

[Taale]

The stand is made up of several pieces of 3/8"-wall 4"x4" square tubing, some 3/8" plate and a short length of 12" diameter 1/4"-wall pipe. There is a 1/2"-thick layer of hard rubber between the anvil and the stand; as well as the hold-downs. I made this stand particularly for my height and for the nature of the work I do, so it stands a little higher than what some other guys have theirs, though not much.

[Peter]

I have seen a lot of anvils mounted on a hardwood blocks, even just a section of tree. I assumed there were advanatges to mounting on wood- beyond the traditional appearance, too reduce the stress on the anvil.

Anyway a big wood block is easy, looks good and perhaps we can hear from others if its technically superior.

[John Davidson]

Here are a couple pages from a 1913 Sears TOOLS MACHINERY BLACKSMITH SUPPLIES catalog. One scan of the anvil page and another scan of a complete blacksmith outfit. This scan is of the most expensive. The cheapest was $13.40 and you got a forge, anvil and drill. There is a page of the Sparta Economy gas engines for the gas engine guys like me. I hope the scans come out OK. Many times with my scanner, the very small print is very hard to read. John D.

[Beanscoot]

Just think... on some hifi forum there's a fellow talking about how at a flea market, amongst some old scrap iron and a crummy old anvil, he found a rare and valuable Crosby tube shortwave amplifier/tuner for five bucks!