Thread: Alls Well that Anv-ells?

I don't see anything obvious from the pix. Do you have any blacksmiths groups near where you live? Personally I wouldn't commit to an opinion unless I could inspect it close up. I'm pretty sure that won't fit in a priority mail box...LOL If there was an active group near you, there will be a handful of guys who could look it over. They'll probably bring handfuls of cash to take it off your hands to repair it too. Don't sell it for less than 3.00 US per pound.

Originally Posted by Mike Blue

You won't want perfectly square corners. I've seen a lot of anvils with slightly different radii on each side to accommodate the smith's choice for inside corners. Tools are meant to be modified. You might be able to clean some of that up with an angle grinder and a square and careful work. It's certainly not dead yet.

That Peter Wright is well worth 300 bucks.

+1. That's a pretty anvil and in great shape. If you are having an issue with a jagged spot, sand it down a bit and make it safer. You can use many other found and made objects as a Mandrel if you need a clean/sharp edge.

The markings on the anvil are 1-0-16 If I have done my homework correctly, thats 128lbs correct?

Unfortunately, there is only a single farrier in the area that I know of, and from what I have heard, he knows less than I do!
There are 2 other guys who are learning like me, and a single old fella who goes around posting in the local papers "wanted to buy" offers people 50 cents a pound and turns around and sells to guys like me for 4 bucks a pound.
Here is a close up of one of the areas of concern. I have seen way worse, and its probably nothing, but god gave me ulcers, and who would I be to ignore his gifts and not worry at least a little?

Looking good. The chipped corners are to be expected. I was told by several smiths that you don't want crisp sharp corners anyway, because any slight misalignment of your workpiece would be stamped witha sharp line. And -surprise surprise- straight corners chip a lot harder than rounded corners

Like Mike said, if someone could look at it in person, that would be great. But from the pic I can't tell anything wrong with it. But even if it had a divot here and there, that wouldn't matter. You'll find a use for them, for example when straightening things out. You also don't want to grind down the face, because the face is relatively thin. Less than an inch. So if you grind away half an inch to make it perfectly flat, you might go through the hardened plate, or it might become so thin it starts denting under your hammer. Making the plate too thin would turn your nice Peter Wright into a 300 pound paperweight, doorstop or garden ornament.

IF you have a belt sander give that a try. I went at mine with the flap wheel on a 7" grinder and the belt worked easy to make it flat.
I also kept mine mostly cool with water while sanding. Looks funny now all shiny on top and over 100 ever where else. I got a few more razors to restore and then when it cools down around here I will be using mine.

You got a deal bud.

Still wouldn't sand. The advice over at 'IforgeIron.com' is to just start using it, as nothing will get rid of rust as quickly as beatin some hot iron on the surface. And you get the benefit of not removing any metal. Making the surface of your anvil shiny does not make it work any better.

I don't have anything to say except for: SCORE!

From the close up, and I'm not a welder, but that looks like someone took an arc welder to the edge and tried to repair it by building it up. That is a very common type of repair. All you may need is simple to smooth out the corners and decide what radius you want to live with. Look on the ABANA website for a local affiliate group of blacksmiths. I don't believe you're nearly as alone as you might think.

Curious,were vintage anvils hardend at all?

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Curious,were vintage anvils hardend at all?

Absolutely. And sometimes in extremely skilled ways.
For example, A certain type of Swedish anvil was hardened by heating it critical, and then dousing it with a calibrated amount of water. The amount of water was enough to harden the anvil and cool off the body, but not too much. And then the amount of residual heat in the base would be just right to re-heat the plate to a proper tempering temperature, but not higher.

As you can imagine, this relied on a lot of knowledge, as well as trial and error to get the process exactly right.