Looking at anvils next week- some advice greatly appreciated

Prometheus wrote:

Okay, if it's good it'll ring a bit when you tap it with a hammer, if it's got big cracks, it'll klunk. Good condition usually means it hasn't got structuraL cracks. Bigger is better for smithing work. PWs have a good name for quality, and $2 a pound is reasonable. Check the face for flat with a straight steel ruler. corner to corner and look for gaps between the ruler and the face. Anything under an eighth of an inch is acceptable. Check for hammer dings in the face surface, chipping at the edges, corners, around the hardie hole, on the horn. A little wear and tear is okay, but deep gouges and dings will have to be fixed sooner or later by welding and grinding. You can dress out a lot of minor stuff with a body gtinder, so don't let small flaws deter you from getting it. If it's really swaybacked, there's always the machine shop to get it decked flat again. Carbides will cut even hardface like a hot knife through butter in just a few minutes on the mill. Keep the neighbors happy by putting some sheet lead under the anvil when you mount it. Lead will soak up the KLANG without leaving the anvil on a soft base like using a mudflap would. When you mount it, make the stand high enough so you don't have to bend over to use it. The hammer should be level in your hand when it gets to the anvil. Take it from me, lower back pain is no fun, and standing humped over the anvil will give it to you damn quick. Anvils used to be marked for weight in hundredweights, stones, and pounds. Hundredweight =112 pounds, stone =16 pounds, so a 150# anvil would be 1 hundredweight,2 stone,6 pounds, or

126. This was usually cast into the base somewhere. Hope this helps, happy whacking.

Charly

I'm pretty sure that the ball-bearing drop test has been mentioned or linked to in the not too far distant past. Basically take a ball bearing (biggish is better), and a clear tube that it fits in, and check the "rebound" when you drop the bearing on the anvil face. Gives a feel for hardness and "live-ness" - more bounce is better. Can let you find soft spots if things have been reworked.

Look for any separation of the face, or puffs of rust when the face is hit that would indicate separation of the face and body.

Ring is most effectively killed with a sheet of roofing lead mounted under the anvil - between the anvil and the stump. Some folks also like to place old speaker magnets at various places on the body of the anvil.

Of the two described, the PW is obviously the better - it's a wrought anvil rather than cast, and it's "of a useful size" as opposed to "too small". Seems a little steep based on local prices in Western Mass/Eastern NY, but not bad as compared to some reported prices from elsewhere. And those local prices might not have been in *good* condition, which saves both time and bother, and is probably an accurate representation from an anvil dealer, as opposed to someone that just wants the toe-stubber out of the barn. You could sit on your wallet and hope for a better deal, but you might or might not find it (before the anvil dealer snarfs it up, anyway).

over on primal fires there is a topic on this very subject. try this.

ron

Hmph. I thought it was hundredweights @ 112 pounds each, quarter hundredweights @ 28 pounds each, maximum of three in this position, and pounds, maximum of 27 in this position.

Goes to show: You learn something new everyday.

YMMV. My Vulcan is matked 126, and tips the scale at 149 lb, 11 oz. Guess it lost a little weight over the years getting dressed for dings and such. The bathroom scale will never be the same, I heard a crunch inside when I weighed it. I guess I should have put it on the scale by itself, instead of holding it. Dumb Dworf...

Charly

Thanks for the replies, all of you- that sounds like a good starting point. Chances are, the guy selling it is as honest as can be- but there's always that outside chance that there are is a thing or two he'd rather not mention about it that a guy new to the hobby might miss. Still haven't met him *or* the anvils, so I couldn't say one way or another.

Oopsie!

Charly: Dear, I think we need a new scale. This one will only go to 125 now.

Charlie's SO: Don't you touch that scale, you Bastard, or you'll never touch _me_ again! :)

You get called a dwarf too, or is that a persona you play?

Good friend of mine always calls me Gimli for my height and build, but then he's 6'5" 260# I'm 5'7" and 200. Well, maybe 210 after the holidays. So maybe I look dwarvish to him. (Funny, you don't look Dwarvish?:)

I've always weighed in at 25-50# above estimates. Muscle is heavier than fat, I guess. Those in my head must be the ones making the difference. It's useful at carnivals, though..:)

Yep, but not today. Your original idea of hundred weights-quarter hundredweights-pounds is correct. I just checked the Richard Postman book and he notes NO variations on any anvils using the old English system. There are, of course, many anvils which show only actual total pounds in their stamped weights.

dennis in nca

Great post. Thanks ron.

dennis in nca

And some days you learn something that's wrong.

Hundredweight/ quarter hundredweight/ pounds is correct.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Hmmmm -- thought so. Guess I was wrong about being wrong. I should have checked it myself, but was being lazy.

Guess that's better than being wrong about being right. :)

John

Your buddy would qualify as well. Ever heard of the SCA? Long ago, there were Dworves in the SCA. To be 'recognised' a Dworf, you had to be over six feet, over two hundred pounds, display copious facial hair, and exibit Dworven tendencies. I was a natural, being 6'3", 250#, very furry,and dumb as a box of rocks. My Patron Dworf is Dopey, I drove 800 miles out of my way just to meet Snow White at the Shrine of St Walt in California, I didn't so much learn smithing as remember it, and my weapons tend to glow in the dark. Go figure...

Charly the Bastard, the Last Dworf in Ansteorra Head Metal Forger In Charge, Dwarven Metals

Then why does my anvil show 126 and weigh 150#? Maybe it's older than I think.

Charly

I agree it seems like a lot of weight to loose. Can you borrow another scale to double check?

Can you describe your anvil, or post a few photos somewhere? Sometimes the age can be estimated rather closely from markings and such.

dennis in nca

Sorry, no pic capability. It's a Vulcan, standard anvil shape. Prominent cast-in logo on the side, no date. 126 cast into the hardie end just above the feet. Ma won't let me try weighing it again, not on the new electronic scale. I guess some things are just a mystery.

Charly

Interesting. The Vulcan anvils were, until the 1960s, built in Carpentersville, Illinois so did not use the English system of weights. Postman says the first two digits "only" of the weight (also used as the model number) were cast into the anvil. So a "12" would indicate a model 12 which could be between 120 and 129 pounds.

I'd suggest borrowing another scale and, with a friend, re-weighing.

Or: Is the name "Vulcan" on the anvil? Or only the picture of the "Arm-with-hammer?"

dennis in nca

Definitely a Vulcan, cast into the side. I've seen the Arm & Hammer logo; similar but not the same. So we still have a mystery. A Vulcan with a three digit number that matches the weight if you use the English system, but is too light or too heavy if you believe the book. Go figure...

Charly

similar but not

a vulcan built for the European market? perhaps for lendlease in WW1 / WW2?

similar but not

That's an interesting thought:

After all Postman's book _is_ titled "Anvils in America".

dennis in nca