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New (old) anvil
JasonV
Member Posts: 2,481 ✭✭✭
I am now the care taker for this old gem and am happier than a pig in a mud puddle. Cleaning it up and hope to find some markings.
It came from a farm that was settled before SD became a state in 1889. No idea if the anvil is from 1880 or 1980.
It measures 27 inches long and 11 inches high. The base is 9x12. The top surface is in great shape. Just one corner with some rounding, the rest of the edges are pretty sharp.
I had to pay dearly for it at an estate sale but it has some sentimental value to me so I am fine with the price.
No idea why the pictures are sideways. It helps to turn your computer.
formerly known as warpig883
Comments
The old girl was held into an axe cut stump with 8 hand forged spikes.
The stump is rotten so I am going to replace it. Probably with ash or maple. That is about the hardest wood I can get in SD.
great find / purchase
I have always thought I needed one , why I am not sure 😮 just the need to have one I guess
My guess Forge monkey
will most likely be checking in he seems to know more than most about anvils
maybe he can give more insight
I guarantee my grandkids can break it with a rubber hammer.
No markings yet. There are layers of grime that are so hard a wire brush and putty knife doesn't scratch them. Literally 1/4 inch thick and rock hard. I will probably have to soak it in a tub of diesel fuel to loosen it up enough to clean.
150 to 200 pounds I think. I have to wait until the wife is not home to weigh it.
Been reading up on them. The one rounded corner was likely done on purpose.
I need to get some hardy tools for it.
Elm and Maple are preferred woods for mounting anvils it seems. I have both of those in my firewood pile. Elm is better but I might have split up all my big ones already. I have a giant maple log I have been drying thinking i would make a table or some big slabs out of it. It is about 30 inches across which is too big for the anvil but I can cut it down to fit.
Ash and Oak are not preferred because they split to easy. Oak is rarer than hens teeth around here but ash is everywhere. Truth be told ash is too good of firewood to waste on an anvil mount.
Nice!
Very nice! Beats the chunk of old railroad track I use
If it could only talk about the prior work
diver-rig. Wait a minute now. Been using mine for many years now🤨
Looks like it's been resurfaced.
Still a really nice piece.
Looks to be either a Trenton or Peter Wright.
Old anvil saying a buck a pound, I do not know if that applies any more? Were in SD you located? I am in the SE of the state. Been looking for one also. found a 75 pounder in Salt Lake City for a reasonable price but did not want to lug it around an airport or plane.
Make a fine bottom anvil for shooting.
Buck a pound was many years ago. At least 4 now.
tangara I grew up in Yankton county. I live in McCook county now.
Found some markings. It is an ACME ( The Wile E Coyote jokes are the best part)
Can't find a lot of information but it look like ACME was made by a couple different companies for Sears and sold around 1907.
On the front under the horn is 33
On the front foot is 125 (I am guessing 125 lbs)
also the number A147072
Anyone know what any of these mean?
Pics here- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10rv3WQcg3Syo3W1sbn_nHWaG-5l8Dxf7?usp=sharing
My great great grandfather, David Lewis, homesteaded in Mina in 1882. Who knows, he may have banged a few hammers onto this anvil.
If so I didn't inherit any of grandpa Dave's blacksmith skills. I am a carpenter and I build log cabins. Not much of that there are few trees near Mina. I think they had to build houses out of sod.
There isn't a tree between Canada and my place. My house sits on this knob on the prairie and the wind is relentless RELENTLESS. I have planted a couple hundred trees over the past 7 years.
I burn firewood to heat my place and the only trees around for miles are old groves planted around old farms.
If I remember correctly, Wiley Coyote use one on an attemp to smash the Roadrunner.
You may have that very anvil. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
stuck in the city the past few years, my forge i got from g-pa is in storage, basin type forge dated in the 1880's from Buffalo forge co.
the anvil was somehow broken off at the hardy hole, and every time i tried to bid on one at auctions the price cleared the heavens by people buying them up for decorating... 😪