Anvil score!

Self Made Knives

Well-Known Member
Well, I've been scouring the land for a good anvil. Found a dozen with swayback, chipped out, damaged, destroyed, broken, etc. This morning I caught a Craigslist ad before anybody else I guess, went straight over and came home with this one!

It's a Trenton, put it on a scale and it looks like about 165-17o lbs. No real damage at all! Has some tiny dings as any used anvil would, but overall drastically better than anything else I've come across. Has awesome rebound and rings like a bell!

Any anvil experts out there? Opinions? Advice on anvil stands?

photo.JPG
 
Nice Score!! I'm collecting stuff to forge in the Spring/Summer. I got a 151 pound Peter Wright from my Dad i didnt know he had!!
 
Dang it! I have been searching for anvils for a year and can't find anything remotely decent.
John I'm sure you already thought of this. When I started looking for an anvil I told everyone that would listen to be on the look out. 1 week later a buddy calls me up. He was looking at a dirt bike for his boy and saw a #126 Hay Budden. Offered the guy $100 and he jumped all over it.
 
I need to do that. I keep hitting up craigslist and it's been a bust. Florida doesn't seem to be a haven for old blacksmith tools.
 
Nice one Anthony! I had to laugh here a while back there was one on the local Craigslist and it was not much more than scrap and the guy was asking like $4oo.oo for it. It was beat to pieces, no chips on the edge just craters and they had broken the horn off it. He was trying to con someone by saying rare antique anvil without a horn. Yep, that is because it was broken off. How I can't imagine how you do that!!
For those looking try estate and farm auctions! I have even heard of some turning up at the scrap yards, I remember someone posting one that looked pristine sand he supposedly picked up for scrap yard price!!! Never been lucky enough to catch one of those!
 
Nice one Anthony! I had to laugh here a while back there was one on the local Craigslist and it was not much more than scrap and the guy was asking like $4oo.oo for it. It was beat to pieces, no chips on the edge just craters and they had broken the horn off it. He was trying to con someone by saying rare antique anvil without a horn. Yep, that is because it was broken off. How I can't imagine how you do that!!
For those looking try estate and farm auctions! I have even heard of some turning up at the scrap yards, I remember someone posting one that looked pristine sand he supposedly picked up for scrap yard price!!! Never been lucky enough to catch one of those!

Yeah, I saw one here that had the horn broken off and of course they said it as a "valuable antique". Most of the ones I've found had horrible edges or even most of the top worn off. Found one that had obviously been sitting on the ground for decades, the feet were nearly rusted all the way off. Found a smaller Arm&Hammer that was decent, but they wanted $1200 for it! Crazy! Found a smaller Vulcan and a Fisher, but again they must be made out of gold.

Guy that had this one said he picked it up at a farm auction in Iowa a few years ago. He was an older guy, very cool dude actually. Had a 36 Olds car he had restored, a steam engine he was working on, etc. He said he wanted it wanted it to go to somebody that would use it, not try to resell. He was asking $550 and I didn't even try to talk him down. I've seen similar Trentons going for closer to $1000.
 
I really lucked out on mine, an old friend told me he had one but didn't want to sell it...I never even saw it.
Then I didn't see him for about 6 years, out of the blue he called me and asked if I was still interested in buying it. {this was about 25 years ago}

I said what do you want for it? he said he didn't know so I said I'll give you $100.00 sight unseen.
he was over in 30 min. with it.
not seeing him in so long I kind of think at that time in his life he needed money for drugs...I may be wrong but he seemed to have changed.

I never really researched it, it has an eagle on the side and a date that I believe is 1942, it weighs well over 200 pounds, he pulled his back out as we were getting it out of his van. this thing looks almost new where ever it was it was well taken care of. here's a pic. of it in my shop.

b0d91583f7935db6cff70e5e457e2ba2
 
Steve, I have an anvils spotters guide I carry on my phone so I can identify them while hunting. According to to it...

"If you see what looks to be an Eagle on the side, it is almost certain that it is a Fisher Norris. Eagle is usually holding an anchor....." Says they made a lot of really large anvils used in the ship building industry. Google search for an anvil identification guide, in a pdf format and you can find this guide. It's pretty good.
 
Thanks Anthony, I'll check that out. I never did any research on it, he did say he thought it came off a navy ship. I'll have to go take a close look at it tomorrow.
Take a picture and see if I can find out what I have.
 
I bought a 120lb anvil that has a picture of a arm holding a hammer cannot read the words, but for $40 bucks didnt see how I could go wrong.
 
I got my big boy anvil at an estate auction last year, had some idiot trying to outbid me so I ended up paying $1400 for it, but with today's prices I still think I got a deal. It's a 328lb Peter Wright
 
Back
Top