Alan DuBoff
>David,

The price for that size anvil is not a bad price, but it sounds like you got a farrier's anvil, and the horn is quite different than a london pattern anvil, the more common style amongst non-farrier smiths.

There is no reason that a farrier's anvil can't be used to forge just about any iron, but the horn is often fatter and for me much harder to work scrolls and such off one.

Considering I've seen guys forging on old railroad tracks and producing nicer work than I do on a Hay Budden, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Everyone likes the anvils they like, and many folks prefer Fishers because they don't ring, Todd Hughes uses one for that reason. I like Hay Buddens, they have a good amount of tool steel in them, and the most recent style has about 1/3rd the top of the anvil as tool steel. They do ring quite a bit, but I muffle mine with either a chain or magnets. Peter Wrights ring very loud...I got a 134# that was pretty swayed, but took a belt sander to it and it's a pretty decent anvil now, just don't like it nearly as much as my Hay Budden 160#. I paid $365 for my Hay Budden from a blacksmith shop in Kansas, nice guy who has an ebay store, it's called Mike's Blacksmith Shop. He sells a lot of anvils at fair prices. Where I live some of the people with anvils must be smokin' crack, and if they're not, the people buying them are.:-/ The PW I paid only $150 for on ebay, but it was pretty swayed. Not a bad anvil for $150 though.

One other thing to note about anvils, is that when the size changes, the anvils start becoming more desirable, in proportions. If you look at the profile of a 160# anvil and compare it to a 120# anvil of the same maker, you will see exactly what I'm talking about. Look at a 250# anvil of the same maker, and a 400# of the same maker. The working surface on the top face gets quite a bit larger, but in order to do that it requires much more mass, so the more they weigh, the less size they gain as the mass as a whole gets larger. You also pay a premium for any anvils 200# and above, IMO, and they are the most desirable. I've not met many smiths that wouldn't take a larger anvil, given the same quality and characteristics.

I would characterize myself as an amateur smith, but will be curious to see what someone like Todd says if he responds to this thread.

If you could post pictures of the anvil, that would be helpful.