Price of anvils

Re: Price of anvils *LINK*

Todd Hughes

>Nice anvil, I actually thought it would do a bit more. Sold a little brass anvil that weighed about a pound a while back that went for just under a $100 ......Boy I can't wait till the big ones get worth that !.......Todd


Little brass Anvil

Todd, looks like they took your picture down

V Parisian

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Re: Todd, looks like they took your picture down

thomd

>I dollar a pound is probaly a good price if you get the widow at the interment. That's not even the scrap price for metal around here these days. New steel runs about 2- 9 dollars a pound depending what it has been made into, and that is the price for stuff that isn't a tool. An anvil is a tool like a chisel and requires tool steel and heat treating. so you are looking at 2-4 dollars a pound.

Re: Todd, looks like they took your picture down

Todd Hughes

>I would think a very nice but not mint ,quality 100lb Anvil would be "worth" about $175...maybe a tad more if a Peter wright or Hay Budden. One thing about Anvils though is that probably more then any other tool thier prices depend on who is at the auction. Get two guys that want an anvil and prices can get up there. Have an auction where nobody wants to haul a big heavy piece of iron and they go cheap.

...Even in the old tool Hell I live in I see a good many Anvils. Not all are in Good condition and not all are cheap but I still see a few that are both. Think I bought about half dozen large anvils last summer that were all in Good at least condition and doubt if I paid as much as $1 a pound for most. One was a very good 40lb Fisher which i did give $40 for if I remember right. Best was a nice 175 Peter Wright I got for $125. A friend showed me last week a beautiful 150 lb. farrier anvil in Excellent condition that he found at a yard sale for $20 up in N.J......So still lots of anvils out there and not priced to bad but if you want an Anvil now is the time to buy one......Todd....

p.s. I remove all my ebay auctions photos after a day or so to free up space on Andale which is who hosts my photos. If I get to many photos they charge me more

Re: how to buy an anvil

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI

>I don't really need an anvil, but I always thought they were neat tools, and generally look at anvils when I see them. The one that I bought was a 9 pound anvil, which I thought was really a good size for my little shop; small enough that I won't stumble over it but large anough to actually be useful for making knives and small tools. Of course I didn't plan on buying an anvil, it was an impulse thing. I have only bought eleven items on the 'bay in the last few years I have been on it, so that gives you an idea how much my wife and I spend there. I had checked out the anvil early in the acution, and happened to look at it again with about 3 hours to go. At that point it was still at $23, which I figured was cheap. I put in a bid of $48, close to the 50 I thought I might spend, and was instantly outbid. I really hadn't planned on spending $50 on an anvil this week, but in the heat of the moment I just bid on it again with a higher bid, kind of an "Okay lets see how much you are willing to spend" kind of reaction. There was still about 3 hours left in the auction so I was actually kind of surprised when the auction ended and the item was mine. But I never expected to pay $50 plus shipping for a 9 pound anvil. The problem I guess is finding a nice small anvil, since the old tool hell I live in generally only has 100 lb plus anvils and there are always old guys with way to much money at the auctions locally. I think I could buy a cheap anvil from Grizzly, but I tend to grind my teeth every time I have to support China because I don't see it as fair trade.

Re: how to buy an anvil

thomd

>I didn't know they made real anvils in 9 pound range. For wailing on knives and chisel sized objects, an anvil of around 100 pounds is better. In woodworking terms the 100 pounds anvil, for that kind of work, is somewhere around the solid core door for a woorkbench, maybe most of the way towards the bench made of 2x4s. 200 pound anvils would be like a standard serious workbench, like the Frid or the Klausz, and a 4-600 pounder would be top of the line.

The Grizzly anvils aren't anvils at all, and I have a lot of respect for some of the tools they sell, but there is a catagory of anvils that are not properly heat treated, that constitute a surface to hit on in the shop but are the equivalent for serious work of bikes with flat tires.

Would this be an exception?

woodburnbob

>I enjoyed reading through this thread on anvils and then read the chisel thread, which prompted me to look at various links to Matsumura (chisels). Dieter Schmid had this among 4 photos of this highly regarded chiselmaker. One notices his anvil.

Re: Would this be an exception?

Dave Burnard

>And, like an iceberg, most japanese anvils are buried in the floor of the shop so that only the top 6 inches or so shows (for smiths working seated - or standing in a pit). Typically about 2 feet or so of the length of the anvil is buried and sitting on large ballast stones.

Re: Would this be an exception?

Dave Burnard

>Notice that Mr Matsumura is working seated but with his feet in a pit - much easier on the knees.

With no horn or hardy to tip the anvil, a 200-250 pound japanese anvil sunk in the ground like this is the moral equivalent of a 400+ lb western anvil so far as effective mass goes. Japanese chisel makers often work on anvils in the 100-150 lb range.

There's a guy in Missouri that sells a waist high knifemakers anvil made out of 5" square blocks of 4140. Very similar idea.

With a proper base...

Bob Hackett

>Near any large chunk of steel can be used as an anvil.It just depends on how many times you are willing to dress it.

For smaller work I would recommend buying a stake plate and then getting whatever suits you and the work you do and buy in that direction.Far more choices there.

For the casual user,tapping out eastern blades, or the part time saw abuser just go to the local scrap yard and get any 10+ pound hammer head and mount it in (as opposed to on) whatever tree stump strikes your fancy.

Then again you could just pick up a 16 pounder at the dump like I did yesterday.Beep-beep.

Mainely,Bob

PS-you`ll notice I was a nice guy and didn`t mention the 5 gallon bucket of other stuff I dragged home.Some days it REALLY pays to nudge those rusty old tool boxes over with a toe.

Re: With a proper base...

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>How do you dress an anvil? How difficult is it to harden one?

I wanted a simple stake anvil of some sort, but those are showing up on ebay as very expensive. I finally gave up and bought an 11 pounder from Grizzly, the absolute cheapest way out, with the possible exception of those adept at dumps.

Pam

Anvils for nothing

Bob Hackett

>When I say dress the steel I mean if you go the cheapest route and just use a chunk of mild steel then you will have to grind the mushrooming back from time to time.The good news is that it`s easy,quick and leaves room for customization.

As far as hardening goes,unless you use HCS or forge weld a lamination of HCS you`re pretty much out of luck.I`ve tried welding a layer of hardfacing material onto a friend`s "art" anvil and it was a major PITA to weld,grind,etc.In the end I wouldn`t recommend it,or do it again even for a GOOD friend.

It may surprise folks to know that the shelf on the front of the anvil and the horn are both soft steel.The shelf is left soft so you can do things like cut hot steel and not have to worry about ruining the edge on the tool you`re cutting with.The horn is soft because it would be too difficult for manufacturers of anvils to harden them and they really don`t need it anyway.At least that`s the info I go from my first crusty old mentor.Talk about a true curmudgeon!

Mainely,Bob

Thanks, Bob.

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

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