Anvils

[Al_Smith]

My daughter weighs 109 pounds, but I am not going to go looking for any numbers/letters code to verify it. :D

:D I think mine weighs 106 but she started out as 4 pounds 2 ounces and 17 inchs long some 36 years ago .

Seems uncanny, me at 6 foot 225 and her momma 5 foot and 105-110 .Short and little won that race or so it seems .

[Radar67]

Magic, I may be wrong on this, but I have read somewhere that the Mousehole was one of the first anvils to ever be made.

This is an excerpt from "The American Blacksmith" September 1914

Anvil making as an industry was first stated at the Mousehole Forge, Sheffield England. How long ago there is no authentic record but of well over 200 years anvils have been made for the trade at the Mousehole Forge, which for two centuries at least, was the only works of its kind in the world. The first of whom there is a record of having operated the Mousehole Forge in anvil making is the family of Sir John Burgoyne. Then Cockshutt and Armitage, and following them came M. and H. Armitage who operated the forge for over 100 years, The present owners, Brooks and Cooper, have run the works for upwards of 38 years , and are still making anvils that are hard to beat either in quality, shape or workmanship. Although there are now a number of concerns making anvils both in England and America, the Mousehole Forge is unique in several respects. They were the first to make any attempt at standardizing the shape of the anvils and they operate their forge to this day with no other power than that developed by an old fashioned water wheel.

For well over a century there has been practically no change made at the Mousehole Forge. the same old-fashioned helve hammer, or "metal helve" as it is locally termed is still doing duty and is operated by the already mentioned water wheel. The building itself, with its old fashioned solid stone walls and low arched windows and doorways, shows but slight signs of the ravages usually worked by time and are apparently good,. barring misfortune, for centuries to come.

[SwampDonkey]

:D I think mine weighs 106 but she started out as 4 pounds 2 ounces and 17 inchs long some 36 years ago .

Seems uncanny, me at 6 foot 225 and her momma 5 foot and 105-110 .Short and little won that race or so it seems .

I have a cousin born at 2 lb 6oz, now over 300. If that counts for anything. ;D

[Magicman]

Radar, I did not have a chance to try and date mine today, but I have the information printed out.  Maybe in the morning.  I am blown away to find out that my anvil came from the first ever anvil factory.   

[Okrafarmer]

You also have a sawmill made at the first ever portable band sawmill factory, right? And a tractor built in the factory that built the first tractor-- or first to be called a tractor.

[Okrafarmer]

Magic, you are just a classic and original sort of guy. 

[Al_Smith]

Anvil talk .About 10-12 years ago there was a local auction of the works of an artisian type smith .Made huge door hinges etc for high end specialty doors on million dollar houses etc .They listed several anvils including a miscatalogged 500 pounder which was a 300 in reality .

There must have been nearly 100 hardy hole tools ,more than I've ever seen in my life any where .Kegs full of new horseshoes and 50 interested blacksmiths that came from three states away .This guy had a forge that was 5 feet square and must have held 100-150 pounds of petrolium coke on  each firing .

Would you believe there was a 200 pound anvil in that 50 tons of iron with the heel broken off starting  from the hardy hole .Must have been a giant swinging a big hammer to break an anvil is all I could figure . I'll bet they called him sir .

[thecfarm]

I still have to check for numbers on it. We never really used ours much. It really only got used during mowing season to put the sections on. I would hold one end of the knife when my Father would pound the rivets down. Memories.  ;D

[Al_Smith]

We had a little piece of railroad iron we used for that .I got pretty good at breaking them so I got pretty good of changing them .

I'll tell ya this when a hay mower and a woven wire fence tangle the fence wins .A steel post will do a number on them too .

[thecfarm]

My Father always talked about getting a small piece of rail,but never did get one.

[Magicman]

More exciting information about my anvil.  The markings on the side indicate that my anvil was indeed in the first generation of MOUSE HOLE anvils and was manufactured between 1820 and 1835.

[Al_Smith]

Now is that mousehole a wrought anvil or lamenated top steel like a Peter Wright ?

[Magicman]

I have no idea.  A week ago, I did not even know what a MOUSE HOLE was.  I never realized that an anvil could have traceable history.  My research is only beginning.

[Magicman]

I might add that it does have a very nice "ring".  I have the old "post" vice, bellows, and other stuff at the farm.  I need to build a blacksmith shop.....sigh. 

[Al_Smith]

Blacksmithing is one of my varied and numerious interests ,partly because I like it and partly because of my family history .

I "googled " worlds largest anvil .Supposedly the largest "traditional " anvil was a German made example of 960 pounds .However there was one of 1400 pounds exibited by some company from Trenton NJ at the worlds exposition of 1872 or 1876 .Evidently cast steel with a plate steel forged top like a Peter Wright .

Now there's a gent from Texas who  built a giant of giants welded steel monster of 5280 pounds with a picture .Lawdy you could use that thing to anchor a battle ship .

[Magicman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkUGTkUcWIA

[Al_Smith]

Some of those iron pounders can really get that rytheme down pat .I never could ,the danged hammer would bounce sideways and try to smack me in the knee ,not good .

[beenthere]

We used to have a blacksmithing lady on the Forum.
Don't have the memory cells working to remember her name but will give a shot at finding her.

[beenthere]

Thanks to Shotgun, it was Darla, wife of FF member Ernie_Edwards.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,20837.msg296926.html#msg296926

[thecfarm]

Magicman,we need a picture!!! I need to drag mine out. Been a busy day here with food.

[Okrafarmer]

Magicman,we need a picture!!! I need to drag mine out. Been a busy day here with food.

Did somebody say
FOOD?

[thecfarm]

By the way,Pie For Breakfast, or I should say Pies.
I dragged it out.Mine must be a Peter Wright, or  Sears and Roebuck.  ;D  It has a lamented top and I was able to pick it up pretty easy. Better down play the weight some.  : I would be more apt to say 50 pounds and not much more than that.
I laid my hat by it for size.


 

[Okrafarmer]

I dragged it out.Mine must be a Peter Wright, or  Sears and Roebuck.  ;D  It has a lamented top and I was able to pick it up pretty easy.

:D :D :D :D
Laminated?

Lamented is a word, just means something different!  ;)

[Al_Smith]

Well whatever it is it has that typical long horn style and noone beat the tip flat on the horn  .

[Okrafarmer]

I think there is a slight difference between a standard blacksmith's anvil and a farrier's anvil. Farrier's anvils have a bigger and/or longer round tapered cone, since they spend so much of their time shaping horse shoes. So I was told. My dad's anvil is/was a horse shoeing one. Not sure if he still has it.