Anvils, real ones

R

Riley White

Joined
Feb 14, 2004
Messages
84
I keep reading about people that want to buy a anvil to forge with, but are frustrated with the price and shipping costs. There is a furrier supply/school in Tucumcari NM that sells real anvils at a price that is not extreemly high. Right now there is a 125# anvil that is used for sale for $250. It is very clean and for $2 a pound a very good buy. I don't think he would allow a cast iron anvil in his doors. He has anvils weighing from 70# to 260#. On average the new anvils are about $3.75 to $2.25 per pound. Jim Keith's Phone # is (505) 461-2942 his web site is www.jktools.com. I hope this helps some of you.

Also, if your anvil is not heavy enough there might be an alternative to buying a larger anvil. At one time Jim told me that if I bolted the anvil to a heavy piece of steel like 1 1/2" plate adding mass to the anvil it would work like an anvil of that combined weight, or close to it. I have found it to be true. I have a piece of 1 1/2" steel (70,000 tensile) that weighes about 90# so I welded it to three legs and made a stand for the anvil. (The Oak stump was getting rotten and the anvil was sinking into it) I then bought a set of truck spring U bolts heated and bent them, cut holes through the plate and bolted the anvil to the plate. The anvil weighs about 130# it now "feels" like a 200+# anvil.
 
That works great.My 125# anvil is bolted to a 400# flat anvil. It is effectively a 525# anvil now.When I need to do a forging demo,I unbolt it and use my portable wooden base.
 
I asked over at anvilfire about those since I never heard of the JHM brand before and those guys really know their anvils. They said that it's listed in "Anvils of America", and while they're not cast iron, they're ductile iron which is better then cast but still not optimal. For the price it might still be worth getting though.
 
Jim Keith told me the anvils were suppised to be rockwell 52. If I remember correctly. That should be about right. My Peter Wright is chipped on the edges but has a very smooth top. I wonder how hard a Peter Wright is?
 
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