Got a strange anvil for y'all

JAlexander

JAlexander

Joined
Oct 16, 2003
Messages
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My adoptive brother and I were wandering around my grandfather's place because I'm trying to make a visual catalogue of what he had laying around so's to know what to do with it. So far I've found an old International tractor that I never saw before, and an International L-110 truck that I'd forgotten. Both are rather rusty to say the least.
Anyhow, we were walking around kicking dirt and cowpies off of things and we found some sort of old anvil with a vise attached. It was after the sun had gone down, so I couldn't find a maker's mark. We also found an old blower that's marked Champion Blower and Forge. Both are pretty rough, although they may be salvageable with work.
Anything y'all can tell me about either one would be mighty cool, though. Oh, and if anyone knows what the implement with the big saw blade is, that'd be good to know, too.
All the pictures that I've put on the web so far can be found here:
http://public.fotki.com/JAlexander/what_is_it/

Thanks a lot.

James
 
Yep those old vise-anvils pop up on ebay once in a while. I bellieve they went over like a lead balloon back in the day. Reason being that when they were set up to pound on, they there too low to use the vise effectively, and when they were high enough to use the vise, they were too high to use the anvil. Bad combo. Now if all you wanted was a vise with a really good anvil portion on the back to hammer on once in a while, you are set. ;)
 
I am curious as to what is gonna happen to that stuff. I am interested in that blower, working or not.

I am willing to bet that the anvil is a farriers anvil of sorts.

I have never seen anything like that saw setup. Very odd, but I am sure I could use it to dispose of the bodies.....lol....

Doc
 
I'm no expert at this stuff, but it looks like part of a farriers setup(for horseshoeing).

That type of blower was often attached to a small forge that looks like a large BBQ. Of course, it could be used on other types of forge too.

The vise/anvil is really interesting. I've not seen one like it before, and it looks handy.
I'd clean it up(both of them). If you don't want to use them, there's plenty of people that would, or who collect old tools.
 
The anvil vise was an attempt to provide home workshop guys something that they could use without the expense of a real anvil, or vise, they are usually made of cast iron, and therefore a pretty poor anvil for useage. Even a farrier wouldn't be cought dead with one, it's really more like the kind of anvil that's useful in a wood working shop, you know, something that you can set the occasional rivet on, or perhaps straighten an odd bit of small sheet stock.

Tony
 
James,

The saw looks similar to a saw we purchased new back in the 50"s. It was mounted like a lawn mower or tiller with handlebars and the blade would be used flat to saw down a tree then turn it vertical to saw it to the length (sticks of wood) desired. It was kind of between the age of the croscut and the chain saw, at least before they (chain saw's) were known of in the midwest. Ours even had a straight blade you could attach instead of the circular saw for mowing grass. They also had large diamenter wheels for ease of pushing.

Ramsey
 
Could be wrong, but I believe the saw in picture 4 is a type of "swing saw", the precursor to the radial arm saw. Way back before OSHA... They never had any guards or anything.
You can still see them in use at some old lumber yards (my local one has one that gets used as the main cut-off saw).

Only picture I could find quickly is at
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/woodworking/swing_cutoff.html

Brome
 
The only time I find any thing like that is at junk and second had stores and never nothing this interesting. Nice find!
 
When looking at the pic of the saw you can see the handles and what looks like a pully on the ground. The blade worked off of a pully system with a gear like devise to engage the wheels for ease of transport, but the thing would never work so we took it off and man-handled it. There is a type of guard on the back of the blade. There are still pieces of the one I mentioned in previous post scattered around here. It was heavy duty but slow to get around with in cutting trees. Then we bought a David Bradly (very heavy) chain saw from Sears some time later. Probably not too many around who has seen or used such an animal.

RR
 
Thanks so much, y'all. I knew there're enough collectors and observers of strange things that someone would be able to help me out.

I'm sure that I'll be posting more pictures as we uncover more stuff. Most things I know they are, but some of them are just cool. Coils of rusting cable, for instance. Or two (so far) two foot circular saw blades... And the tractor. Any of y'all know anything about old International tractors?

James
 
JAlexander said:
Thanks so much, y'all. I knew there're enough collectors and observers of strange things that someone would be able to help me out.

I'm sure that I'll be posting more pictures as we uncover more stuff. Most things I know they are, but some of them are just cool. Coils of rusting cable, for instance. Or two (so far) two foot circular saw blades... And the tractor. Any of y'all know anything about old International tractors?

James
Click to expand...

Start uncovering. I wanna see!
 
Great looking gear. I like those old combo vice. I have seen one either like it or similar a couple of years ago in an antique store. I would not try to work it too hard but light stuff would be fun.

Just be carefull when trying to restore it. If the threads are bound up with rust soak it in penitrating oil or deisel or that kind of thing. I had an old book binders press and hand wind brill press. It took me a coule of weeks wire brushing soaking gentle tapping to get them free one part I even had to heat up with a gas tourch to get it free.

Just don't go the he-man and twist the ends off. Great find.
 
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