Question about anvil prices...and a once-in-a-lifetime (probably) chance!

Hmm.. I would like to know what kind of anvil that is. Did you check the rebound in the center of that ?
 
It's an old bridge anvil. They were used by railroads and such and were considered pretty disposable afaik.

They don't tend to be of the caliber of an equal sized traditionally patterned anvil, and may or may not have hard faces. That one is pretty rough. Some people seem obsessed with them, but I wouldn't pay much for it in that shape. The mass distribution is not ideal for knife work or general smithing. It's worth about scrap value IMHO, although really almost any anvil is worth $1 a lb.


Wouldn't be bad to have in a smithy for striking work, but not going to be real useful to you likely. Just my 2c.
 
I would get two bath scales and set an end on each to check the weight.

I have used one like that, and they work, but aren't usually top quality. They were made for shaping and cutting bar stock, not smoothly shaping and finishing knives. That one has been used and abused.....a lot.

Tell him you will give $1.50 per pound if he will sandblast it to bare metal and have a machine shop mill the top smooth and flat.The top must have at least 1/2" of hard face left rebound should be 80% after the work. That should make the anvil cost you about $300. If he wants you to do the work and take the risk of it being a lesser quality anvil, then $1/Lb is the max you should pay.
 
I'd pass on it. It is really cool as a piece of anvil art, but as a tool- the face is rough, and bridge anvils to me seem likely not to have great rebound. Much of the weight being in the base, without a lot of mass directly supporting the striking area, is inefficient and not worth the same $/lb. IMO.
 
A lot of smiths would like to have it just to have but Phillip told me that some of those old bridge anvils didnt even have tool steel faces..Some were just all wrought?? If I could I would get it for a good price to flip it to a collector but only for a good price..
 
My thoughts echo the above, especially Javan and Salem.

Jerry Fisk and a few other smiths down south have custom made bridge anvils (IIRC, I saw a photo of Jerry's and it even has his name in it).

But for general forging, a bridge is pretty much the exact OPPOSITE of what you would want. An efficient anvil has the majority of its mass under the working area.

Now just to contradict myself, I would love to have that anvil in my shop to look at...just because I think it's super cool looking. But I doubt I'd use it much, if at all, to forge blades on.
 
Here is Jerry with his bridge anvil in the foreground. :)

JerryFisk.jpg
 
I think for 300 bucks in that shape there are far better deals out there to be had. The face is fairly beat, and edges are mostly gone. I'm sure a 100 lb standard style anvil would be just as effective as that 200 or so lb bridge style.
 
From the several bridge anvils I've seen, they were typically in heavy machinery areas like oil fields and are usually absolutely beat to Hell.

I'd want an accurate weight before I agreed on a price. I think that working on the very end and treating it like a block anvil might work, but that's a big price for "might work". It'd give a long surface for straightening big blades.
 
I think $1 per pound would be quite generous. If I was a betting man, I'd guess that your buddy has all of $50 tied into it, if even that. He dug it out of a field for crying out loud. ;)
With some patience and some searching, $300 will get you an anvil A LOT nicer than that.
 
Yeah, I had to let it go... :( I did check with some of the more local guys that I know, and all of them expressed the same thoughts about it. While it's a fair-sized hunk of...steel?...there were just too many unknowns. I talked to my buddy briefly, but he had a couple of other interested parties, so I thanked him for looking out for me, and told him I wouldn't be able to muster up the cash for that type of anvil in that condition. He was okay with it, and said he'd keep me in mind if he came across any more, traditional anvils.

Thanks for all of your input. Y'all were a great help to me in avoiding a potential waste of funds that I'd've been hard pressed to muster up, anyway. ;)
 
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