Took the Plunge...Bought an Anvil

silver_pilate

silver_pilate

Joined
Oct 30, 2002
Messages
3,974
Well, 5 years of piddling in stock removal and 3 years of serious making and I'm just now finally getting around to buying an anvil! Found this one recently, and it seems to be a good one. These are the seller's pics. The anvil is scheduled for pick up on Wednesday, and as soon as it gets here, I'll take some better pics.

This anvil is 148 on the scale and it's a Hay Budden. Not sure the year, I'll have to do some checking for marks once it gets in. I got it for just under $2.03 a pound. After shipping, total cost (anvil+shipping) was around $2.61 a pound. Still not too bad for a 148# Hay Budden. Noticeable chipping along one long edge, but still plenty of good edge left, and the other side looks great. No significant sway that I can see, and it comes with two hardie tools as well. This anvil came out of an 80 year old man's garage who had passed away. Doesn't look to be used too terribly hard.

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I'll post more once it gets in. If it needs repair, I've got an EXCELLENT machinist who knows what to do and can help me out. We'll see. Thanks for looking! And thanks to Nick for letting me bounce this off of you. Now it's time to dig up all those great PID controlled forge threads and build one for myself!

--nathan
 
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Same size as my Hay Budden.You are in for some great fun. Here's a pic of mine. I used chains to mount it to reduce the ring.
 
You can't make knives on that thing... tell you what. I've got a purpose built anvil made from interstate rail transportation metal guides that I'll trade you for it and you won't even have to pay me shipping :)

Looks much better than my first 2 anvils. :thumbup:
 
That's a nice looking anvil. Post the serial number that's on the foot under the horn. I have a book that"ll tell us what year it was made.
 
Nice. I've been looking for one all over this side of Texas and haven't found anything like that. Good score.
 
Jk, anvils are a very tough find out here, to be sure. Almost anything you can find will be a small farrier's anvil in pretty rough shape. I found this one on ebay and bought it the day after it was posted as as buy-it-now item.

Almost makes me wish I lived in the northeast somewhere to be closer to anvils and hammer-ins, but then I snap out of it and thank God I'm a Texan :D ;).

The anvil shipped Wednesday and should be here Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Yippie!!!

Any thoughts on anvil stands? I'm thinking about making one of lumbar lag bolted and strapped together with heavy chain as a tie down.

Also, for nicks (not you, Wheeler) and dings (that may be closer to you, Wheeler ;) ), what's the best method for repair that will hold up to years of use? Just leave it alone? And how do you guys polish the face and horn? Sanding flaps on an angle grinder....belt sander?

Thanks for looking!

--nathan
 
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Rock on, Nathan! Have fun with that! :thumbup:

Soon you'll be sneering down your nose at the rest of us stock-removal guys... nice knowin' ya. :(
 
That's a nice looking anvil and you got it for a great price to say. Congratulations Nathan on the new toy. -----:thumbup:

Terry
 
How did I miss this thread? That's awesome! Now I can swing by and bang my head against it when I screw up!
 
Hey, Ed! You'll have to swing by when it comes in Tues or Wed of next week. I'll use your head to ring it. :) You know, don't want to mark the anvil...have to hit it with a soft head. :D

--nathan
 
Congratulations Nathan, that looks like a pretty good steal there. I have one suggestion for your anvil stand, ofcourse you could use anything but I have been thinking of using Particle Board, it is solid and heavy. It is also cheap.
 
Welcome to the wonderful world of smithing and anvils! That's a nice Hey-Bud. I like to mount an anvil on a large stump and bury the bottom of the stump (2/3 of the length) in the ground. But then, my old smithin shop had a dirt floor. I also built a good travelling stand out of 2x10 lumber, square/tapered a little at the top. I put the anvil on some 3/4" ply, traced the contours of the feet onto the board, then cut out the resulting semicircles and tacked 'em onto the board top of the stand so the anvil fits in just right and won't slide around. Then chain it or make mounting brackets with 1" x 1/2" bar or so with a bolt in the middle to lock down between the front and back feet. I like a flap grinding wheel (60-120 grit) on an angle grinder to clean up an anvil face, then hand sand or disc sand to polish.
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silver_pilate said:
Hey, Ed! You'll have to swing by when it comes in Tues or Wed of next week. I'll use your head to ring it. :) You know, don't want to mark the anvil...have to hit it with a soft head. :D

--nathan
Click to expand...

Just for that I'll chip the edge with me brain pan. HEHE.
 
Great idea using the ply cut-out to hold the anvil from rotating. Unfortunately, large tree stumps are a little hard to come by out here :D. You know, God made West Texas without trees so we could see the tornadoes coming. The other thing is my shop is all concrete floor and it's a rental space, so I'm likely going to go with a more portable setup that is still stable enough for hobby work.

Thanks for the tips and the thoughts, everyone! Like I said, I'll post more pics when it arrives.

--nathan
 
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