Anvil rehab?

J

John S

Member
I was given an anvil that is at least 70 years old. It is mounted on a stump.

At some point in time, many years ago someone painted the anvil and stump red! The good news is there is hardly any of the red paint left. I think pressure washing will remove any trace of paint on the stump. Wire brushing will clean up the anvil.

The striking plate looks good with hardly any damage on the edges. The tip of the horn is peened over slightly. I plan on smoothing the striking plate and don't know how to straighten out the tip of the horn, but file work may help.

So any suggestions?

Also how were the bases of these anvils finished? Stove black? Or no finish at all? Should I try cold blue?

Thanks
 
John S said:
I was given an anvil that is at least 70 years old. It is mounted on a stump.

At some point in time, many years ago someone painted the anvil and stump red! The good news is there is hardly any of the red paint left. I think pressure washing will remove any trace of paint on the stump. Wire brushing will clean up the anvil.

The striking plate looks good with hardly any damage on the edges. The tip of the horn is peened over slightly. I plan on smoothing the striking plate and don't know how to straighten out the tip of the horn, but file work may help.

So any suggestions?

Also how were the bases of these anvils finished? Stove black? Or no finish at all? Should I try cold blue?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Anvils are awesome.... I finally got my 300 pounder......... I've been looking for 20yrs.

Old red?? Awesome! but hey, differn't strokes.

My tool of choice for most of the work is a large angle grinder. Youtube Anvil restoration to see details.

Straightening the horn??.... LIT'rally this is done with a large hammer! Peen it back.....

Then grind everything to polish and blend.

I use flat black Krylon for paint.
 
Neighbors father gave it to him 50 years ago.

His father brought it over from a ranch "out in the valley".

Found out the old timers mounted them on stumps and set them in dirt to absorb shock. This was before tennis elbow;-)=

There are markings on it. After I clean it up, maybe I'll be able to tell who made it or where. Lots of good ones made in Sweden.

300 pounds! WOW!! How long is it?
 
The one I have is a Arm and Hammer Anvil. It has an Arm and Hammer inside a circle. All is raised and not recessed. About 19 inches long. They were made in Columbus, Ohio by Columbus Anvil and Forging Co.

"The Columbus Anvil & Forging Co. was founded by Tom Long, a former employee of the Columbus Forge and Iron Company, and operated from about 1900 until the mid-1950s. The company was the third oldest manufacturer of wrought anvils in the United States, and they were best known for their Arm and Hammer brand anvils."
 
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OK what I have is NOT an Arm and Hammer but a Vulcan with almost the same logo. Vulcan's logo is raised the Arm and Hammer is not. Vulcan was made by
The Illinois Iron & Bolt Company some say not as good as the A&H, so it won't mind spray paint.
 
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My neighbor, a ferrier or horseshoer, has an Arm and Hammer. He uses it if the horses come to him but in his trailer he has a lighter anvil. I’ll have to take notice.
I love the song the Arm and Hammer plays.
 
John S said:
I was given an anvil that is at least 70 years old. It is mounted on a stump.

At some point in time, many years ago someone painted the anvil and stump red! The good news is there is hardly any of the red paint left. I think pressure washing will remove any trace of paint on the stump. Wire brushing will clean up the anvil.

The striking plate looks good with hardly any damage on the edges. The tip of the horn is peened over slightly. I plan on smoothing the striking plate and don't know how to straighten out the tip of the horn, but file work may help.

So any suggestions?

Also how were the bases of these anvils finished? Stove black? Or no finish at all? Should I try cold blue?

Thanks
Click to expand...

A high school classmate of mine is a collector of anvils. He has them from colonial times made in England, southern civil war anvils with the horn broken off by union troops so they were unusable, to a really large one that came from a long shoremans dock on the Houston Ship channel. It is mounted to a 24" schedule 40 pipe flange and nipple. Had to get a hoist to lift it in and out for transport. He has somewhere around a hundred of them.
For storage, he cleans them up as best he can without wearing off he patina, then paints on a mixture of mineral spirits and boiled linseed oil. It keeps the patina and prevents rust.
 
If you must, then an angle grinder is quick and easy, but it's remarkable how much an anvil is restored just by use. (Well, it does nothing for the sides, but that's fine by me.) Not sure what brand my anvil is - it came out of a Southern Pacific roundhouse and is 32" tip to tail - I'm guessing it's at least 300#. Plenty much big enough, I have to consciously work in different spots to keep the deck nice and shiny.

GsT
 
Anyone ever "fire" an anvil? It used to be popular in days gone by, especially on July 4. They would stuff the hollow under the anvil with black powder, run a fuse to it, light it and watch that sucker go up about 300 feet. Of course sometimes a piece broke off and ruined the party for one or more spectators. I think there was generally alcohol consumption involved.
 
vtmarmot said:
Anyone ever "fire" an anvil? It used to be popular in days gone by, especially on July 4. They would stuff the hollow under the anvil with black powder, run a fuse to it, light it and watch that sucker go up about 300 feet. Of course sometimes a piece broke off and ruined the party for one or more spectators. I think there was generally alcohol consumption involved.
Click to expand...

I have never done it, only because I thought it was a typical urban legend and as with most urban legends COULD NOT work!

Then I youtubed it..... and saw HOW to make it work and yes, we will be firing some anvils :)

Cuz we do that sort of thing.....


cuz 'MUR'CA!

I vividly remember the first time we launched a tire using tannerite as opposed to BP or shotgun powder. We had even used "60/40 stump blower dynamite" but tannerite was a whole nuther ball game, the displacement was so bloody FAST that the tire was a hunnerd feet up before our eyeballs caught up. This vividly brought to our attention the enormous difference between pure unadulturated HE and the propellants we'd been calling "explosives"

I would never put tannerite under an anvil.


Tannerite under an anvil is like a baseball bat to the chin, where black powder is a pillow fight.....
 
Used the mineral spirits and boiled linseed oil on the sides of the anvil after removing all the red paint. Looks good!
 
This thread got me to reading up on Anvils, I never realized how a sophisticated piece of equipment it is when used by a skilled craftsman.

When I was a little kid growing up in Port Arthur, my dad had a huge Anvil in his work shop. About all I can remember is him hammering on it. When we moved to Houston, he left it, but did bring a big vice that he had. It sits in our shop to this day..

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=22608&stc=1&d=1562428687

He got the vice out of a locomotive shop just after WW-2. I suspect it was built in the 1930's.
 

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jackie schmidt said:
This thread got me to reading up on Anvils, I never realized how a sophisticated piece of equipment it is when used by a skilled craftsman.

When I was a little kid growing up in Port Arthur, my dad had a huge Anvil in his work shop. About all I can remember is him hammering on it. When we moved to Houston, he left it, but did bring a big vice that he had. It sits in our shop to this day..

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=22608&stc=1&d=1562428687

He got the vice out of a locomotive shop just after WW-2. I suspect it was built in the 1930's.
Click to expand...


As kindofa' wannabe anvil nut I will agree that they are sophisticated science.

A bad one will wear you out where a good one turns steel into modeling clay...

A bad one will hurt your psyche whereas a good one sounds like a hymn.....

Also, how they're mounted is important. I like about 200lb of elm under and anvil, oak is OK and Doug Fir is great if big enough, IMO it takes 300lb or more of Douglas Fir which means offsetting. I plan to use a hunk of fir and set a bunch more stuff on it. I've got a 600lb piece set aside for my 300lber.

Setting an anvil on concrete and striking it is criminal.

I knew a welder who built a steel rack....... ouch! Although a ductile iron pipe/post can work.

but mainly,

Anvils set on WOOD! I've also heard that putting wood down on metal, or even concrete to act as a "cushion" or isolator block will work altho I've never done it.
 
I found one mounted on a Doug Fir stump. Turns out I was on an old mining claim....bet it's still there.

Mort
 
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