Thread: Help with Anvil

Originally Posted by midlife

I picked up an anvil a while back and I am trying to work out a bit more about it. It does not seem to have had a very hard life aside from a bit of wear and tear on the faceplate. I am not sure what it is made of or how old it is. I have searched the net and have not had much success. It is stamped with WT on the side this might mean Wiltshire Tools or Wholsale Tools. It weighs 110kgs as confirmed by the numerical stamps on the side! Photos attached. Could anybody assist or point me in the right direction. Any ideas/advice would be appreciated.

It looks OK. The hardy hole looks it has done a fair bit of work too.

To get more info I would post on a blacksmith specific forum like "I Forge Iron", there are lot's more anvil rubbernecks on that site and they have an Anvil specific forum, and some of the members actually know something about them

Did you pick the anvil up locally? I'm sure i have seen that same anvil before.......

Whilst you say it doesn't appear to have a hard life i would say it has been beaten around a bit. Doing the damage shown to a small anvil is one thing, but on a 260lb anvil its something else.
Unfortunately unless you can find any more markings you probably won't find out much about it.

Cheers,
Ew

2.0.20 is 2 Hundredweight, no Quarters and 20 Pounds, or 244 pounds ( 2x112 + 20 ). So it is most likely English made rather than a Yankee job as they ditched most of the English Imperial system fairly early.

In Richard Postman's book (Anvils in America) he shows several English anvils that have two letters below the weight numbers (including a WT!) he says these are probably inspectors marks. This is a forged anvil that has been made from at least five pieces of wrought iron and one or two pieces of carbon steel on top for the face, all fire welded together. Because it hasn't got England stamped on it, it is most likely made before 1900? ( and I might add probably not older than 1860s?) as all exported anvils had to be so marked after around this date. I can safely say that this is not a Peter Wright or an Mouse Hole anvil which have distinct features. Anvil identification is a difficult task and it is only us modern "blacksmith/collectors" who are interested, from what I've picked up most blacksmith tradesmen in big workshops of the past knew little about or even cared who made their anvil, it was just one of the tools they used!! Graeme

makers name is likely to be on the other side of this anvil to the stamped numbers if its there.

That is a nice old piece! I have one similar, in as much as I will never know anything about it.

I am looking forward to getting a Nimba Anvil... if all goes well. Kohlswa will be my second choice.

That anvil has seen better days, and yes I agree has done a lot of heavy work.
Nothing that can not be fixed, if you want it fixed that is.

Nimba is the way. I like new anvils, square, flat, sharp.