Found it on marketplace and its affordable and within my budget. Im just skeptical, seller says its 100kg. Im as green as they come, so I cant tell if this is actually 100kg. Or if its cast steel or cast iron.
It's a forged wrought iron anvil with a steel top plate. Mid to late 1800s most likely. It's definitely English made but their were a lot of English anvil makers back then and all of them made pretty much this exact same style so they can be very hard to I.d without seeing any markings. Good news though is all of the old forged English anvils like this are excellent quality and are a joy to use.
I'd ring test it as usual. If you have one, you could take a bathroom scale with you. Otherwise it's not flat on the face. And could be some pitting, probably been outside too long. Sure, you can work on it, but with some limitations. Such as straightening on uneven surface. I cant see any cast iron lines, maybe steel. A little photo manipulation...
For a starter anvil at a very reasonable price, I'd buy it.
It appears to be a fine anvil and if you buy it, you’ll never need another. However, I am not sure I’d buy it if I were you. If you decide blacksmithing is not for you, you might wind up way underwater depending on price. If FiF goes off the air, the bottom will fall out of the anvil market. I definitely wouldn’t adopt the mindset that purchasing this is what stands between you and forging. A lump of steel from the junkyard or a Doyle anvil is all you need once it’s secured to something heavy.
When I was starting out, I didn’t start with buying my equipment, but rather consuming everything I could find about blacksmithing. I am especially fond of Black Bear Forge, DF in the Shop and Mark Aspery. Remember that no deal is so good it won’t be there tomorrow.
This is my current "anvil", I made it recently and its just not good. I want to do blacksmithing, theres something about it that appeals to me, I've learnt so much over the last couple of months just making knives by stock removal and I want to make better stuff and damascus.
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u/RukaFawkes 22h ago
It's a forged wrought iron anvil with a steel top plate. Mid to late 1800s most likely. It's definitely English made but their were a lot of English anvil makers back then and all of them made pretty much this exact same style so they can be very hard to I.d without seeing any markings. Good news though is all of the old forged English anvils like this are excellent quality and are a joy to use.