I have been bending metal and making things as long as I can remember. Started my 31 Tudor 7 yrs ago and always making something and I've wanted a decent sized anvil for 20 yrs but around here they aren't cheap, 5 to 6 bucks a pound average. Living in a farming community competition is stiff for stuff like this. Well a friend calls me up and says he has an anvil for sale and I go look at it and it's covered by what looks like old paint, dirt, dried grease etc. I'm hooked BUT the sad news he promised it to someone else. I figure it's gone, a week later he tells me he can't contact the guy but still won't sell it to me, finally after a couple more weeks he texts me and I said YES ! I'll take it. Pick it up last night, it's heavy, heavier than the 110 he guess it weight I'm thinking as I pick it up and put into the back of my Cherokee... Get it home and help from son number 2 we get it in the shop and I grab a wire brush and go to cleaning looking for a maker's mark, sure enough I find it along with its weight marks. I was happy to see the words PETER WRIGHT stamped into it and with the online weight conversion calculator and the marks on the anvil ir comes out to 141 pds, definitely heavier than he thought. After some online investigation I can narrow it to 1862 to 1910 manufacturing date. It's 24" long too. Finally! I got one and it's a good maker AND it has history !! I'm ecstatic!! A couple pics!! .
That was a good score, I searched for years too, auctions, ads etc.. Finally one ad pops up with a 200 lb. anvil down in Harrisonville, Mo. for sale by a blacksmith. It was a great score for me too.
Nice find. I was looking at a few at the swap meet last weekend. Big ones like that are an easy $700 and the half size were half price. Love to have one.
Peter Wright anvils are good quality anvils, they are forged,the body is cast iron, they were made in England from the mid 1800's to about 1920's HRP
Great find. I can’t believe how those things have maintained and risen in price over the many decades.
I wish I had room for one just like it, but I’m limited in space until I build an addition in the next few years. Dad always said he could use my head for one….maybe that’s why I don’t have one here now
I've been searching at least 25 years for one as well, I have one made out of train track and a small one but never found a full size, heavy one. When I was probably 19 a friend of mine invited me over to his grandfather-in-law's house for a rummage sale, he passed away and the family was selling his stuff, I bought a toolbox. He had mentioned that he had a big anvil on a stump and wished he would have saved it for me, I think they sold it for like 15 bucks. It's shocking how much money these things bring. It's not like they wear out, do people collect them? Or are there really that many people interested in doing metalwork that would spend that kind of money? Yours appears to be a very nice quality piece, and very heavy. I'm a bit jealous.
I too have been looking for one. All the ones I find are stupid expensive. Even the beat to death ones are still big money. I saw Harbor Freight has one, so I put it on my Christmas list a couple years ago. It serves it purpose. Harbor Freight gets a bad name sometimes. but unless I'm using it for my 9 to 5 job, their tools work for me. Most of my tools are Craftsman, Snapon, or Mac, but this Harbor freight Anvil does what I ask of it. I'll still look for that deal on an old Anvil though. You got a good one.
I didn't realize that anvils are so sought after and expensive. I have a small one. I'd guess 50 lb? Can't even remember where I got it. I know I didn't buy it. It's enough for whatever I do. But that's a big'n' you got there.
Around here they are highly sought after. At one time we had a guy from K.C. that would come thru this area buying them and another from Springfield MO. There used to be several around here that collected them but honestly don't know what happened to the guys or their collections. Due to their ages I would guess they've passed on and the families probably sold them to 1 of the out of town gents above as I'm sure they knew each other. I have to admit I bought this one $ 2.35 a pound. So I'm really happy about that.
He was guessing it weighted 111 pounds, I paid him 330.00. So if he had been correct, it would have been 3.00 a pound. I just rounded up the change due to its actual weight being 141 pounds, so it cost just over 2.34 a pound of actual weight. I think he was going by the "1 1 1" stamped into it which is actually stone weight not pound weight. ...
I have three pieces of railroad track one is 12 inches long the other is about 14 inches long The are good because the are easy to handle. the third one is about 3/4 of an inch wide . not useful but neat to show off
Just a heads up to all of you that are hooked on old vintage anvils, watch this incredible video, this is where all of the anvils are, good luck on trying to purchase one of them. Thanks from Dennis.
That was a cool video!!!!!.... I was born in Arpino which is beautiful town with lots of 1000 year old buildings.. Do a Google search on it to check it out....
I've seen that video before, thought it would be cool to be able to show up with a trailer, a pocket of cash and have a guy meet you there with a 1 limit anvil buy. It's one of those places I could walk around for awhile and just look at each and everyone of them. Like a junk yard !
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