Can't find the info you seek, contact me directly or on this forum and I will get you the answer.īTW, Fisher made anvils from the early 1850's to 1979. If you want more information on FISHER anvils, look up my past posts. I'm an ageing civil war reenactor and thinking that this slightly post-war anvil would be suitable to use for a wartime impression in the future. I like this anvil and hope i'm just misunderstanding something and my concerns are unwarranted. I understand the tool steel face gives it a great working surface, but is it not more prone to cracking under heavy blows? Am I correct in assuming that the horn is cast iron, not tool steel? I wouldn't expect to be doing heaving blows on the horn, but wouldn't a cast iron horn be rather fragile? I keep reading about how cast iron anvils are bad, but no one seems to think it is an issue with these. I really appreciate your input guys. But I'm a little confused about the cast iron aspect. This was only possible in the later years due to advancements in metallurgy and manufacturing. If you were to find a Paragon or Soderfors anvil, you're buying a solid chunk of Cast Tool Steel. The wrought iron is a very durable material. Were you to buy a Trenton, Peter Wright, or Hay Budden, you're buying an anvil that has a wrought iron body and a tool steel face welded on. In the case of Fisher Norris anvils, the tool steel face plate covers the entire top, including the top of the horn. If folks then had known what a mint condition anvil was going for today. Break an anvil, go to the store and get another. Of course, back then the anvil was seen simply as another rather easily replaced tool. Up until this time all good anvils were forged from wrought iron and faced with tool steel that was forge welded to the body. They used a patent process that welded a tool steel plate onto a cast iron body in the mold when the anvil was cast. This happens across the spectrum, on anvils that have both wrought iron bodies and cast iron bodies. Fisher-Norris was the first large scale manufacturer of anvils in the U.S. You will see anvils that have the face plate broken off in places, but this is the result either of a manufacturing defect or serious abuse. Only the top surface saw any real 'abuse', so only the top surface needed to be the more expensive, but durable, quality steel. In olden days, anvils were made of lesser-quality metal for the majority of their body because the lesser quality of metal was easier to make, thus cheaper, and would stand up to the use it was under. The fisher anvil, however, is a chunk of cast iron with a tool steel plate welded onto the top. You will only be 30 miles away, all highway miles, on you way through NJ.ND, cast iron anvils like you can buy from Grizzly are just that - solid chunks of cast iron. If you end up with the anvil, and make the trip up to Mass. I am still trying to make sense of the system. Those numbers are batch numbers put on by the moldmakers. They mostly relate to a particular period of time of production.ĭid Fisher ever use the old weight system, or are these numbers a date/batch indicator?įisher never used the English weight system. I have noted two 400 lbers with lugs recently.ĭid Fisher have the Eagle's head looking Right or Left, and did they ever switch it?įisher used at least 6 different Eagles over time. When did Fisher start or stop casting bolt-holes into the feet of the anvil?įisher first put the lugs on anvils in 1892. And the numbers on the foot of the anvil, she thinks, are in the stone weight and would make it 320#.)Ĭhecking anvils in the museum would put that anvil's weight around 300 lbs. That would seem like a larger anvil, but what weight am I looking at? The owner says her hubbie told her it was 350#. The current owner doesn't know about anvils, and I'm relying on pictures to guess the size, weight and age.įrom what I'm told, the face is 5' wide and the O/A length is 29'. She's real dreamy, with a perfect horn and a face that shines real pretty. (I'm looking at a Fisher anvil that I'm trying to get.

Fisher anvil weight markings