Anvil...age old questions.

I've really been wanting to try some forging, been studying a couple DVDs I've bought, watched some demo's, etc. My main problem is I can't find a decent anvil anywhere around here. There are occasionally some smaller 70 pounders around, but they are almost always beat to death. I've seen a few Peter Wrights that looked like a sway back horse. There's a guy here locally that has a Hay Budden or Hay Buddy? that he says is 500 lbs, but he wants $3500 for it. I've been looking for quite a while and I've decided there just aren't very many anvils around here anymore. What do you guys suggest? I've got some RR track, but that seems so hokey to me. I was thinking about going to the scrap yard and trying to find a huge piece of shaft or something, but I really want an anvil instead. Where are you guys finding these things?

Finding used anvils can be a problem. You might take a look at Old World Anvils. They do carry some economy anvils, or at least they won't break the bank. They also carry a 4X4 stake anvil, if you can give up the idea of a horn and a hardy hole. That said, my favorite anvil is an 87 lb block of H13 that was a cut-off that I got from a distributor out of St. Louis that had it listed on Ebay. Just remember with anvils much over 100 lbs that you will have to arrange to have is shipped by common carrier and will need to be able to unload it yourself.

As far as the Hay Bunden anvil that you're looking at, depending on the condition, $6/lb is not that high of a price. Just remember that he may be willing to put it into the back of your pickup but from there on it's your problem. Whatever you get try to make sure that the weight is not concentrated in the horn, like a ferrier's anvil.

Doug

Anthony, make friends with your local scrap metal buyer, and ask them to keep an eye out. Also watch Craigslist, and they appear sometimes in estate sales as well as farm auctions. Good ones are hard to come by I know I searched a long time for one. I finally found a friend of a friend and drove about a 100 miles round trip to get the Hay Budden I found.

Well, I had actually talked to a local scrapyard last year. He didn't seem very interested in watching for them. He said other guys had asked him the same thing. I've been watching craigslist and ebay, but the ones that have been posted locally over the last year or two were either outrageously priced or in terrible shape. Plus, they mostly seem to be the smaller ones. I've got one that was my Grandpa's, I think its about a 70 pounder with no makers marks, but the whole top is hammered off of it. It's just a conversation piece now, but after handling it and using it a little, I think it is too light. I'll check out Old World, Doug, thanks.

I'd look for a chunk of solid steel post, 4" x 4" or whatever. I also went to the scrapyard a LONG time ago and found a chunk of a counterweight that came off a crane that worked pretty decent until I got a real anvil. It was about 150 lbs. and I got it for $10 or somewhere close to that.

How bout used fork lift tine/fork. Can also use the tapered distal end to make a butcher block (with a lil grinding).

I have seen a few rr track anvils w hardy hole and horn all built on to them. Is very space conscous. Lol
I have been looking also but probably not as hard as you have. Out here the few I found were between 2 and 600.00
Upon an updated search they are now up to 2k for a great condition known anvil.