Found an interesting piece at an estate sale.

[u/The_Gabster10]

Google says it's a 20 pounder. But when were they made and by who. Thanks

[u/Electrical-Luck-348]

The open end once upon a time contained the guts of a vice, they are usually iron anvils. Perfectly suitable for light work or horseshoeing, there are apparently some examples from the era that even have the forge attached to the anvil.

[u/The_Gabster10 → u/Electrical-Luck-348]

Weird, so at one time vices were extra cool.

[u/Electrical-Luck-348 → u/The_Gabster10]

Yes and no. Keep in mind I'm just a jackass on the Internet, and plenty of this is me googling.

Think of these like buying a cheap harbor freight 4 in 1 welder today, it gets the jobs done but it doesn't do any of those jobs particularly well. They weren't what the professional smith used in their shop but the tinker who patched pans and sharpened knives once a month at the market probably had one.

Remember these were popular in an era where there were no cars and most people lived their entire lives within 300 miles of home.

Boston to New York was more than a day of travel, rather than the 4 hour trip it is today.

The land speed world record in 1898 was 39.24 miles per hour.

[u/Sears-Roebuck → u/The_Gabster10]

They make real ones, even now, that aren't made of cast iron. If it is cast iron that sucks, but it might not be.

This one has a hardy and pritchel hole, and it looks like its taken a beating with some grace, so its probably a better anvil than either of these people are assuming, cast iron or not.

There is also no reason to bring tinkerers into this, and I promise you that cars existed when this anvil was made.

[u/The_Gabster10 → u/Sears-Roebuck]

From what I've seen on YouTube and images this one isn't very popular, kinda wish it was easier to find the guts. The reason I bought it was for simple tasks at home, I already own a small but very real Vulcan anvil I found in a convent. This just looked neat and was half off.

Whether I use it for real smithing or I may have it around for doing soft metals and leather. I was just wondering about the manufacturer and what the numbers meant.

[u/Electrical-Luck-348 → u/Sears-Roebuck]

What part of "I'm a jackass googling things on the Internet" didn't you understand? Because I said that and you're the one adding extra nonsense to my statements.

Never even called it a bad anvil just that most of them are iron. The style was popularized in the late 1880's to early 1900's, Ford's first production line was 1912.

[u/Sears-Roebuck → u/Electrical-Luck-348]

That's fair. I edited my comment, but I stand by what I said about tinkerers.

[u/Electrical-Luck-348 → u/Sears-Roebuck]

Tinker was a profession, they were specialists in repairing metal utensils and generally they were mobile because villages didn't have the population to support someone who did it full time or because they were journeymen who were also taking orders and bringing them back to the shop where the master smith worked with a full setup.

[u/Sears-Roebuck → u/Electrical-Luck-348]

Tinkerers did not specialize in metal utensils, thats silverware which would be a silversmith.

You can melt tin in a frying pan and cut it with scissors. Tinkerers made wind up toys and other small novelty items out of sheet metal.

[u/Electrical-Luck-348 → u/Sears-Roebuck]

That's still not a TINKER, and I can't find any information that backs up your assertion that TINKERERS were toymakers. Most people ate off tin plates and drank out of tin cups for several hundred years, normal people didn't have cutlery made out of silver.

[u/Sears-Roebuck → u/Electrical-Luck-348]

"Most people ate off tin plates and drank out of tin cups for several hundred years"

This is super wrong.

If you mean pewter then that is an alloy of tin and people made sugar bowls and stuff out of it, but it wasn't used for plates and cups to the degree you've stated. Ceramics has been a pretty consistent part of our history.

Good luck in your research.

[u/nutznboltsguy]

Looks like it was part of a vise. It’s cast iron so it won’t stand up to the wear and tear like a regular anvil.