[TheForge] Re: peter wright 3 2 9

[Mike Spencer]

I'm not up on current prices but:

> I've got a 326# PW and a 147# PW & I find myself going to the 147
> much more often than the big anvil mainly because of the size of the
> end of the horn.

I have a 305# PW and use it all the time.  But I also have a stake
anvil in a stump nearby, mounted with the working face about sternum
level for light work.  Anything that needs a small horn or heel I do
on it.  I'd hate to pass up a 400# PW if I had the cash on hand but
$700 - $800 that Mike Linn suggests is a bit steep for my pocketbook.
At that price, I'd hope for a 250# - 300# alternative for half as
much. 


A couple of times I went to spend a few weeks at Cecil Parnell's shop
to make anchors and some other fishing gear for him.  He was about
5'4" (and equally wide :-) and had a big double-horn anvil -- ca. 450#
-- mounted very low, barely above my knees.  It was great for sledging
the anchor parts but way too low for me to use for normal hammering
and the horns were too big for small work.  But!  He had a heavy,
thick, fairly short stake anvil that fit very solidly in the hardy
hole.  By jiggering his anvil's height just a bit, we could sledge on
the face of the big anvil but I could still do gaffs and small work
saticfactorily on the stake anvil, which came at an okay height for
me.  It was a pretty good solution when the only anvil available was
too big (and too low) for ordinary forging.

And dang!  When he retired and sold out, he pulled that anvil out of
the auction because he had promised it to a long-time crony.  (I was
just a Johnny-come-lately crony. :-)

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada 
                                 
mspencer@tallships.ca            
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/