Anvil Serial Numbers
Greetings, According to my quick read of Anvils in America you have: A Columbus Forge and Iron made anvil. (Columbus, OH.) Probably with a cast iron base welded to a solid wrought upper works.
(weld at the waist.) Serial number 18199 would have been 1900. (1900 ran from 12001-20,000) Very good quality anvils.
Need help identifying this Trenton anvil. I would recommend you coat the front face of the front foot with soapstone or flour and look harder for a serial number.
Looks like yours is in pretty decent shape. There were Trenton anvils imported from Germany before 1890, but this isn't one of them. The feet details are wrong. So it's definitely a CF&I anvil. I would say you have scored well. Regards, Brian. I would have to agree, that it is not a Trenton (unless it is an early one).
I have a 1926 built 158# Trenton #193904, and you can see the hammer marks up and down the whole waist under the tail and the horn. Also the pocket on the underside is oval and not shaped to match the foot.
Early CF&I anvils were cast base, not sure if they continued that into the Trenton line. On mine the weight and serial are heavily stamped, but the Trenton marking is barely there, can only make out the `ento' part of the name. For those who don't know it, Columbus Forge & Iron was started by Sy and Carl Wright (descendants of anvil maker Peter Wright), They forge welded the Trenton Anvils under a Steam Hammer. If you look at the image on the front of Anvils in America, that is a painting by Nathan Green (painted in 1996), based on photographs of anvils being made at CF&I, the fellow in the center is Carl, and Sy is the fellow on the tongs. The history above is from a friend who knew Richard Postman.
Hay Budden Anvil Serial Numbers
Below was also related to me when I was looking for more info on my anvil back in 2007. `As an aside, Mr. Postman told me he had met someone who had worked for CF&I before they closed.
He noted the old metal sided building was hot as a furnace in summer and cold as a freezer in winter. He commented, apparently with pride, they had only one guy pass out due to the heat. Most of their workers were either direct or first generation Europeans and then mostly from Eastern Europe, such as Poland.' Kinda speaks about the type of immigrant workers we used to get plenty of in previous generations, and occasionally still get. Sorry to hear about your experiences with Iforgeiron. Some sections are more active than others, and replies depend on how many other topics are hot, moving yours down the list (same with any forum).
Trenton Anvil Serial Numbers A305588
I havn't tried to setup a new profile after the last upgrade, but when I did it was easy and straight forward. If a topic gets burried you may have to bump it (create a new message in it to bring it to the top of the list). When was the last time you tried to contact the moderators? Here is the current Contact us page: The General discussion page, of course is the most active, but the others tend to see daily activity, it all depends on what people are looking for info on and how many visit. Regards, Rich C.