About 10 years ago we decided to take a week long family vacation in Pennsylvania. On the way back home I decided to visit my grandfather’s place just to see it again. We spent the night in Wooster, Ohio where I was born on August 18^th, 1967. The following morning I got up and said goodbye to my wife since she wanted to sleep in and headed south of Wooster to Apple Creek. I thought I could find the old place and turned at the road I thought I needed to and a house was there where I thought it should be but it looked completely different. I drove on past and ended up in Kidron where I asked around and was directed back to the house where I thought it should be. I pulled in and looked around some and the only thing I recognized was the old dilapidated barn. I knocked on the door and out comes my uncle Andy who had inherited the place. He explained that they had added onto the old house and it now looked totally different. We talked for  awhile and I told him I was interested in seeing grandpa’s old shop and we eventually made our way out there. When we entered I was slightly shocked. There were cigarette butts all over the floor, most of the windows were broken, and the whole shop was in a general state of disrepair, grunge and dirt, and decay. We poked around for a while and I asked him if he was interested in selling any of grandpa’s tools and he replied that he thought those were worth quite a bit of money and he wasn’t selling any at this point. I noticed a nice anvil setting in one corner and told him if he ever wanted to sell any of it to let me know. We sat on a deck they had built and drank a cup of coffee then I was on my way. I thought about this visit occasionally but figured I would never see any of my grandfather’s tools again. About 10 years went by.

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          Summer 2009 about the end of June I went down to see my parents, about a ½ hour drive for me. I was pleasantly surprised to see my uncle Andy there. We sat and visited for some time and then he went into the bedroom. He came back out with something wrapped in newspaper and handed it to me, telling me he wanted me to have that. It was an old gouge my grandfather had used. I asked him why he was giving it to me, and he replied that they were having to sell the place and get rid of most of the stuff and move into town to an apartment. I didn’t ask, but he had gotten emphysema and spent some time in the hospital and I assumed they had to sell due to his health care costs. I asked if the anvil was still there and he replied that it was. I wondered how much he would have to have for it. He replied that when he saw those sell at auctions they go for around $100 to $150. I responded that I would gladly give him $150 for it if he would give me some time to get the money.

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          We live comfortably, but $150 for an unnecessary item is a lot of money to us. A lot of times we spend $150 for groceries but you can’t eat an anvil. I was kind of tossing my mind around wondering how I was going to get that money and decided to sell one of my planes. The trade was well worth it to me. I tried to sell a very nice plane locally at a tool meet and couldn’t find anyone with enough spare cash so I posted it on the WoodCentral classifieds. It sold within a day or so and after waiting to make sure the check cleared I made arrangements with my uncle to pick up the anvil.

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          I think it was the last Thursday in August 2009 I had a day off of work and headed for Ohio. I arrived at my grandfather’s old farm around 1:00 pm or so and woke my uncle from his nap and we sat on the deck and talked for a bit. After a while he asked if I was ready to load the anvil and we went out to the barn. The anvil was setting on an old stump with some nails pounded in and bent around to hold it in place. I asked my uncle what he was doing with the stump and he told me I could have it. He also gave me 3 tools that go into the hardy hole, one to cut metal and two different ones with a round groove in them that I assume are used to make metal round. He gave me an old hammer but it’s not really a blacksmith hammer to my knowledge but it’s hanging in the tool rack. My uncle Andy built the tool rack that is fastened at the top of the stump.

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          For some time I have been wanting to have a brass plaque made to let future generations know whose anvil it was. I tend to procrastinate about such things but actually got it done finally. The company I work for also owns the Blue Gate restaurant in Shipshewana, IN, which is kind of touristy, and they have a laser engraver in the basement. I drew the plaque on Autocad LT 2011 and sent the file to our engraver. I watched the engraver work as it made the plaque. It cost me $13.50 minus a 20% employee discount so final cost was a little over $11. Below you can see a picture of the plaque.

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(picture of plaque)

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          Below is a picture of the anvil and the stump it sets on.

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(picture of anvil with stump)

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And below, a closer view of the anvil. It is a Peter Wright anvil. The top is no longer flat (not sure if you can see this or not) but I have no intentions of trying to fix this in any way. My grandfather used it to repair buggies; the Amish church he went to did not allow rubber rims so the wheel rims were all steel and he would replace them when they wore out or broke. Blacksmithing interests me but I don’t think I will really get into it until maybe after I retire; I have enough stuff to do now. The anvil will get used occasional though; my dad wants to make some hooks and it will get used for misc. other stuff as well. Having an anvil around is handy, and this one will always bring back memories of the precious few days I spent with my grandfather.

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(close picture of anvil)

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