Hi everyone! I just started blacksmithing and I am looking for a anvil somewhere in Indiana.

Finding an anvil has proved to be a really hard trick. Everyone keeps telling me to ask everyone you know and everyone you don't know to find one, as you'll never know where you will find one.

I'm currently using the edge of a Die (22" x 15" x 1.25" ~120lbs) plate and it's not doing the job very well.

No info on an anvil.  A few years ago a former co-worker was telling me the antique collectors have been buying them up.  My father was using a 18" section of railroad rail for an anvil.

Yeah, it's actually becoming a serious problem for blacksmiths to find good anvils. New anvils are outrageously expensive for professional grade ones (some as high as $10-$15 a pound). Pickers tend to buy them for pennies whenever they find them then turn around and sell them for stupid amounts of money as decorative items. Then other idiots buy and just let them sit there and rust, never even intending to ever swing a hammer at them.

I've run into it several times already. People trying to tell me that a 1930's (anvils aren't really considered antiques till they are 200+ years old) 150lb vulcan anvil is worth $900 because that is what they paid for it from some asshole that ripped them off. And of course they will never take less than they paid for it because it's a "collectible"

It's sad to me, a tool like that should be used instead of just sitting there rusting away.

I just looked on Craigslist.  There is an 80 lb Vulcan in North Judson and an 840 lb one in Dowagiac, MI.  840 pound????

Yeah, that 80# anvil is about $4.5 a pound which is extremely high for an anvil in that shape, and I most certainly couldn't even MOVE an 800 pound anvil.

As much as I love the idea of a Vulcan since they were made in Evansville, they generally suck. The steel is thin and you don't get a good bounce. There are good Vulcans but there are better out there. I have a brand new one but don't use it. It part of my Evansville made collection...

I agree with how people are buying them for decorative purposes.
But, as my uncle always says, something is worth what people are paying.
Just keep watching Craigslist. There's also a place in Illinois that has blacksmith stuff

http://www.grizzly.com/search?q=(Anvil)

Subscribe to auction zip and use the keyword search. One sold here a few weeks ago at an auction 200# went for $325

Good luck, they are pretty scarce.
Harbor use to carry a couple of different ones but have no longer listed them. Some stores may still have them in stock, call around.

just bought a 165lbs Rigid anvil on amazon with free delivery....

Sadly grizzly and harbor freight anvils are soft garbage not to be used in blacksmithing.

What!?!?!

Where?

Friendship flea market in Friendship, IN is coming up this weekend. Lotta blacksmithing there and you'd no doubt find one there as well as other equipment.

https://indianapolis.craigslist.org/tls/d/vintage-mh-165-lb-blacksmith/6245111550.html

amazon

I actually tried to buy that anvil, but the guy takes a LONG time to respond and then tried to up the price on me before I got there.