Steve re-started producing these anvils again lastt year (2022) after the business that he sold the anvil production to dropped the anvil production. All of these anvils are made with Steves signature medieval church window style. Congratulations and it should serve you well. Very nice two-horn anvils available in 3 weights: 460 lbs. So I would say that they don't take as kindly to misuse as some of the other anvils, and aren't the absolute 'Best' anvil out there, but they are still quite good. My anvil is one of those examples, not treated too kindly by a previous owner somewhere along the line. I have noticed however, that under abuse (lots of cold working, etc), they do tend to run into some issues like edge chipping, some face delamination, and such. If they are taken care of and not abused, they will perform great. They don't really ring (can be beneficial in some cases), but have good rebound. Most anvils with cast iron bodies aren't that great (Vulcan for example, or the modern 'Chineese ASO'), however Fisher Norris are pretty good anvils. Other info I can tell you is that the body is cast iron, with a steel face that has been thermite welded on. The 7 on the foot will designate the weight, Fisher Norris being American, means you multiply this by ten, so 70 lbs. Finally stumbled upon a picture of an anvil with Fisher Norris markings present that looked almost identical to mine (yours has most of the same shape/style/features as mine). Mine is absent of all markings besides the weight marking, and it took me awhile to find out what it was. Please contact me, and I can give you an exact description of the anvil's dimensions.I don't have a 'history' of the Fisher Norris anvils, but I own one. If you have any questions on this please contact me and I can go over the details and the specifics on the anvil you are buying. When the Fisher factory closed, a few employees went to Crossley to continue the anvil production. The anvils Crossley made were made by the same employees who made them at Fisher. There are a small percentage of my latest shipment of 260# Classic anvils that will require some casting clean up. Wire wheel off the paint on the weight mark, the date, and the emblem area(if there is one) and post some new photos. The vast majority of the anvils require very little work. One of the reasons the anvils I sell are such a high quality value is that I leave it to the customer to dress the anvil (radius the edges, chamfer the hardy hole if desired and do a small amount of cleanup that is associated with a casting of any kind). You will have some clean up work to do in order to make the hardy hole one uniform size in some of the 260# anvils in my latest batch, to meet off the shelf tooling requirements. Anvils similarly need some dressing as well. Usually a new hammer has to have the edges radiused and the peen needs to be ground to blunt the sharp edges on it. This is similar to dressing a new hammer. The face has a little sway but the rebound is excellent. Here you can make out the back half of the lion. The maker mark is about 50, and reads John Brooks, Stourbridge, with the logo of a lion above it. Most new anvils require some degree of dressing and clean up by the first owner of the anvil. Some more pics of an early forged John Brooks anvil, approx 54 lbs. Those of us who have only experienced used anvils, assume that a good, clean used anvil arrived in it's present condition when first delivered to the first owner. To put this in perspective, most new anvils require some degree of dressing by the first owner. If buy off the shelf steel and weld you hardy tools, this will impact you. Regardless, it looks in decent shape, and if the price is right Id jump on it. If you forge your hardy tools from old truck or car axles this should not have any impact on your tooling. The weight mark should be on the other foot, and should only be two digits. These are cast steel anvils and there is some degree of variation in the 260 lb Classic anvil's hardy size. Dimensions of hardy holes in some of the 260 # anvils may vary by up to 1/8'.

Fisher anvil weight markings