Comparing my Jigsaw Puzzle Collection to my Dad’s Anvil Collection

Come on in welcome to my dad’s anvil collection, so now that we’re all vaccinated, i am finally home visiting my family and visiting the anvil collection. If you haven’t heard my dad has spent the last 20 years building one of the largest anvil collections in the world, along with a lot of other cool things. So he also wrote a book all about the history of fisher and norris anvils, which we will tell you more about at the end of the video, but it would make an amazing father’s day gift. So we’re going to have the link where you can get this right down in the description also, since i’m literally here see this anvil on the cover. That is, this exact anvil.

That’S the anvil, So in the past year i have really started building my vintage jigsaw: puzzle collection, but today, while i’m home, i thought we could compare my puzzle collection to my dad’s anvil collection. How does that sound sounds great? We’Re collectors at heart so first question how many anvils do you have? I believe there are around 620 individual pieces in here ranging from three pounds up to 1 000 pounds.

Meanwhile, in my puzzle, collection, i currently have, in my official collection of puzzles, i’m definitely keeping 206

So i think you win this round next question: what is the heaviest anvil in the collection? The heaviest one is actually right behind me at 1 000 pounds. It is a number 10 chain maker sample and then the second heaviest is the 800 pound one right. 800 pound london pattern that one is more typically um what you think of when you think of an anvil shape now when it comes to jigsaw, puzzles um. Luckily, i can just lift all of those on my own.

My heaviest puzzle is the 24 000 piece puzzle, which is about 25 pounds, so not even close next question: what is your favorite anvil? My favorite anvil is probably the anvil from about 1860, with the big, bold eagle on it. It’S one that i found i’ve never seen another. I have no idea if it was made as a one-off or if it was made for someone special. So i think my favorite puzzle would have to be the original thousand colors gradient puzzle where each piece is a different color, just because it’s the one that kind of introduced me to the new modern world of jigsaw puzzles beyond landscapes and cats.

Okay, this next question. I definitely think i will win what is your most colorful anvil, uh colorful? Well, i actually hate painted anvils. When i get an anvil of paint on it, i try to take the paint off and get them back to the organic iron color. Brownish i mean in terms of color.

Probably one of my favorite is the one right in front of us, which is a peter wright with the original factory green paint on it made around 1915. So that’s original paint. I might leave it, but very few. The animals have any color to them, yeah and i would say, even calling this um green paint. It’S a very dull, green army, green.

It’S a military, green, although you do have these patterns over here, which are red. So that’s a bit of color a bit of color, not much, but that was their traditional way of painting them patterns were almost always red. I don’t know why, but they were well. I don’t think i can even pick a most colorful puzzle, because everything i own is colorful. So next question: where are we?

Where do you keep your anvils? We are in the fisher norris factory museum, which the building was built 20 years ago to house the collection. When it was built, i had no idea what it would become. Now it’s actually just big enough. I might have to take other stuff out if i expand anymore, but it’s a private museum.

It has pretty much everything that i’ve collected the last 20 years in it, and everything in here was the basis for writing the book. Meanwhile, i don’t yet have an entire building just for my puzzles, but i do have a room that is being slowly converted from my craft room to my puzzle room. So you know the puzzles are taking over someday. Maybe i’ll have a space as big as this. For as many puzzles as i can fit in here, so i’m sure everybody’s wondering where do you get your anvils from the short answer is all the above.

It’S expand upon that ebay, garage sales, friends, people calling me up and say you want to buy an anvil trading random encounters at flea markets auctions everywhere i mean the answer is where you get them everywhere, there’s no real! True answer! You just got to be prepared to to bring home an involvement to bring them home. You have to have a way to move it. You have to have money to pay for it.

Luckily, since jigsaw puzzles are much lighter, they can always go through the mail. So i get mine either directly from the manufacturers, because what i collect is still being made the vintage ones pretty much all come from ebay or occasionally from viewers who have interesting, puzzles and reach out to me, and i’m like. Oh, it’s just like you with people sending you animals now, i’m getting puzzles, and the interesting thing is that many of these have come through the mail. You can ship up to 75 pounds in a flat rate box, although only a 30 pounder will fit. Ups.

Will ship up to 150 pounds? The easiest way, though, is if you can hold it yourself. So what is your white whale anvil, the anvil that you want, that you’ve never been able to get the one that i would like to have here, although i would never own it? Is the 1400 pound anvil made for the 1876 centennial is currently owned and exhibited in the new jersey state museum in trenton new jersey? I would love to take it out on a long-term loan.

However, i don’t think they will ever take it off exhibit, so that will probably never happen and just for context i’ll, throw in a clip of the 800 pound anvil that is here in this museum. Now, the one that we’re talking about is 1400 pounds, so even bigger than that in terms of size. It’S about five foot long and my answer to that are some puzzles that i have ebay alerts set up for, and i have not seen them show up like in the past year. It is the white and brown springbok solid, colored puzzles from the 60s. They seem to be really rare.

The red one is like rare, but it shows up i’ve never seen the white and brown ones for sale, so maybe someday okay. So now, let’s mix it up a little. I want you to tell me what is your favorite puzzle that you’ve seen me do and then i’ll say what my favorite anvil is hmm favorite puzzle. I think it’s. Your current series of the 24 000 piece puzzle myself, like thousands of other people, are waiting to see it all put together when you finally make one massive puzzle well only like a month or two to go and then i’ll get back to it.

That’D be great. Looking forward to it – and i think my favorite anvils would have to be the 20 pound anvils because they’re so cute and i can actually lift them they’re, so small. So, of course, we can’t go without mentioning the history of fisher and norris book, which my dad wrote last year. This was a real family project and, if you’ve been enjoying my recent videos that are very specific, deep dives into you know very specific puzzles, then you will love this book. There is more in here about anvils and the history of anvils and the history of the fisher and norris anvil company than you ever thought was possible to know, and it’s all compiled here for the first time all in one place it was a true family effort.

This book took 20 years of research and over two years of writing to get done without karen and katie and my wife sue. It would never have happened, true, family efforts, and it would make an amazing father’s day gift, even if you’re not really into anvils. It’S a true history book of american industrial history covers the people, the places, the products and even stuff that you didn’t even know you want to know to add to that. Fishtronor has made more anvils than any other company in the us, so there are many of them out there, and many of them that are 150 years old are still in use all the time they made a very good product. So let us know in the comments what you think of the anvil collection or let us know if you collect anything unusual or weird.

Your code word for the comments. If you’ve watched all the way to the end of this, video will be book, and thank you to my dad for being here on my channel. I thank you for all your work, so that’ll, be it from us and i’ll see you all in the next one. Bye, everyone