Subject: What makes a good anvil?

From: [email-masked] (K.F.Kinsey)
Date: 10 Feb 1995 16:12:44 GMT

For ordinary pounding, it don't much matter. If you want an anvils for
serious forging then it does. Weight: the anvil wants to outweigh the
heaviest hammer you will use by a good bit. Otherwise the anvil will recoil
and take away a significant amount of your effectiveness. 100# is about the
lightest for light forging. If you have a helper with a sledge, you want
somewhat more. My shop anvil is about 250# and is noticibly solider than my
125# "portable". Avoid the jumbo  ones, since they were designed for very
heavy work and are often simply too big to be convenient. 

Old anvils were made with a wrought iron body with a 1/2" - 1" thick steel
top welded  (forge welded) on. This can be seen along the sides of the
anvil. Sometimes this weld was or has become defective. Tapping with a
light hammer all over the surface will usually detect this with a change in
the "ring". A bad (open) weld will give a deader sound. The ring of the
anvil can be a problem. I once had to work with an anvil that rang like a
damn bell. You could damp it some by stuffing rags in the bottom of the
hardie hole, but it was awful! However, you do want a certain amount of
ring. Some modern cast anvils sound dead and they are dead; they seem to
"soak up " the hammer energy.

The top and horn should be free from major nicks and the top should be
essentially flat. You can have them ground down, but you are reducing the
thickness of the steel wear surface, so you don't really want to do much.
Lots of edge chips will interfere bigtime with many forging actions and
indicates a poor temper, which can be dangerous from flying chips.

Farrier (shoeing) anvils are often narrower and have a special boss for
forming toe clips. For general forge work this tends to get in the way.

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From: [email-masked] (Rick Cook)
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 1995 01:18:52

>thickness of the steel wear surface, so you don't really want to do much.

Another alternative is to have the top and horn built up at a welding shop
before grinding.

--RC