Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Lester
You can make most anything chunk of steel work for an anvil. Even a block of granite. My main anvil is an 84 lb block of H13 that I got from a distributor in St. for $140 shipped to central Illinois. It put a cheap Mexican made steel anvil to shame when it came to forging knives. The problem with a horse shoeing anvil is the so much of the mass is in the horn where it's needed to shape the shoe and in the heal. As I said, they do beat a railroad track anvil. If you want a good light anvil to to Old World Anvils and look at their post anvil. What they have is 4X4X4 inches but they will make you one to any length and it may will end up cheaper than those light anvils.
Doug
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Agree with you Doug, having tried just about any and everything over the many years. Biggest thing is having a flat spot with most of the mass directly below your hammer blows and working steel while it is hot. Seen way too many get frustrated because they try to keep forging after they lose their "heat". Not only that but depending on the steel they can really wreck the anvil face hitting cold. Get a lot of argument on this from time to time from "experts" when I do a demo. I just pull out my little 50# forklift tine anvil and forge a 12" Bowie blade in front of them to kill that discussion. Almost every bit of the 50# of steel mass is directly below the hammer blows. Lots of the farrier's anvils are shaped/designed such that you are lucky to have 15 to 20 under your hammer, but still get the benefit of all the extra vibration = noise with one. They have their place and job of course, just not the best for knifemaking. Look at the old school mechanic's anvil, cutler's anvil, shipwight's anvil, etc. you will see they are thick waisted and most barely have a horn if one at all. All the mass is right under the work area. Just what works best.
Jim, big diff in what works best for knifemaking and what works best for farrier work and/or ornamental iron work when it comes to forges. High carbon steels for cutlery do not do well with direct flame contact. They need the heat but direct flame torch setups lend to hotspots and unfriendly over oxidation. They are also much harder to control heat wise. A well designed cutler's forge will allow better heat control and more even heat which is much better for thermal cycling steel correctly and safely (for the steel). Ornamental iron work and horseshoes are not all that much affected by the direct flame or oxidation and actually are easier to work with when heated much hotter than carbon steels. Just the way it is.