Anvils

[Sabre]

ok i am looking for an anvill in the 125 pound range.
where would i find one?

i live in b.c so i am totally doubtless that i will find 1

plz help!!

[FieryFurnaceForge]

The only thing I can think of is Ebay. If you take your time you might be able to get one for a good price.
Good luck!

The kidsmith,
Dave Custer

[Frosty]

You should cajole Thomas into teaching you his technique for acquiring anvils.

Keep your eyes open, put the word out, hit garage sales, flea markets, farm auctions, etc.

Till then most important of all, don't wait! Find some RR rail or other heavy steel or iron object, build a fire and start practicing.

I was an exploration driller for almost 20 years. We did soils investigations for bridges, foundations, etc. not oil patch or seismic drilling.

Anyway, I spent about 3/4 of that time somewhere in the bush and not having a talent for knocking off a half rack of beer after work every night I had to amuse myself other ways. Reading being the most used.

Still, when possible we always had a fire in camp so it was pretty natural for me to heat something and beat it into something else. We'd spend time wandering around collecting stuff, then depending on what we found we'd do things to it.

We melted untold aluminum cans and other various pieces of abandoned al.

Forging fire pokers, toasters and branding irons was a standard when we found steel. It was years before I even brought a pair of tongs along, finally I welded up a rail anvil and packed a pair of tongs. Till then though I used whatever was handy, often the casing jack if we were close enough to it. Sometimes a boulder was handy, sometimes something else.

The smallest field expedient anvil I used was a RR spike driven into a birch log. I flattened the head some by heating it in the fire before driving it into the log.

My best ever and one of those, (I'm still kicking myself for not bringing it home) anvil was a big axle I fished out of the Resurrection River. I don't know what it was out of but the shaft was close to 3" dia. the flange was a good 12" dia with 12 1" bolt holes around it. The center was domed up about an inch and reasonably flat for the center 3-4".

I buried it flange up in a sand bar we were camped on and used it as my camp anvil for a couple weeks. All that depth of steel under the hammer made for one really sweet anvil. I would've brought it home but got distracted by a pallet load of smithing tools I found for sale.

Anyway, my point is do NOT wait for the "right" tools before getting to work. I don't think you're going to fall into this pitfall, I hope not.

This is why we recommended, "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" by Alexander Weygers. Sure there are other, some better, books on how to learn smithing but there is NO better book to show you how to improvise the tools to BE a blacksmith.

Good hunting Dave.

Frosty

[Glenn]

Get in touch with Steveh. He may have a handle on some anvils. I know he has a couple of hammers (big hammers) looking for a good home.

[FieryFurnaceForge]

Originally Posted by Glenn

Get in touch with Steveh. He may have a handle on some anvils. I know he has a couple of hammers (big hammers) looking for a good home.

Do you mean hydraulic hammers?

The kidsmith,
Dave Custer

[Donnie]

If I somehow lost all my tools, anvil included. I'm sure before dark I would have some kind of hammer, and an anvil(sledge hammer head if nothing else). If your a smith, there are some things you just have to do. Where there is a WILL, there is a WAY.

[dablacksmith]

check with the canadian blacksmith association I know they had a gettogether in bc ...I know a few of the north west blacksmith association members are canadian. They are around it is always a matter of how much you are willing to pay...Good luck!

[steveh]

like i said earlier Sabre ive always got things kicking around get in touch steve@hanslpower.com

[gobinu]

Hey ,having just bought my first Anvil last year and not having a clue how to find it I did check out the Ontario artist blacksmith association web page and found nothing. Then I did a search on anvil and some of the local towns around here and low and behold, a world of classified ad web sites had listing for anvils. Your money may vary, but I'd suggest trying to find such a classified ad site in your neck of the woods. It has the advantage to ebay in that it's local so shipping is not a problem and you don't have to compete with thousands of people to get what you want. Maybe just one or two cheapskates.

[stevomiller]

When I have looked at online farm auctions, I see far more smithing equipment in the Canadian listings than I do down here in the states. What it ultimately sells for I do not know, but I have seen some beautiful anvils in these adds. My guess is they will be cheaper than what you would get from Ebay now a days.

And Frosty has steered you straight. When I wanted to start I went nuts trying to find the perfect this or that. That is just nuts ~ look at what third world smiths turn out daily with next to nothing and you should become both empowered and encouraged.

Best of luck finding what you want and need
Steve