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Brazeal Anvil Rising * 4" Plate Anvil (with pics)


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So after seeing Brian Brazeal's anvils I decided to set out on my own and try making something equivalent for my bladesmithing needs.

Weight: ~240lb (With anvil stand ~377lb)
Anvil (plate) Thickness: 4"
Anvil (plate) Length: 13.25"
Anvil (plate) Height: 16.25
Thickness of the stands bed: 2"
Legs: 2.5" sq x .025" wall sq tubing
Legs: 20dgs from vertical, 25dgs apart in back.
Anvil stand walls: 1/2" x 13.25" with Two 6.5" x 1/2-13NC Grade 8 Bolts.
Four 3/8x16NC Grade 8 bolts to immobilize anvil from it's sides.
Three 1/2x20NF Grade 8 bolts in the legs for filling hollow legs and cross members with sand (for deadening ring).

Parting Bolt: 3" x 1/2-20NF Grade 8 bolt underneath anvil stand bed breaks anvil from calk/adhesive bond if separation is needed.
Welds: Stand is pre-heated and multi-pass welds are used on every joint. Steel gussets brace cross-members.
Face: Hardfaced with S-7 Drill Rod from MSC (MSC #06095061)
Face Height: (32.50) from ground


When seeing the Brazeal brothers make hard working anvils out of pieces of mild plate steel I just couldn't resist making one for myself. I should place an immediate caveat before continuing; this is not (at least how I completed the project) for someone brand new to welding or fabrication as this really was a lot of work. It is also isn't a faster way to necessarily scare up an anvil, nor is it necessarily cheaper depending on time+materials. But if you have the time, materials, and inclination this can make an impressive anvil and be a great learning experience.

I started out this project wanting a nice high-mass anvil with as large a face as I could get for bladesmithing.

The first thing I did was order the 4" thick piece of plate x 13.25" wide and 16.25" tall. At about 240lb it was a beast. It set me back about $380 delivered. Took a while just to dress it and clean off mill scale. Then I started working on the stand which is a 2" piece of plate a little bigger then the dimensions of the anvil footprint. This anvil is top heavy as it so I definitely was glad to weld the legs to the sides and not underneath it. Seemed to give me a little more stability. Steel gussets helped strengthen the connections around the legs. I also included a prying bolt in the bed of the stand just in case I ever need to break the caulking bond.

Drilling the two 5" through holes was a chore, but with a sharp bit I just cut and cut through all that mass. There are also two bolts on each side of the anvil putting pressure on the anvil and helping secure the anvil and stand that much more. I made holes in the legs so sand would travel though all the cross members and then slowly filled and shook the sand in there.

As much work as the stand was the hardfacing was also a great bit of work. Heating that large plate in order to lay down tons of S-7 Drill Rod by Tig was indeed a beast. The hardfacing is impressively hard Rockwell ~52. Trying to grind it down with the angle grinder was showing to be futile for getting an even surface so I quickly changed up to the belt sander with super course aluminum oxide (blue colored) belts and after a few hours of all that I got it quite level.

All of this only takes moments to retell but the work took more then a month getting each thing together step by step. I have yet to test it as i'm busy welding up hardy tools right now. Soon i'll be able to tell you more about it's feel but I can tell you from a little messing around with it that it does have a ring but not one that is horrific. It's definitely tolerable to me, and I have a low tolerance for obnoxious ring. The caulking and sand filled legs I'm sure help.

Even though this was way more work and nearly the same cost as just buying a 240lb anvil, there are some benefits to this style. First, at least with the thickness I used, there is quite a large amount of mass right under the hammer at any point, more then most anvils as there is no heel or horn here. Even my Nimba, "Gladiator" is only 13.25" tall and this is 16.25" tall so it is an impressively large column of steel. The hardfacing is definitely a nice addition but not entirely necessary. Take note that one can also cut the different angles in the face that Brian did for added versatility.

Some things that might not be obvious. Those tabs with the holes in the stand allowed me to raise and lower the stand with my chain hoist. Also the horizontal tabs that are about 25% of the way up from the bottom I welded on because I realized that I need something to hit on should the anvil get stuck in the stand. I actually welded some hard facing on those tabs so that if the anvil were to get really stuck in there I can really pound on those tabs and kick the stand down off the bottom of the anvil. Also you may notice that there are two bolts on the left and right side of the anvil up near the top. Those are grade 8 bolts in holes that I drilled and tapped. This way I can put a chain across that area and hoist the whole thing into the area rather easy. When not hoisting it I just unscrew them and place them in the two holes in the stand for storage. The anvil was certainly a chore getting it to the backyard on a handtruck. I think I mildly sprained my wrist, but the satisfaction was worth it! :)

This was a very fun proof of concept project and it does demonstrate that a piece of plate can make an excellent quality anvil if your willing to put the sweat into mounting it. That said it took a lot of cutting, heating, welding, and drilling to make the version that I made.

Now onto the pictures!

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Edited by Avadon
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Thanks Welder.. here are some better photos.. one is the caulking before I set the plate into the stand. You can see the tabs on the sides a little better. The prying bolt is hidden under all that caulk.

The other photos you can see the size of the hardfaced anvil face.

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Very nice!!!
I've always liked there design... So functional!
Are you going to incorporate some of the cut outs or is this a long skinny for blades?
True Beef- Just like the Gladiator...


Nah just a flat top for the blades. I'm sure there is a way though to cut those shapes and then hardface over them if your a wiz with a welder and grinder, or you could skip the hard facing altogether.

The one thing that is really nice about this design is that if you do start putting some bad dents in it over time you can just weld them all in and not have to freak out about engaging in 'true anvil repair'. Thus there are a lot of things you can "try out" without worrying so much about damaging a high quality anvil or freaking out that your hammer control isn't as good as you thought it was. ;P

One could also totally forgo all the work of metal stand fabrication and just weld some heavy angle iron onto the bottom of some 2-4" plate and lag screw it into a stump. I'm just a metal stand kind of guy and I abhor anything wood unless it's on fire ;-)
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I love it!! why not put shapes on it like brian?


One certainly could. I wanted this more for bladesmithing so I I like the flatness of it. One thing that is nice is you have so much room on an anvil like this that you could easily contour in several different edge radius' without taking much away from the flat top.

I didn't want to add a heal or horn, wasn't even sure about welding something that thick on, but I think Brian did weld a horn onto his or maybe forge welded it on. Really the sky is the limit, you could even drill holes in it for bending, upsetting, or whatever. I even thought about welding on an attachment for a 1" hardy hole but then figured i'd just make a separate hardy holder on something else.

One thing about this project....I now have a serious respect and awe for S-7 Tool Steel. :D
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Well one thing is for certain it will out live you lol

seems like the way to go for blades for sure nice and narrow so you dont have to shift side to side on the anvil

I take it you stick/tig welded everything

looking at it makes me think it should be attached to a press brake or a powerhammer because the way its mounted makes it look like a die

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Funny you should say that Bryce, that it looks like dies, because that is what I was trying to get across when I made my first anvil like that.

I was trying to explain to people what I was doing on my regular anvil with my hand hammer. You use different dies to do what you choose to do. Your hammer is your top die, and the anvil is your bottom die. There are three main dies that you choose from to displace the metal: Flat dies, Fullering dies, and Butcher or Side Set. With those three dies you can make various combinations to move the metal how you want. Ed started striking with me so I could show the dies with individual top tools instead of me creating the dies with my hand hammer with the way I tilted it or oriented it with my anvil.

Nice job on your anvil and stand, Avadon!

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  • 2 months later...

****UPDATE**** 11/04/2009

I got to use it for about 4 hours and well i'm really quite impressed with the design. It's ~377#'s so it doesn't move a bit. The way the design is that Brian made it makes it really one piece, and not an anvil on a stand. The fact that there are through bolts through the anvil holding it as well as bolts on the ends makes it one giant mass.

It does not have a ring, so if your looking for that I wouldn't suggest this style. But it also doesn't have a thwack that you might get off of just working on some railroad rail. It actually just has a really good deep low sound. I can tell you though that TIG welding the S-7 shock resistant rod onto the top of the steel really is a nice touch. Couple times I missed with a 5lb sledge today and no damage at all. Plus it's not the worlds most expensive finish so you can always take a sander/grinder to the top and your not messing up an expensive name brand anvil. Like wise you can always weld in the dings if if they get bad over time.

Really happy I built this anvil and I think my neighbors are probably impressed that it's fairly quiet. Glad I went with the special order 4" plate though. That really gives some mass underneath. of course there is also about 50lb of sand in the legs or so which helps soak up some ring and vibration.

I think you can't go wrong building one of these. Great starter anvil. I think mine was about 400-500$ though out the door. Of course you could drastically cheapen that perhaps even by half by going with 2" or 3" plate and not hard facing the top.

I'll have to get a video soon of it for youtubers. :D

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Drawing out some heavy billets recently I realized just how nice some of those fullers and special shapes would come in handy but i'm glad to have made my first anvil with a nice large flat working surface. So what does this mean? Well it means another Brazeal anvil will most likely be in my future. This time though I think i'll make a longer 2" or 3" and cut several different shapes for working over. I don't know if I'll hard face them but I certainly could. This design is really impressive and the fact that you can turn out one really heavy anvil that's totally solid and has a hard face and doesn't have a deafening ring or really any ring at all and is cheap is really worth the small cost of investment in the steel.

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  • 1 year later...

I'll have to post some pics... I saw this thread months ago and my brother in law and I just made a small one of these 2" wide, 6" tall and 14" across. I know I could have had more mass under the hammer if I had stood it up on end, but it suits my needs just fine.

I just really enjoy these home made anvil ideas.

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I know this is an old thread, but its what gave me the idea to build this anvil so I figured I'd post a pic.. Its narrow, not super tall, but it'll do

2" Thick
6" Tall
14" Wide
Base is hard treated 4x6 timbers (it measures 10 1/2" wide x 6" thick
held on there with 2" angle welded and bolted.

The holes you see on top there go clean through to the bottom :D

brazanvil.jpg

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  • 8 months later...

Unforgivin did you drill those through holes on the top. WOW If you did because that is quite a ways. I drilled through my anvil BY HAND with my portercable 1/2" drill. A testament to how well you can drill if you know how to sharpen a 1/2" drill bit well on a bench grinder. But even still it was a huge chore. Good looking setup friend.

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I did not, the holes where there when I acquired the steel. We're currently talking about converting this little anvil to 2 small striking anvils since we've acquired some other anvils that better suit our needs since the creation of this and it is a bit on the small side at 66lbs. The rebound is mediocre at best (40% or so).

It served its purpose for me, it served it well, and by converting it I hope that it will continue to do so.

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  • 5 months later...

The really great thing about this design (especially if you have a welder) is when you ding the anvil into really bad shape you can just re-weld in all the divets with S-7 and sand it back to perfection. No more crying over cracks or hammer marks. I wouldn't dream of welding on my gladiator or welding on other various expensive anvils. But something like this is really a great way to experiment with no worries about damaging the anvil. Go chisel happy or practice with the sledge. No big deal if you miss. lol Just weld it in the next day and sand it back to flush.

Oh also someone asked above.. .. no I don't mig or stick.. I tig weld. 200Amps. For welding anvils something more powerful than that would be even better. However if you preheat the really thick parts and bring everything up to temp than you can get away with less amps.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 1 month later...

I know this is an old thread, but its what gave me the idea to build this anvil so I figured I'd post a pic.. Its narrow, not super tall, but it'll do

2" Thick
6" Tall
14" Wide
Base is hard treated 4x6 timbers (it measures 10 1/2" wide x 6" thick
held on there with 2" angle welded and bolted.

The holes you see on top there go clean through to the bottom
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