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I Forge Iron

Railroad Track Anvil


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Hello everyone,
I am in need of an anvil! I built my forge a couple weeks back, just bought a cross peen hammer, and cleaned out my shop completely. I am really excited about this new expirience, but I can't formally start until I have an anvil. I am not able to drop the $300+ on one, so is anyone else in possesion of an extra railroad track piece to help me start my journey? I would really appreciate your help!

Thanks again,
-Gavin

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There is a guy over in East Texas selling rail in short pieces ($20 a ft) He's got an ad on Craigslist,but if you don't find him...Drop me a PM and I'll try to link you to him (I haven't checked in a week or so & I'm assuming he still has it listed under railroad rail anvils)

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Keep your eyes open and when you least expect it, expect it. I lucked out on a cool anvil last week. Last Sunday, my wife came home and told me there was a rummage sale at a farm up the street. I saw a scrap pile out back and bought a 4 ft piece of railroad track for $10. I spent an extra 10 and got an old wagon wheel, some rebar, some cable, and various other pieces of scrap metal. I'll use that track at a friend's house since I have an anvil at home.

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Funny, I've owned about a dozen anvils over the years and only spent over $300 for one of them and that one was at 67 cents a pound. (The one I bought last year, a Peter Wright, with an excellent face was US$1.33 per pound and this is in an anvil poor area!)

May I suggest you stop looking for expensive anvils and start looking for ones being sold cheap?

Also think outside of the london pattern box: take a look at this one that ran them $25 http://www.marco-borromei.com/fork.html and MUCH superior to a chunk of rail!

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I suggest you put a "wanted" ad in craiglist for an anvil / piece of RR track. I did that, and someone gave me a piece of RR track for free. He also gave me some HC wire rope and a piece of leaf spring to get my started in bladesmithing. Of course, I did say I was 16, and that probably helped a bit, but you never know who will shoot you an email. Make sure to tell people your situation like that fact that you just don't want to drop down $300 on an anvil and you still want to get started in the hobby.

Zachary

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How to find the cheap anvils: Talk with *EVERYONE*. When a friend needed an anvil I started asking around and a retired rancher at church *gave* them a cast steel swedish anvil in mint condition!

I've found leads on anvils standing in line at the grocery store. I was talking about anvils at a meeting of a group I belong to, SCA, and had a fellow telling me he had a large one and wanted to trade *down*; so I traded a 125# PW + a screw and screwbox for a postvise and US$100 boot for a 400# Trenton---about 50 cents a pound.

Got a local feed store? Post a note asking about anvils.

You want anvils that folks are not actively trying to sell and make money off of. You want the ones that are hiding in garages, sheds, scrap piles that folks suddenly remember and think hey he'd give me some money for that old thing! And often this sort of anvil will have a lot less use on it than one coming from a place where they use anvils on a daily basis.

Finally if they want *you* to put a price on it. Start with US$1 a pound--- you can always go up! (And be ready to pay cash, cash on the barrel-head can lower a price substantially!)

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