knots

Sand is a good bearing media if contained. It will however shift if unevenly loaded. Even repeated hammer blows will, over a period of time, make the anvil shift. However on a blow by blow basis I can not detect any difference in the effect on my forging. I would guess that the mass of the anvil is the most important factor in the forging effectiveness over sand or on any other type of support. The only really compelling reason to use sand is if you have an anvil that rings, and the ringing bothers you, the sand box base will reduce the objectionable/ear damaging sound. My impaired hearing provides enough ringing noise without the added ring being introduced by the anvil. Don't really know about a metal stand. It is hard to beat a good ole wood stump. If you decide to use one I have a procedure that I use to machine the top and bottom very flat and parallel. Dan

Silver Hill Forge mentioned a Brooks that rings like a Bell. Mine did to until I set it in a sand box. Also I have been reading posts regarding anvil stumps and metal bases. There is an alternative. I originally mounted my 248 pound cast steel English anvil ( A Brooks I think) on a stump. It rang like a bell. After taking the usual measures to dampen the ring I remembered that I had recently visited a smith friend who had his anvil set in a sand box capped with plywood. His cast steel anvil had a nice solid sound without the ringing. Years ago I found a stainless steel vat 21" high x 18" OD, 1/4" wall thickness. At the time I did not have a use for it but at $30 bought it any way. 4 or 5 years later I bought my Brooks and it just happened that the anvil base fit inside the vat with about a quarter inch clearance all around. Thought I would give the sand box idea a try. I filled with sand, leveled the surface of the sand, laid two disks of plywood to the correct height, fit closely to the ID of the vat, and set the anvil in place. It has been there ever since. The results were good: Good solid and level base which and be raised or lowered by adding or removing sand. The ringing is now gone replaced by a healthier solid sound. Having the cylindrical container turned out to be a good thing. Over the period of a week or so of hard forging the anvil will begin to slightly list away from where I stand. The solution to this is to rotate the anvil 180 deg in the container, then rotate the container back 180 deg. With the cylindrical container this can be accomplished in seconds with out much effort. The sound dampening provided by the sand box anvil stand, in my opinion, offsets the inconvenience or rotating the anvil every now and then. I theorize that plain loamy dirt might work well and eliminate the minor listing. I love play in my sand box.