Tripnip14

Howdy everyone! Not a practical topic, more of a poetic one (although I'm sure y'all are up to the task). We all prefer certain anvil types for practical reasons, but do you have a preferred anvil in terms of aesthetics? Are there any features on any anvils (modern or old) that you think were intentionally used for artistic reason? I'll start it off: My favorite looking style of anvils are South German designs, specifically Holland Anvil's version and the Refflinghaus #58 275lbs (they're both easy to find pics of, I'll forgo photos to save on bandwidth). I love the smooth transitions between horns, and the Holland anvil especially has a sleek, almost shark like/ aggressive look to it from the side. Y'all's turn, go!

You can still find some old anvils on Army posts, usually hanging around the mechanics and metal fab guys. Half of the time they've unfortunately had the stew beat out of them. A lot of times they are indeed Trenton's, with a few Vulcans and no-names thrown in.

Thanks for the quick reply, didn't think it would be that fast! So do yall think I should just spend the little extra to get an electric blower, or stick with the hand crank and get coal. Is pure coke ok to forge weld with since you generally don't build as deep of a fire with it?

So I recently acquired a centaur coke forge with a hand crank blower, and have about 200 dollars to spend on a solid fuel. Should I buy coal, coke, or a mixture? I want to mainly work on small to medium sized pieces (axes, large knives, some artistic stuff), and I'll be forge welding. I know that coal is better at creating a "cave" as it turns into coke, but the coke will burn cleaner and I feel like it would be more efficient to go ahead and buy what I'm trying to turn the coal into, especially since they're the same price. Any suggestions?