Harry L

Gents, I initially tried to avoid answering this question, because the only purpose of this post is to ask whether someone here can help making an anvil for me. But it seems some replies start to become judgmental. Many of you nicely give suggestions without really knowing what I really want to do and who I am. Now I feel I am obliged to clarify this. 1. My work is not equal to sword making. It is actually quite different from sword making; 2. Because the material I am planning to work with is harder than hot steel, and because some hammers' faces are pre-patterned, I need a hardened hammer; 3. Because I do not want a missing blow to dent my anvil, I need the anvil harder than my hammer; 4. As to the "perfect your skill" thing, thank you for your suggestion. But regardless of how perfect my skill is, I cannot guarantee that I will never miss a single blow in my life. 5. I actually can live with a softer anvil - which I currently have. However, the sole purpose of this post is to upgrade my equipment, not seeking advice to perfect my skill .

Yes. I have to keep my hammers hard

Thanks Frosty and ThomasPowers for the suggestion. I agree with your points completely. But for now, based on my need, I am looking for a good quality anvil that is harder than my hammers, which I cannot make them soft.

I need an anvil that will not ding when I miss a blow. So the anvil preferably should be harder than my hammer. I am not sure what a Japanese tsuba master used.

I have a bunch of chisels and tools to make other repousse tools. But don't have a good anvil. I agree that I probably do not need a forged anvil. If someone can heat treat W1 or O1, that would be perfect as well. I can buy a block and hire him to heat treat it for me.

Tsuba (Japanese sword guard) as well as other artistic metal plates using similar techniques. @ThomasPowers Tsuba (Japanese sword guard) as well as other artistic metal plates using similar techniques. @the iron dwarf, sorry I did not receive a chat message from you so I am not sure what did you ask. I hope the above answers your question as well.

I live in Washington DC area . But thanks Thomas for the nice offer! And as to annealing, I do not anneal the work piece. It is preferable that the work piece remain hardened.

I will use the hammer to thin down mild steel blank (and copper blank) and create certain hammer pattern thereon. Because the mild steel sheet is normally 3+" width, a 4x4 surface anvil would be ideal.

Thanks for all replies. I will use the anvil to cold hammer mild steal. Old World Anvil said their 4x4x4 anvil has surface hardness in mid 40s Rockwell C. Will that be sufficient? I am worried that if I miss blow, I will ding the surface pretty badly.

I am looking for an anvil with 4x4 surface area, hardness >55 Rockwell C. If you are capable to forge one, please contact me. Thank you.

Donnie, where did you get your anvil? I am looking for a similar one, which preferably has 55 Rockwell C surface hardness.