Will Vick

Forged spikes, on a textured base with the rough torch cut left mostly alone. Spikes are plug welded on from the bottom. I've done a few welded sculptures with the same spike theme, it was good to hammer one out for a change.

I'll either weld it up or do something more abstract and maybe go for a few more splits. All out of acetylene right now, so leaning towards just having some fun with it. I'll definitely have to check and see if I have any rr bolts kicking around, the other problem I had with the ball peen is it's a little short to get into the deeper areas well. Might have to ask a gas supplier for an old tank next time I swing by as well.

I started a couple cauldrons/cooking pots, the smaller one ended up a nice enough shape, just need to put a handle on it. The larger one didn't go so well, it went sorta Pringle shaped, and I had a hard time getting it to even out. After that I worked it to thin and split the bottom, oops. I also had a hard time bringing the edges in to get a more closed shape. I was using a ball peen and a piece of heavy wall pipe with the edge rounded over, about 2.5" or 3" diameter, to sink them. I started in the center and slowly spiraled my way out, making a little ridge and pushing that ridge to the outside edge. I was working cold, and relaxing the metal with a torch in between passes. The smaller one was also a little thinner, about 1/16", and the bigger one was maybe 11ga. The smaller one went a lot smoother, no Pringle shape, didn't feel like I had to go over the same areas as much. Would a larger tool help with making larger dished shapes? How do you prevent your work from getting that Pringle shape, and if you do get it, how do you get rid of it? Working around the edge seemed to help, but trying to stretch areas within the workpiece didn't seem to do much for me. The next attempt on the larger size I will be doing hot instead of cold, it was rainy today and I didn't feel like catching any 120v from my blower controller again so I tried getting a way with doing it cold. Any other advice for more drastic dishing? I wanted to get the rim to be a smaller diameter than the belly on the larger one, but didn't get a chance before I split it.

Best piece of advice ive had in a while

One of the reasons i want to keep it horizontal is (like Frosty said) to have 2 long edges to put different radii on, from almost sharp to very round. I'm a welder by trade, so getting scrap is as easy as setting it aside at work, and 100% penetration welds aren't an issue. Another reason is i figure i can add a lot more mass under a longer face than i can under a 4 inch square face, possibly even doubling the weight of the anvil while keeping the mass under the longer face. What I'm looking to do is make my "dream anvil" so i still have a fair bit of planning left. Here's a pic of a stake anvil i made a couple months back, cuz i can't get the pic of the horn to upload Ps, thanks for all the replies, as pokey as I am about keeping this one horizontal, if i ever make another I'll know which way to orient it.

I have another section of 4 inch square to make a waist with, it performs as well as the other anvil in the pic so id rather keep it horizontal. I definitely like your idea for the tubing, i dont have any easy way to put a hardy hole on the anvil

I'm doing some upgrading on my anvil, its a piece of 4 inch square 4140 kelly bar from a rathole rig, weight is about 80 pounds. Currently the waist is square tubing and the foot is a round plate. I'm going to be adding a solid waist, a heavier base (inch or inch and a half thick) and an upsetting block. I've also been building a round horn, but i dont know if i want to add another 8 or 10 inches to the length without a much heavier waist than i currently have planned. Im looking for opinions on what features are worth adding, and if adding the horn as a side horn would be useful.