My new anvil, and the stand I built today.  It's a 112lb calvery from NC Tools.  Still need to make a stand for my gas forge soon.  Sorry for the blurry pictures, taken with my camera phone.

 

The small one is a159 pound trenton, I dont know what the big one weighs or is.

I think i got it this time

I'm sorry, cannot adjust size. I'm on a Kindle! My 371# early Peter Wright on a new ~400# white oak stump I recently got from a friend. Its a big stump but I'm able to get close to the anvil. Been working a lot lately too so no time at the forge. Huge bummer. In the process of making good spikes to hold this puppy down.

nice looking stump danial!!!   hows that anvil holding up for you ??? wore it out yet ???

My "Anvil Shaped Object" (Digging Bar)

 

My 110# Fisher made in 1897. Also, forge made from a BBQ grill. Honestly I think they can be made from almost anything lol.

Guessing your digging bar anvil gets lower and lower as you use it. May be some trouble when it gets too bedding into the ground.

If you can find a tree stump on the side of the road and pick up a sledge hammer head (useful later anyways) you would have something a bit more solid, think someone already mentioned this idea

Thanks for the advice Toolish. But i was only using the digging Bar temporarily, untill I was able to get something better. Which I did today ^^.
 
1941 Fisher, 159# for $150.
 

Just got my 330# Refflinghaus #58 + stand in from Dick Nietfeld.  I love it!  Dick is a great guy to buy an anvil from.

 

Shifty-eyed blacksmith   in pic above

 

 

Carry on

Well I cant show just one of my anvils... Here's what I have.

Hey guys I am new to the Blacksmithing community, and I was wondering where I could buy a good starters Anvil, a 100-250lb anvil would be good, any ideas?

After digging around I found a bunch, But they are seriously expensive, I am young and haven't yet got a reliable source of income( My Parents are rarely reliable with pocket money...).

So as I said I was looking around and found anvils that weighed much less, can you guys give me any advice on starting supplies, like brands and prices etc.

Thanks again,

Jakob

Hi Aceman, this was my starter anvil which I got for free by contacting a local railyard and asking them for a 2-3' section of track (they also gave me a bucketful of spikes).  It didn't take long of forging and selling what I'd made to buy a 190# Peter Wright.  Another option would be to visit a scrapyard (if you can find one that still sells to the public) and find a suitable chunk of steel.

Ok, I live in Australia, and there are a bunch of railroads in the blue mountains where I live, so I will ask around and see what I can do about that. 

Thanks DCRAVEN for the advice, and do you have any good Ideas as to what I should forge first, as a kind of practice forge.

And how can I tell what a metal is, eg Iron from Steel, weak from strong... Sorry about all the questions but I am a young wannabe Blacksmith and I would like to know how to distinguish that kind of stuff.

Again Thanks!!!

Jakob

Ok, I live in Australia, and there are a bunch of railroads in the blue mountains where I live, so I will ask around and see what I can do about that. 

Thanks DCRAVEN for the advice, and do you have any good Ideas as to what I should forge first, as a kind of practice forge.

And how can I tell what a metal is, eg Iron from Steel, weak from strong... Sorry about all the questions but I am a young wannabe Blacksmith and I would like to know how to distinguish that kind of stuff.

Again Thanks!!!

Jakob

 

I suggest you invest hours reading through this website, lots of good info here

 

Josh

Here's my main anvil.

My anvils ....

 

An AV (Aços Villares - Villares Steels) of 70Kg and your stand (in use) ...

 

 

An August Refflinghaus of 214kg, which is not in use, as well as too large for my shop and it is very noisy.

 

Ok, I live in Australia, and there are a bunch of railroads in the blue mountains where I live, so I will ask around and see what I can do about that. 

Thanks DCRAVEN for the advice, and do you have any good Ideas as to what I should forge first, as a kind of practice forge.

And how can I tell what a metal is, eg Iron from Steel, weak from strong... Sorry about all the questions but I am a young wannabe Blacksmith and I would like to know how to distinguish that kind of stuff.

Again Thanks!!!

Jakob

As Josh said above, I'd spend a lot of time looking thru this website to get ideas.  There's also purgatory ironworks and anvilfire.  The Complete Modern Blacksmith by Alexander Weygers is a good resource to have and will give you a lot of ideas and projects, as well as types of metals to use.

 

You'll probably be able to get lots of railroad spikes if you are polite and ask nicely.  Search Etsy for railroad spike bottle openers and you'll get a ton of hits.  Openers were my first projects and all but the first ones that I choose to keep sold.  Etsy is another good resource for ideas.

Thank You Guys so much, You answered Pretty much everything!!!

I am going to spend a lot more time on this site now.

Thanks Again!

Jakob.

My handmedown anvil, it came from my fathers ranch, that got it in the 50s from the town blacksmith, I'm thinking early 1900s or late 1800s.  And my crappy first attempt at a knife from leaf spring.  The base is a mud tire filled 75% with rock, a plastic feed drum placed on that, and the drum filled with a mix of sandstone, limestone, sandy loam and topped of with pea gravel and a board for a flat area.  Its odd and its mine so I love it.

Finally I got something close to an anvil... it has around 22 kg and I was told it's an 'old' farrier anvil. The table (tempered tool steel) has 20x13 cm. No hardie-hole, just the pritchel-hole, and the horn has a flat end.

Anyone have seen one of these before?

 

 

Attached is a picture of my first and current anvil.  It is a 70 pound Fisher with the date 1903 embossed on it along with the Fisher name.   I paid $40.00 for it and since I am new to Blacksmithing, this seems to be fine for the moment.  Eventually I would like to get a larger anvil, but let's see how I progress with my skills.

 

The log base is a 26" long x 16" wide piece of oak that the local Nursery was kind enough to cut to the length that I wanted.  Would have liked to be have seen it cut a little more square, but seeing the owner handle that chain saw, I am not too sure how much more square it could be.  I built a jig for my router to machine a base into the log for my anvil to sit in so that is was level to the floor of my shop.     Stained the log and added 8 coats of polyurethane.

 

If I had to do the base over, I would have gotten (2) garbage cans and filled one with stain and the other with polyurethane.   This time I only stained and coated the top of the base, but every time I move this set-up, pieces of bark come off.  I think if the whole thing was stained and coated, this would stop a lot of this from happening.

 

I am currently designing a wheel assembly(s) that would mount on the log and be able to raise the log off the floor to more easily move it around my shop.  

 

   

Here is one of mine as previously posted. It's 90kg and i made it myself

 

http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36966-home-made-anvil/

 

http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36972-home-made-anvil/