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I Forge Iron

making an anvil


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You really can't melt and cast steel in a backyard foundry, you can do cast iron and put a steel plate on top, just want to use a piece of tool steel for the face.
How ever unless you plan on making a small anvil your going to need a cupola or a really big crucible furnace to be able to melt the amount of cast iron needed for a decent size anvil.

welder19

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There's plenty of 'things' around which will work as anvils. They won't be ideal anvils of course, but they will be better than what some smiths have successfully used in the past 4000-odd known years of ironworking. They will certainly get you by until you decide whether you want to stick with the ironbashing thing, and you save enough for and/or find a 'better' anvil.

A few ideas for 'improvised' anvils: large sledgehammer heads, heavy pieces of steel plate, sections of heavy steel stock, heavy machinery parts, large axle shafts, sections of railway iron (legally obtained), sections of heavy I-beam. Mild steel won't be ideal but it will do. Cast iron is even less ideal but again it will do in a pinch.

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As Matt said, first try some "found" objects. Go to your local flea market and find a large sledgehammer head and try using it as an anvil, or go to a junkyard and try to find a largish chunk of iron. A shop sized smelter tends to be used for objects not much larger than a belt buckle.

Dave E.

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