Ive seen a lot of RR track anvils( I have a pretty good one myself) but this is probably the best one ive ever come across..
http://cgi.ebay.com/8-lb-RAILROAD-TRACK-ANVIL-Blacksmith-Forge-N-R_W0QQitemZ120511819284QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c0f106e14

Yep, nice looking indeed

Ive seen a lot of RR track anvils( I have a pretty good one myself) but this is probably the best one ive ever come across..
http://cgi.ebay.com/8-lb-RAILROAD-TRACK-ANVIL-Blacksmith-Forge-N-R_W0QQitemZ120511819284QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c0f106e14

That's a nice looking anvil and well made by the look's of it.

There was some time spent on that one.

Really well done!
It looks almost identical to the one I have except mine has hardy and pritchel holes.

I was looking at one and thought what a lot of time to spend on a piece of RR track. Nice for small scale work but an additional reinforcement of the web would have been nice.

I've either seen this one before or one xxxxxx close to it from the same seller about 3 years ago. I've been watching his auctions a long time and was as impressed back then as I am now. The only problem with it is it's probably too small to do much on. Pretty none the less...

I just gotta jump in here. You can do anything up to a 1/2 " or larger just takes longer. I forged all sorts of stuff on a 37 lb track using a O/A torch. Don't fall into the" got to have a 300lb anvil to work on. I have a 174 lb
a 142 lb a 88 lb and a 60lb fisher I still use the 37 lb track. I have been told you need at least a 4 lb hammer.
HS I have a dozen under 2 lb a few over that. If it works for ya don't worry about names, prices or sizes. If ya can"t do it with a 2lb hammer on a 37lb track ya probably can't do it on a 1300lb fisher with a 5lb hammer.
Ken

thats made from a railroad track? how do u think that they made it? probably milled right.

I just gotta jump in here. You can do anything up to a 1/2 " or larger just takes longer. I forged all sorts of stuff on a 37 lb track using a O/A torch. Don't fall into the" got to have a 300lb anvil to work on. I have a 174 lb
a 142 lb a 88 lb and a 60lb fisher I still use the 37 lb track. I have been told you need at least a 4 lb hammer.
HS I have a dozen under 2 lb a few over that. If it works for ya don't worry about names, prices or sizes. If ya can"t do it with a 2lb hammer on a 37lb track ya probably can't do it on a 1300lb fisher with a 5lb hammer.
Ken

Most of the folks here will be telling you *not* to use a 4# hammer; too easy to mess up your arm if you're not up to using it! I know when I teach I show folks my 1500 gm hammer and tell them I used to do these 1/4" stock S hooks totally with it until I realized I was just showing off and it was stressing my arm holding back doing the counter bend and other finicky stuff and so now use a much lighter hammer for that job.

BTW "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" has a chapter on making a RR track anvil including heat treating it!

There are pluses and minuses to every tool in the blacksmith shop but life got easier when I moved up from a small RR anvil to a Trenton 125# anvil. Frosty has shown us that you can smith in a hole in the ground and use a rock as an anvil but I wouldn't want to forge 3/4" round stock on a RR anvil with a 2# hammer. I think if I were able as I once was to have my nice 6# hammer in my hand and draw it down with that on my 250# Fisher that is what I would choose. If you can ever afford a big hunk of iron to forge on over a RR anvil, choose the big.

For many of us, I think that once you approach 100# of anvil hardness makes much more difference than mass. A soft 300# anvil will perform less well than a hard 70# anvil. It becomes a game of energy returned to your work.

Phil

Phil, That's true for most things except a 100# RR anvil does not compare to a nice 75# Peter Wright in any way shape or form. I know this is controversial but when you get some skills on you it is time to move up in life to some decent tools and as these skills improve you need to look to the future and that future should include a decent anvil. I hate to see folk sit there with nice hammers, tongs, punches, you name it and still sitting there with a section of track that has not one thing done to improve it and they are not even using it's mass to best advantage. Yes, I have a nice small RR anvil for my silversmithing. Nice polish on the surface, inside curves polished too so I can use it as a swage for forming metal but it isn't something I would ever have used to create my steel sculptures on once I had the money and skills for better.