i have this thick slab of iron im going to make a Striking anvil out of... got the hole done , now i need to heat it up and punch out the square hole... stay tune..




if it works out ill be making about 20 or so of these...to give and trade to other smith's...

what alloy is that? is it hardenable? if its mild it will not work well for a anvil..

striking anvil need not be so hard. Remember that many people nowdays do not possess the accuracy in weilding the heavy hammer as greatly experienced smiths. If one uses a hardened striking anvil and make a bad strike the next thing he may see is the high-speed hammer returning to his head.

A piece of A36 can absorb all the missed hits and still hold a pretty good surface. If fact the high quality surface is not even so greatly required as much of your work will be conducted with bottom and top tools. A36 is also very easily repaired comparred to hardened steel. Think of it as a platten instead of an anvil, or other shaped plate, but the shaping will be mirrored via the tools. It seems the height and rigidity are the supreme qualities, followed with a good hardy hole that makes bottom tools intact yet removable. Do include a pritchell or two.

The requirement of a very wide piece is almost non existent and may be wasteful. A thick chunk about 6 or 7 inches wide and about 13 inches long will be plenty large enough for most. And yet there can be exceptions to everything. Go ask some boiler makers or ship steel formers and they will give you plenty of exceptions to carry out their extreme work. There is not so many of those guys present on this forum.


Carry on

Ya I am not going to harden it. There to Beat on with a sledge hammer to make bottom tools not every day use...at least that's what I am doing with them...

you got a price just for the slab, with or without a hardy hole. The hardy hole is not so difficult to make, once the primary hole is established. If I were to drift a 1 inch square hardy I would start with a hole larger than 3/4 and no larger than 7/8...most assuradly less than 1inch. There is a need for an economical piece of metal such as that here...just saying.



Carry on

Like I say I got about 20 of these. Looking mostly for trades. Any hand made goods would be cool. Stuff to hang in the shop, tools, you know. The other ones are solid no holes. Ill snap a pic when I get home..

heres the pic of the pices, looks like 17 or so...

i made a swageblock,from a chunk about that size works fine.

What would it take to trade for a piece of that stuff? I sure could use a piece or two. And how much does one piece weigh?



Carry on

Can I ask the purpose of drilling the hole in the center as apposed to offset towards the edge?

It was never intended to be anything more then just a flat piece of steel on a stand to make bottom Hardies with 4 I didn't have to use a Sledgehammer on my only anvil . Hence no need for a work area...