The breaking of an anvil

[C.D. Mitchell]

After all the broken anvils that I've seen in pictures and in person, I'm beginning to wonder how in the world someone would be able to break an anvil and what they had to do to cause it to happen.  I've seen anvils with the horn or heel broken clean off, the face completely missing, and who knows what other kinds of injuries.  The question I always ask myself when I see broken anvils is "how the heck did someone do that?"

 

So my question to you all is have you ever witnessed the breaking of an anvil?  Not just a chip or a ding, but the catastrophic failure of an tool that was built for the purpose of being indistructable? 

 

I'd be very interested to hear any stories about this, preferable firsthand experiences.  Let the blacksmithing folklore begin!

[Spots]

A striker missing a lick with a 10-20 lb sledge will remove a horn or heel. I have't seen it done, but to hardened steel surfaces meeting under that much pressure, something is gonna give.

[macbruce]

Heavy striking on to small an anvil especially in cold temps is a good reciepe for disaster......Poor quality control, anvils made on Friday afternoon or Monday morning......I've seen people just beat on em with large hammers but never seen one break....

[Jeff Seelye]

Seen videos of anvils 35' in the air...They gotta come down on something!

[Timothy Miller]

I used to work with a guy who was not too bright but very strong.  I once saw him pick up a 300 lb anvil with the stump and put on the tail gate of a pickup.   I asked him to strike for me one day.  I told him to relax and just hit the metal.  He decided that he needed to hit the steel as hard as he could and missed.  He hit the side of the anvil and took about a 1/2" by 1" chunk out of the side.  I was blown away and upset, we tried again this time he hit the face and put a dent in it. I told him to stop and just did it myself.  I also used to work in a museum that had an old Mousehole anvil that had the forge weld at the heel of the anvil on failing. the crack was about half way thru the body of the anvil.  The anvil would sort of buzz when you hit it.  I took it easy on that anvil but if someone hit it hard that heel was going to fail at some point.  This was a somewhat common defect. 

 

Imagine a world where anvils are easily purchased and replaced.  Much forge work was just rough and ready bang it out and get it done.  Think of the work that was done sharpening plows, forging shoes, wagon tires, nuts, bolts, chain, tools, straps for heavy timber, sharping dirt picks day after day the list goes on and on.  After 20 years of daily hammering with 12 lb sledges the horn breaks off.  Oh well it paid its way  just buy a new one put the old one out by the door to show folks we know how to hit it hard.  They were tools neither abused or revered but when it was worn out it was replaced. 

[ThomasPowers]

Heavy work on sheetmetal stakes that have tapered shanks is something I worry about. I have an anvil that was broken in a friends shop. it was a small vulcan in beat up shape and a fellow was trying to rivet armour on the horn hitting way too hard and the horn broke off. I was given the anvil pieces for my damaged anvil collection and you can clearly see that the Vulcan had massive casting voids at the horn to anvil transition and so not surprising that it failed there under abuse---never should have been sold that way either! I have a friend who broke the heel of his grandfather's anvil working it unheated on a very cold day.

[macbruce]

I take it back. I broke an anvil with a sledge once, it was the first anvil I ever bought and from a surplus store I recall.....It was a 50#  and after a forging session or 6 it looked like I'd moved more metal on the 'anvil' face than the hot steel...... :angry: ......Anyway I picked up an 8# sledge an broke off the horn and heel and tossed it in the scrap.... ^_^.....The school of hard knocks was a bitter pill and I've never considered a 'new anvil' at a surplus store or places like HF ever since. Having this forum would have been nice back then.....

[Frank Turley]

There was a period of time, say, the first half ot the 20th century, when anvils came into disuse and were stored in the shop corner or out behind the barn. I suggest that children and dimwits beat on the anvils with hand hammers and sledges, while having NO IDEA of what an anvil was for.

[clinker breaker]

I don't know a lot about this, and I don't mean any disrespect to Mr. Miller, who obviously knows more about smithing than I do, but I don't think there ever was a time when anvils were just set aside when they'd done their due.  I remember when I first got my (reprint) copy of Richardson's blacksmithing book and read about the lengths that smiths went to in order to replace broken horns and feet and such. They'd spend a day putting a horn back on, and this was when a day was 12 hours or so of labor. 

 

Now it's available free on google:

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=zT5DAAAAIAAJ&dq=editions%3AjxM9l1QvAlYC&pg=PA114#v=onepage&q=horn&f=false

 

I think anvils are probably as readily available today as ever.  I don't use a cell phone, but everyone else in my world does, and I bet if my friends added up what they spent on cell phones in the past five years (much less the monthly bills) they could all buy brand spankin' new anvils that would last for generations and hold their value, unlilke cell phones.

 

This is turning into a rant. Sorry.

 

. 

[Patrick Nowak]

I broke the heal off of a 180 # mouse hole a few years ago. The original forge weld had failed for at least half of the width of the face though the face itself was still intact. I knew it was broken when I bought it and I got it with  the intention of making it into a small double horned anvil. I had to cut through the face with an abrasive disc before I could break off the heal with a sledge. This leads me to believe that manufacturing flaws are the root cause of many  of the broken anvils we see.

 

I have also personally observed anvils in more than one shop that were "abondoned" as it were.This occurs when the shop activities transition from a lot of forge work to other types of manufacturing. The  anvil stays in the building but is pushed of into a corner where can be used and abused by those who don't respect it as a forging tool.

[tomhw]

I don't know a lot about this, and I don't mean any disrespect to Mr. Miller, who obviously knows more about smithing than I do, but I don't think there ever was a time when anvils were just set aside when they'd done their due.  I remember when I first got my (reprint) copy of Richardson's blacksmithing book and read about the lengths that smiths went to in order to replace broken horns and feet and such. They'd spend a day putting a horn back on, and this was when a day was 12 hours or so of labor. 

 

Now it's available free on google:

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=zT5DAAAAIAAJ&dq=editions%3AjxM9l1QvAlYC&pg=PA114#v=onepage&q=horn&f=false

 

I think anvils are probably as readily available today as ever.  I don't use a cell phone, but everyone else in my world does, and I bet if my friends added up what they spent on cell phones in the past five years (much less the monthly bills) they could all buy brand spankin' new anvils that would last for generations and hold their value, unlilke cell phones.

 

This is turning into a rant. Sorry.

 

. 

I am with you on your rant.  I foolishly waste money on stupid stuff.  I should pay off my house and buy the Nimba Gladiator that I really should have.  I do want one.  My great grandchildren, if I have any, won't understand.  They will still be paying off China for the money we waste today.  I still want a Nimba Gladiator.  I'll stick with my HB and look at pics of the Nimba Glatiator. 

[macbruce]

Over the last 10 years my cell phone has saved me enough in gas alone to pay for a dozen anvils.....Not long after I got one I was in Vail co, about 110 miles from my shop biding an iron job. I got a call to bid another project in Vail while I was there and that alone saved me a day and probly $50 in fuel....I don't leave home without it.....

Oh, and I dropped a dime on a drunk driver just the other day..... ^_^

[Timothy Miller]

I don't know a lot about this, and I don't mean any disrespect to Mr. Miller, who obviously knows more about smithing than I do, but I don't think there ever was a time when anvils were just set aside when they'd done their due.  I remember when I first got my (reprint) copy of Richardson's blacksmithing book and read about the lengths that smiths went to in order to replace broken horns and feet and such. They'd spend a day putting a horn back on, and this was when a day was 12 hours or so of labor. 

 

Now it's available free on google:

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=zT5DAAAAIAAJ&dq=editions%3AjxM9l1QvAlYC&pg=PA114#v=onepage&q=horn&f=false

 

I think anvils are probably as readily available today as ever.  I don't use a cell phone, but everyone else in my world does, and I bet if my friends added up what they spent on cell phones in the past five years (much less the monthly bills) they could all buy brand spankin' new anvils that would last for generations and hold their value, unlilke cell phones.

 

This is turning into a rant. Sorry.

 

. 

I have seen more than a few anvils used to the point uselessness.  Some that looked like they got bombs dropped on them.  Many shops have an rate than needs to be made on all of the work they do. Sometimes it doesn't even pay to take the time to make a tool last.  Its not like it is today where blacksmithing has a mystique and smiths love their tools.  lets say you were drawing out plow points all day for months with a striker and making money doing it.  Its just a job to feed your family not a quixotic passion to make beautiful iron work.  You don't care that much if you chip the edge the anvil belongs to your boss he will just buy a new one when it wares out.  "Put the old one in the corner we may need it one day".  Or sell it to a farmer for him to do simple jobs for himself.  How many times have you been in a metal shop and seen obsolete or broken machines sitting out in the yard.  Things that are not worth the time to repair but still kept around for some reason. 

[pkrankow]

Some things are kept because they ARE worth the time and effort to repair, but not to the current owner.  The current owner however may see a significant residual value in the broken item...

 

Timothy's example of selling a damaged anvil to someone to do simple work themselves is a good example of this.  Power hammers in disrepair that appear regularly for sale at much greater than scrap value is another example. 

 

Phil

[ThomasPowers]

The old bridge anvils that were used for reforging the drilling bits for cable tool drill rigs are generally in horrible shape as they were used *HARD* often with rig hands as strikers with sledges.

They were considered a consumable with speed of getting a rig back to drilling more important than babying an anvil. As you got paid for feet of hole drilled *everyone* was more interested in speed than in watching out for the anvil.

Best re-use I've seen of one of those beat to heck bridge anvils was one done by a fifth generation smith in Stroud OK: He had built an angle iron frame to hold the anvil upside down and used the wide flat bottom to true up plow points on after reforging the tips.