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Knife Forging Anvil?


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If you have a local steel scrap yard nearby, they may have plenty of useable anvils there.  I'm not talking the traditional london pattern anvil, but you can usually find a decent size hunk of steel with a couple flat surfaces to beat on, and often times that's all you need for bladesmithing.  And the nice thing about getting it fro a scrap yard is that you only have to pay scrap prices.  If you want some ideas, check out the Sea Robin knifesmithing anvils.  It's just a big hunk of square stock turned on end and used as an anvil.  Don't think that just because it doesn't have a horn, step, heel, hardy, and pritchel that it can't be used as a fine anvil.

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100 lb or more will work for wot you want in the future youi may wish it was heavier. Cliff carrol makes fine anvils. they are generally for farrier work and some may not like the face being narrower than a london pattern anvil. Also some farrier anvils have a rather flattened horn that is not wot I prefer fro drawing out steel.

Check this from the forums as in it i forge a knife ona a chunk of steel. And this is part of a series on knfe making the we do each wed nite in the chat room. Then the log from that is posted in forums.

http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/29914-knife-making-log-class-101-getting-started/

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99% of all forming actions on an anvil take place in an area that's approximately 4" square.  You can only hit so much with the face of your hammer, right?  A long london-pattern anvil has a lot of unused area, and the tool-holding capability can very easily be handled by a vise.

 

Check out the scrap yard and see if you can find a long piece of 4" or 6" stock, square or round, and turn it on end to make a post anvil.  Something like a train's axle is divine.  The shape is very handy and puts all of the weight of the anvil directly under the hammer's blow.

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http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/30256-what-is-this-for-an-anvil/

that's what I would like as a knifemaking anvil

 

or, this, below,  would be the ideal - raised face to have left/right edges not so far from the anvil's sweet-point (not like the edge on the long heeled anvils), so very effective when you form the bevels.

 

look also at the japanese anvils, they make quiet fine cutlery on them...

post-5790-0-94901500-1355093879_thumb.jp

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I started on a 4" diamiter round slug of mild sunk into a stump, then I used a $50 Harbor freight junker, and after that I graduated to a 90# fisher. I have since moved on to a 150# finsher with a few anvils in between.

When I first started I thought that the face of the anvil had to be like glass but it does not. I love that my anvil has a nice grove worn into it. It actually helps with forging a convex blade.

You don't need anything fancy really, although that is never a bad thing to have. Some people say that the horn does not get used by a knife maker, but i use the horn when forging the rough bevel on my knives and then smooth it out on the face.  Really, anything will do though.

I have a new 150# Emerson sitting in the shop that i never use, I forge on the old fisher instead. I just like it better.

I'm not sure if you have any experience forging but old work anvils offers a 4x4x4 chunk of steel, which would be a decent start if you are totally new to this. I'm not sure how far into the Adirondacks you are but if you don't mind driving you are welcome to stop over at my shop sometime, in Orange County.

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I have no experience smithing... thanks for the invite, if i ever am able to drive down that way i will definitely hit you up on here.. i live near Exit 15 off of I87... so it would be a bit of a drive...

i think i should start as simple as i can .. and learn the fundamentals and hone basic skills for a few years.. before i reward myself with better equipment...i feel like i need to earn it..i feel like i need to learn to do it with bare minimums....

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I Know several Knife makers that use a 4x4"by something piece of rectangular tool steel as an anvil, and not because there cheep. most bladesmiths I know can only forge a few inches at a time and therefore need only a small true flat and a clean sholder to forge in the ricosso sholder. The real trick is to keep that anvil from bouncing around, and thats easily done with a big wooden stump and some railroad spikes to cleat the anvil down.

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only an hour..?  huh you must be not to far south of albany.. that isn't far... that is way more feasible... 

knives85 i will have to research the area to see if i can find scrap yard.. there is A1 in albany ny.. i sold a car to them for $400 once , for scrap metal..i'll start there..

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A 20# sledgehammer with one face buried in a bucket of cement will work wonders for a fledgling smith.  Remember, 90% of making a knife is learning how to make a hammer and the steel move as like you want them to.  Making dinner triangles, s-hooks, drive-hooks, squirrel cookers and steak flippers are a very simple and cheap way to learn how to move metal..... and a buried sledge is more than enough to make those.

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A chunk of 4x4 *steel* makes a much better knifemaker's anvil than a farrier's anvil. Farrier's anvil are usually quite open with a large horn and heel and so the sweet spot---where there is steel from the top of the anvil to the base is fairly small---but you are paying *extra* for the overhang parts that are not that useful for bladesmithing. I suggest you go to the library or internet and check out a copy of "Living Treasures of Japan" National Geographic and watch the section on sword forging and then try to source an anvil like they use---a rectangular solid.

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I started on a 4" diamiter round slug of mild sunk into a stump, then I used a $50 Harbor freight junker, and after that I graduated to a 90# fisher. I have since moved on to a 150# finsher with a few anvils in between.
When I first started I thought that the face of the anvil had to be like glass but it does not. I love that my anvil has a nice grove worn into it. It actually helps with forging a convex blade.
You don't need anything fancy really, although that is never a bad thing to have. Some people say that the horn does not get used by a knife maker, but i use the horn when forging the rough bevel on my knives and then smooth it out on the face. Really, anything will do though.
I have a new 150# Emerson sitting in the shop that i never use, I forge on the old fisher instead. I just like it better.
I'm not sure if you have any experience forging but old work anvils offers a 4x4x4 chunk of steel, which would be a decent start if you are totally new to this. I'm not sure how far into the Adirondacks you are but if you don't mind driving you are welcome to stop over at my shop sometime, in Orange County.


Old work anvils?? Got a website?
Or did you mean oldworldanvils.com ?
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