Pretty excited about these. Until today, I had to do all my cutting with a chisel, and I had to have another pair of hands. My anvil is broken off at the hardy, so I finally got around to making a substitute. A friend of mine had some pieces of 4" angle left over from some previous construction, so I made a hardy box out of that. Also, I made a round-topped hot cut to go with it. Thanks to all of you for supplying such a wealth of information and support. 

That's great! you are well suited to making other hardy tools now too, Fullers, butchers, bending forks and swages. Nice thick box to pound home other tools.

Might give some thought to just arc welding a piece of structural tubing to the body of the anvil---not the face---where the old one was and make tooling that "sits" on the good anvil face.

 

I have an anvil missing the heel where I have a prosthesis held on with bolts and a cross bar under the horn.  Sorta based on a historical one I saw at Quad-State where a broken horn has held on by a forged ring with to straps going to a bar under the heel with the strap ends rounded and threaded...

Nice job Gor! There is a lot of people making striking anvils and tapered hot cuts all around the world now. I see nothing but positive changes for the better. I'm sure more and more will get up to speed soon.

Brian, these are indeed excellent concepts, backed up by both experience and theoretical grounding.  You have made a notable contribution to modern blacksmithing and have had an impact on the way I,,and certainly many others,  think about forging.  The Easy Smith and block anvil are not only technical innovations in their own right, but they significantly lower the barrier to entry for a beginning smith beset by overpriced anvils.