Correct possition to stand

[Savage]

Hey guys, quik question, im having trouble finding a comfetable way to stand infront of my anvil and seem to loose heat due to this, lack of experiance maybe? Or is there a certain way to possition yourself?

[Larry H]

what kind  of base is your anvil on ? you should be able to stand comfortable and not have to reach....keep your elbow in close to your body and don't hunch over, try putting your thigh against the horn if your stand won't let you get close, and don't forget to use your wrist or your elbow may suffer, its hard to explain, you have to see it

[SmoothBore]

Standing's optional.

 

Most of the time I use a stool.

[Rich Hale]

Take a pice of scrap wood the thickness off the steel you will forge,,,hit that with youir forging hammer..if the dents are deeper on the side farthes  from youi youi anvil may be too high,,if deeper colsest to you it may be too low...if they are dented more to one side tha4t is youi!

i have my gasser across from my anvil,,the openg is to my tong hand side,,I can reach across the anvil and remove hot steel and right onto the anvil. You shouild stand balanced,,knees bent slightly and hips both equal distance from the spot on the anvil yoiu will work,,if youi move onto the horn , move body and hips with it. If you are taking more than a step or two to get steel to anvil, consider a change....Get some one to video youii and putit on here or just look at it youirself and see wot you are really doing.....

[Savage]

Okay from what you said i seem to have my gasser on my hammer side(right handed). What is the better way to face the anvil? Facing with horn pointed towards stomach, hardy hole facing toward stomch or facing the side on the anvil, still need to make a stand for the anvil but at the moment its on a saw horse, all together top of anvil will be around belly button hight.

[Frosty]

Rich: You have high, low dent indicators backwards, edge away (toeing) = anvil low, edge close to you (healing) = anvil high. Left right is operator error.

 

Savage: What's your anvil stand? I find a wood block to prevent me from getting close enough to do fine work and have recently (last weekend) remounted my Soderfors on a steel stand, very like Brian Brazeal prefers.

 

Which way the horn points depends on what I'm doing, yes what I'm doing, which way YOU point your anvil is up to you. We often joke about pointing the horn left or right but it turns out there are good reasons. Pointing the horn towards your dominant hand means the natural angle of your swing will impact the horn more perpendicular to the surface of the horn for better effect. Pointing the horn towards your non dominant hand makes turning a scroll from beneath present more clearly to your dominant eye and striking from behind is more controlled.

 

Brian Brazeal and Lyle held clinics here and I learned the benefit of forging from the horn or heal ends. It provides much more accuracy for edge work as it's plainly visible and the swing is more natural strike 45* into an edge. I also am finding I like it for turning finial scrolls for it's accuracy.

 

So, yes it surely can make a big difference which way you point your anvil, I've been keeping my anvil clear on all sides so I can work any side for a long time and only recently learned some of the ways to make it really pay.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Rich Hale]

Golly Frosty true enough thanks..again..

[Chinobi]

unless your bodily geometry is fairly unusual(or mine is) i think belly button high is going to be far too tall to be comfortable to work on (for instance, my belly button is around 10" higher than i prefer to have the anvil face), quick and dirty rule of thumb is stand with your hammer hand hanging at your side with a closed fist, your anvil face should be at or near the level of your knuckles.  if you want to get really technical about it you should be able to place a piece of your most commonly used stock (1/4", 1/2" etc) on the face of your anvil and when you hold your hammer with your arm at your side and place the head of the hammer on top of that piece of stock, the handle should be parallel with the ground. (so much for trying to write that clearly...)

 

if you have your anvil on a single sawhorse (for starters sawhorses are going to be waaaay too high) i would be VERY worried about the anvil falling off!  unless NZ sawhorses are topped with something more substantial than a 2x4.

 

apply rich's piece of wood test, as modified by frosty's correction, that will tell volumes about your setup and how you need to correct any errors in your swing.

 

also, you say you are losing heat trying to find a comfortable way to stand, are you walking that time off (forge too far) or are you shuffling around your anvil in indecision of where to stand, where to place the metal, how to strike it? are you leaving the hot iron on the anvil face while you do said dance? the longer the iron is in contact with the anvil the more heat you will lose into the anvil face, less forging time and so on.

 

in any case take a quick snapshot of your current layout, and maybe stand a meterstick against the anvil and read off what the face checks in at in case the resolution is too low to read it and we can offer much more concrete suggestions, rather than broad generalizations of every possible contribution to what could be improved on :)

[forgemaster]

I find one of the best things to do is as said to photo or video someone who knows what they are doing, has done it for a while and has a good stance for the anvil, then get them to photo or video you and compare the pickys.  We have had to do this for 2 apprentices so far who had shocking stance at the hammer and the anvil, no amount of advice could make them change although they compalined of sore backs wrists and of their work not coming out straight etc.  It took footage of them to see what they were doing wrong, before they started to heed what I was telling them.  Sort of like when mum or dad refuses to believe that they snore until the kids video them during the night and then play it back to them in the morning.

 

[FieryFurnace]

This is a question that you can ask 100 different blacksmiths and get 50 different answers for. I'll weigh in my two cents worth.

I'm right handed. I work, horn to the right.
I work with my right hip touching the horn or very close to it. I stand so that my swing is, more or less, parallel with the near and far edges of the anvil.


If your stand, in any way, prevents you from getting very close to your anvil while you work, you need a new anvil stand.

I like the horn to the right because I feel it gives me more open access to the horn, and it allows me to safely continue forging with a tool in the hardy hole.

These are matters of technique and not of strict right or wrong habits, most of the time. Do what feels comfortable for you.

[John B]

The "Nut Cracker Theory"

 

Two things are relevant if working on your own regularly,

 

1)  The height of the anvil face should be level with the lower part of your crotch, so that when holding long bars between your legs to punch or slit them, the theory is not invoked.

 

2) Stand to one side at an angle so that when you occasionally miss hit the workpiece, the hammer, on rebound, harmlessly passes over your shoulder and does not invoke the theory,

 

(this result also goes under a different term, referring to the resulting lump on your forehead, but due to it being a family friendly forum, I will refrain from posting the term, most experiencing this effect will know what I mean)

 

Be comfortable, and be safe.

[Bob S]

Great thread. Stay tuned tomorrow for an all new thread... "How to light a match".

 

And no doubt there will be a number of guys who will write  several paragraphs on the question.

 

 

 

And I will read them. :wacko:

[Savage]

It seems i have been doing it all wrong then. Anvils too high, not standing evenly, forge on wrong side of anvil. Thanx guys, next time i go hammering i will re-arrange my work area.