Where is the best place to buy an anvil. I'm just looking for something not to expensive. I have a gas forge and want to just tinker around with making some knives with old files, cold chisels, and band saw blades. I thought I might get by with using a chunk of railroad tie for an anvil but have not been able to get a chunk. Any suggestions?
thanks in asvance for any advice.

Well, the best adive I've gotten from the seniors around here is go to a scrap yard and pick up a solid chunck of metal for real cheap, I guess google your area for scrap yard or metal yard or anything slightly related. it took me a while b/c it's not quite called a scrap yard in my area, more like a metal recycling station or somethin weird like that.

Put up a wanted ad in your local news paper for an anvil. This is mine:

WANTED
ANVIL
Young blacksmith looking for anvil in usable condition. Pay cash. Call: xxx-xxx-xxxx

(I'm goning to put in my local penny saver monday. I live in NH and there is one to be laying round some where. Heck, i found out that there is on at my school!)

Mitch,
Funny that you've only got three reponses so far. This is one of the most frequent questions. I guess people must be tired of answering it. You either have to spend time or money to get an anvil, or a suitable piece of steel. Large steel is not common, and new large steel is expensive. Personally, when my son and I got interesed, we got a piece of railroad rail from a man in my son's sword figthing school, who worked for the rail road. I never ran into a better piece of steel or a loose anvil util I went to a hammer in, 2 or 3 years later and bought a $200 Peter Wright.

On the other hand, I've heard a lot of stories on these sites that if you tell everybody you see that you're looking for an anvil, that one will show up, and pretty cheap.

My wife called me today from an auction to ask we if I would be interested in the anvil they were going to sell. I ask her to look at it, it was a Peter Wright (124 = 172 pounds) with fairly good lines and two hardy tools. It ended up selling for $275.

I also went to a different aution today, where they sold lots of heavy equipment and lots of junk. They had several sets of fork lift tines. These are a famous anvil substitute, cut to the proper length and mont in a bucket of cement. They had severl pair of huge tines, like 7' or so that sold for $400, $600, and so on, but I think the standard size tines, and they had about three pair at various points, all sold for less than $100. (Why didn't I bid more than $50?)

Sorry to ramble on so. I'm sure somebody will come along here and give you some good advice. Where do you live by the way? Anvils are much more common east of the Mississippi, and more common in Ohio than Indiana. You can see over priced anvils on ebay.

On the opening page of IForgeIron.com

Lessons in Metalworking > Blacksmithing > LB0005 Blacksmithing Anvils

Search "blacksmith,anvil, vise, vice, forge, and tongs" on craigslist: san francisco bay area classifieds for your local area. I have found all of these at a reasonable driving radius.

Note "Vice" is a common misspelling and can lead to interesting paths to follow; sometimes it will even lead to a device (pun intended) that will secure hot metal. Did you ever wonder why there are so many people named Smith??? We are a randy bunch.

Of necessity to get adequate help, you must say where you are..

JohnW,

Were is Underwood located North,south west, east or central?

JWB, Underwood is 25 miles north of Louisville, KY, or 150 miles south east of you.

When looking for a fork lift tine you don't want a "good" one but rather one that has been broken or sprung. liability will prevent a forklift dealer from letting them go for re-use on a forklift and so you should be able to talk them out of it for scrap price---especially if you offer to cut it in two so it's obvious that it won't ever be reused as a fork lift tine.

My basic answer to question on where to get heavy stuff that don't list a location is "about a half a mile that way" And perhaps mention the the semi annual implement auction will be a week from the end of this week with large scrap and some anvils for sale in the misc area.

Thanks for the info. I have just looked at them today 10/12/07. If anyone is still looking I'm live in southeast Michigan. Still looking, though may have a lead on a hunk of railroad tie

Where is the best place to buy an anvil. I'm just looking for something not to expensive. I have a gas forge and want to just tinker around with making some knives with old files, cold chisels, and band saw blades. I thought I might get by with using a chunk of railroad tie for an anvil but have not been able to get a chunk. Any suggestions?
thanks in asvance for any advice.

Harbor Frfeight has their 110lb cast steel anvil on sale now for about $60.00. Some people condem it and for sure one can do better. But for the novice, I feel it's a good choice. I have one which I use all the time. I do demos at a local museum and there I use very good antique anvils. So I know the difference and I,m happy with my harbor freight anvil.

The hammer in this weekend had a piece of RR steel that would make a small anvil for $3. Anvils were from $150 and up. A 4 inch vise jaw post vise for $40, several 5 inch, and one 6 inch jaw vise. There was a machinist 4 inch jaw vise for $35. The tools are out there, but you have to go find them.

Here's what I use.

126# Haybudden. Fine anvil came outta a Kaiser dealership.
100#Vulcan not bad for the shape it's in.
100# homemade blade anvil . Cut from a 4140 kellybar.

Interesting story on the Vulcan. It b was used on a western military base as a DUI punishment. Offenders carried in 24/7 for a week.

That's quite the kelly bar. Oil rig? I have a kelly bar off one of our rigs but it's 2" sq.

Frosty

I've never bought one but I have seen a lot at auctions around here. They generally go for 1 to 2 dollars a pound. Last weekend I went to an auction and they had a small Fisher. I didn't look too close but was going to to bid any way. It went for about $90. It was about 50 lbs. judging from the size of it. I did not buy it. I didn't need one so I would have only bought it if it were dirt cheap, (Next to nothin for me). I have seen much larger anvils go for less than a dollar a lb. but was never in the market when they sold. I have two now. One is 75 lb. no name and the other is about 125. Some day I would like to get a 200 plus lb. anvil but it isn't necessary so other things are bought first.

Fred

Where is the best place to buy an anvil. I'm just looking for something not to expensive. I have a gas forge and want to just tinker around with making some knives with old files, cold chisels, and band saw blades. I thought I might get by with using a chunk of railroad tie for an anvil but have not been able to get a chunk. Any suggestions?
thanks in asvance for any advice.

Try harbor freights 110lb anvil . for a little over .50cts. per lb it's great for beginners or the novice.