I was pleasantly surprised with how well railroad spikes worked.  It's very quiet now and stable.

 

Greetings Clint,

 

I have mounted many many anvils but never with RR spikes...  You may consider tracing the anvil footprint and than router out the pattern so that the anvil sets down in the hole about 1/2 inch ....  I think that would help with the side to side movement and make your spikes stay put longer...  Just an ol boys 2c.

 

Forge on and make beautiful things

 

Jim

Good Morning Clint,

 

A trick Tom Clark showed me, was to glue the anvil with silicone sealer, same silicone sealer you can buy at the hardware store.

Router out a shape like Jim said, add some silicone. Job Done.

 

Neil

Clint, I love the idea of the railroad spikes. Did you drill holes prior to driving the spikes or just drive them in?

I just drove them in, which may have been a mistake. I only got a bit of splitting on the outermost spike. It's just a Doug fir chunk I had laying around, I'd rather find a good oak piece to use.

I have seen pike heads cut off, drilled and taped from the bottom and used with long bolts. My "truck" anvil uses to heads welded to a piece of angle and screwed to the stand, with a third with a third forged and drilled for a lag to clamp it to the stand.
But my shop anvil uses two pieces of chain and 4 lags.

My first thought was about splitting, but it's nice and clean!

Oak will split worse than that fir. Heck, oak splits apart all on its own with-out driving steel into it. A couple of steel bands, drawn-up tight with a bolt, will hold the stump together.

 

You'd want Elm. Try locating elm 18" across. Pretty tough unless you are lucky. Cherry works well too. Kinda stringy, like elm, but not quite as much.