I bought this at a local auction today I believe it's called a Beak Horn Stake Anvil.  From what I have read this was made for sheet metal work.

Can I use this for general forging work. I was thinking of mounting it in a tree stump kind of like the one in the pictures only taller.

What do you guys think would be the best way to use this in a blacksmith shop ?.

 

  

Thanks Steve,

It won't work great for general smithing simply because of the lack of support.  If you buried in a log all the way up to the horizontal part, it would work okay.... but that's a job of work.  Much better to either save it for sheet metal work, or clean it up and sell it to someone so you can fund the purchase of a thick block of steel to use as an anvil.

It might work, but its got a mighty small 'sweet spot', and so you would be better off saving it for light duty forge work (i.e. small finial work, working on fork tines, nail making, etc.)

Ayup, I have it's brother anvil stake. It's for sheet metal work and isn't hard enough for a forging anvil however you support it. . . Mine isn't anyway.

Frosty The Lucky.

as mentioned generally quite soft, I'd use it for bending rings/clips for ornamental work.  I use mine mostly for making penannular brooches.