Hello everyone~ this will be my first post on iForgeIron, and definitely won't be the last! I'm a aspiring blacksmith with a little experience under my belt with other's tools and shops, but when I got to finding myself my own anvil, I can't seem to find at all. >^< could I please get a little help? 

Your not limited to an "Anvil" to use as an anvil. there are many hunks of steel out there that would serve as an anvil. easiest most readily available case would be a sledge hammer head standing up. that could get you started until you found something better. think outside the box until you eventually find what you want. you can be learning valuable skills instead of Waiting to find that perfect "thing" to use.   local scrap yard might let you look for some stuff and there are alot of potential anvils there.

  don't waste time that you could use to learn while searching for that "one thing" just get at it with what you can find for now and the rest will come to you in time.

Thanks Daswulf, I do have a old scrap yard not far from my abode, so I'll take stroll down there soon and see what I can find. ^v^

there you go. and take a lil cash in your pocket. explain to them what you want to do, and what you are looking for and they may be nice and help you out. nice rectangular or square hunk of steel would be great but remember it dosnt have to be limited to that.

Look at the homemade anvils here on IFI. Big round bars on end, forklift forks, railcar parts, thick plates, etc.. Look for steel scrap, not cast iron. 

If you put your general location under your avatar it will help us help you better since this forum is global in its coverage.

Thank you BG Doc, just got done with that. Also just went out for a little stroll and found a brake drum. It's a little rusty but I'm thinking of using it

to make my forge. It's either that or I was thinking of a Keg Forge. >D<

Look up the 55 forge on the forum.

Brake rotors work better than drums do, as they are shallower.

If I was going to build a forge,I would look long and hard at the side blast versions. Less issues with coal clinkers, and clogged air vents.

For over 2000 years an anvil looked rather like a cube of metal  for around 200 years it looked like a london pattern anvil so what does a real anvil look like?  All the roman and viking swords were forged on simple cube looking anvils and the traditional one for japanese swordsmiths is quite similar to this day!  Compact mass is what you are looking for so things like I beams are terrible; but an 8" section of 6" shafting is really quite nice.

http://www.marco-borromei.com/fork.html

Edited October 4, 201510 yr by ThomasPowers

Look at the simple 55 forge for bottom blast, cheaper and easer than a drum of disk, and the 55 sideblast are even easier and cheaper to build. 

Use The Tomas Power's anvil acusition method. That is ask positivly every one if the know of an anvil (or any other peice of equipment)

I'm from California...the Bay Area. There used to be a lot of ship yards out here and foundrys. After every shift, I would travel to small farm towns and ask about anvils. Most people out here are snobby, so I got a lot of weird looks. It wasn't until I started talking to the local homeless people. I actually received a lot of useful information which led me to my find which was railroad track, a railroad base plate and some timber. I would carry a pack of cigarettes with me, introduce myself, offer a cigarette and converse ( even though I don't smoke) I heard a lot of great stories. 

Out here in California, it's very difficult to find usable material. You just have to put yourself out there. I feel though, you'll have great amount of fun in this adventure...I sure am!!

Welcome aboard Cyph, glad to have you. A real anvil is anything hard and heavy you forge on. My flat out favorite field expedient anvil was an axle out of some heavy piece of equipment I drug out of the Resurrection River in the 80's. I buried it flange p in the sand bar at the right height and it served brilliantly for the 2 weeks we were on that project. I still kick myself in the butt for leaving it there when we pulled out.

Still, it was a steel shaft around 4"-5" dia with a thick bolt flange. It was one SWEET anvil.

Keep your eyes open for tools and equipment but don't let the search keep you from lighting a fire and developing the hand skills that make the craftsman. Tools are just refined dirt, they can't do anything but rust. It's the mind and thumbs that do it.

Frosty The Lucky

If nothing else comes to hand, a sledge or spliting mall head, spliting wedge, a 4X4 drop from the local machine shop, near anything. Many have started with rail drops, or drops from a scrap yard (drops are the scraps after cutting peices to size in welding/machine shops

If you are willing to pay for it, there appear to be several listed in your area on craigslist.  In the NYC area you will probably be paying a premium, but that is one of the benefits of living in an urban "paradise" .  If you are building on a budget, others have already given you good advice.

For the gods sakes dont get an "I" beam drop!

http://www.grandforest.us/AncientAxeBook.pdf
 check out the picture and illistrations on page 4, this is An advanced anvil circa the 10th century AD(CE to be politicaly correct)

Yup we have a local CL listing for an I beam "hobby anvil" which is such a bad idea I am speechless!

As far as anvils go, I  used a london pattern for years. I have used a sledge hammer head. I have used a section of 1 1/4" pry bar set in a bucket of concrete. For some time now I have used a "cube of steel", as Mr. Powers has mentioned above. I have seen no difference in any of them as to the work I can produce. The only advantage an "anvil" has, is the horn and hardy hole, of which I rarely used anyways. Both of those features could easily be reproduced if needed. Just my opinion of course.

meny of us share the same opinion, Donnie. 

Ayup, we're on the same page Donnie, my main use for the horn is as a bottom fuller but I do use the hardy hole to hole my . . . hardies.

Frosty The Lucky.

That may be true but I know how the guy feels if you don`t already own an anvil you want one even more

Watch out though Stan there is a good possibility you want more after you get your first "real" anvil

Good stuff can be found at scrap grinding yards. They lay aside anything to big or hard to gring. I got a massive 14x30x2.5 inch slab of machined steel at 25 cents a pound. Also bid hydraulic rams. Forklift parts even 400 pound manganese hammer teeth from the shreaders ($1) a pound. Get the yard managers number they are awsome sourses. Mine calls me when he finds items I'm looking for. Scrap is cheap.

When i first started out a used a big hunk of cyllindrical steel. It served it's purpose very well. Not only could it work very well to hit on the face, but i could turn it on its side and i had a cyllindrical part to use as a bottom fuller.

yea I saw the I beam "anvil" on craigslist ThomasPowers! like you said, terrible ASO.

                                                                                             Littleblacksmith