Improvised Anvil Horn

[MrDarkNebulah]

So i dont have a real anvil, i just have been using a big cyllindrical chunk of steel. I want to make some bottle openers, and every tutorial I've seen uses the horn to help round out and extend the hole to be an appropriate size. I dont have a horn, so i was wondering if you guys have any ideas on how i can achieve this without a horn, it would be much appreciated.

[NickOHH]

You could either make a bick/ stake anvil and mount it on a stump or you can drift it all the way open but it's more critical to have a good centered hole to drift it, however you can work the corners with the drift in the hole then drive it all the way through for final sizing.

[Frosty]

(I can't think of what they're called, they're similar to a "Marlin spike" but not for working cable)  You can buy or find spikes that are long tapered cones with an anvil on the fat end. By anvil in this instance that is the industry term for the struck end of tools like this. I used mine to align the bolt holes when I put my shop frame up. They're tough as all gitout I drove them into misaligned bolt holes and wrestled 30' steel beams into position both by driving it straight in and by hammering it on it's side to lever. And no I didn't use a ball pein I used an 8lb. double jack sledge hammer.

Anyway, one of these makes a fine cone mandrel maxing out probably a little over an inch unless you get a bigger one. All you'd need then is a vise.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Smoggy]

As you don't have a London Pattern or other bic'd anvil. I suggest you look towards making suitable stake system, you'll soon find you need more tools and percussion surfaces. If you have a vice available make tools to be held in it, if not a stake stump or a mobile hardy hole. To resize the hole for a bottle opener, you would only be using the end of a bic, so if you can find a lump of steel of approx 1" dia, just draw it down to a point, mount it and bob as they say is you uncle....

[matto]

Frosty that would be a bull pin.

[Glenn]

Make a portable hole or a piece of square tubing on a stand to act as a hardie hole. This can be used for all matter of things same as the hardie hole including a receiver to a cone. The cone only has to be a bit larger than you want for the opening for the bottle opener. There are many cone shapes out there including spud wrenches. marlin spikes, bull pins, etc. You can taper your own cone on the anvil.

It does not have to be solid, it can be a piece of pipe. Look for a shackle or U bolt that holds a large truck spring to the frame. Grind off the threads forming a taper with the grinder. 

Go to the junk yard and do not look for a cone, but see the possibilities that can be used to make a round hole, or a hole round.

[DSW]

I posted this up for you the other day.

I drift my openers vs opening up the ring on the horn ( still working on getting that down). You can make a simple pritchel plate by drilling various size holes in it and using them to drift open the hole. I use the small pritchel on my anvil to punch the hole ( though you can drill it with a drill or even slit it with a chisel instead). I drift to about 1" on my swage block simply because I have it. If I didn't, I'd make a pritchel plate to go over my "portable hole".

 

Arkie here suggested slitting vs punching the original hole and I've found that useful when I don't have as much material to make the ring. I can't remember if the RR spike opener I made I slit or punched. I know I upset the point to drive more mass up into the ring area before I did anything else. I've also found knocking in the corners 1st helps, I was fighting getting the ring round before I did that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Charles R. Stevens]

For 90% of forging history a lump of iron was an anvil, the horn was rare untile about 200 years ago. you have a "real anvil", the bick was a common tool, and is still used today as either a stake or as an anvil tool. 

[NickOHH]

9 hours ago, DSW said:

I posted this up for you the other day.

I drift my openers vs opening up the ring on the horn ( still working on getting that down). You can make a simple pritchel plate by drilling various size holes in it and using them to drift open the hole. I use the small pritchel on my anvil to punch the hole ( though you can drill it with a drill or even slit it with a chisel instead). I drift to about 1" on my swage block simply because I have it. If I didn't, I'd make a pritchel plate to go over my "portable hole".

 

Arkie here suggested slitting vs punching the original hole and I've found that useful when I don't have as much material to make the ring. I can't remember if the RR spike opener I made I slit or punched. I know I upset the point to drive more mass up into the ring area before I did anything else. I've also found knocking in the corners 1st helps, I was fighting getting the ring round before I did that

 

 

Ahh ok I see you start with rounded corners before you punch and drift. Didn't catch that the other day .

[Michael]

my old improvised anvil (75 lbs of I beam) with the improvised horn, (jackhammer bit C clamped to the center web)

probably could have ground the corners off the jackhammer bit. 

note to self, make a bick out of that bit.

[ThomasPowers]

Well the "cube" anvil was historically often paired with a T stake anvil that served as a horn.  I made one by forging some 2.5" sq stock down on one end to make a tenon to rivet through the eye of a railroad spike driver sledge and forged the other end to a spike to fit in a stump.  Gives me 2 different cylinders to work from but I could have forged one or both into a cone

[jumbojak]

I've been working on rounding the taper I managed on a piece of two inch round to mount in my vice and use as a bick. Mind you, it isn't a very long taper - probably more closely akin to a hardy shank - but it should work for making a few bottle openers to hand out as penance for recent favors.