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I Forge Iron

Not sure how to mount


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Friend of mine who is a local blacksmith found this 5x5 square stock for me at a junkyard and it's about 4ft. Long. I bought it off him for 10 bucks and has alot more rebound than my railroad track and I was wondering what would be the best way to mount this? Upright like a post anvil?or horizontal? and weld some legs to it? I asked him and he said it's really personal preference but he is not sure. He has never used a post anvil or anything like what is pictured as an anvil and he didn't want to really tell me anything wrong. So I'm asking 

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I would mount it upright so that the 5x5 face is your anvil face. Radius each edge, now you have 4 radii. Mount it in a box of sand, or something similar. Just something strong to transfer the force down to the earth. 

 

That looks like a stellar anvil! 

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I was thinking the same I've always been told "The amount space you work on is how big your hammer face is" or something like that lol. But yea I hope it makes a great anvil for now till I at least get a real anvil

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You know if we knew what kind of forging you want to do with it we might be able to give better answers...

In general I'd mount it vertically; but there are specific cases where horizontally would be a help and others where being able to flip it from one to another would be nice.

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That's the thing I'm not exactly  sure what I want to make right now. So far ive made some J hook type stuff, I've made 2 pairs of tongs. I'm not real big into knife making but making a knife will be something I do just not a lot of and if I was to make something with a sharp edge I would want to make a straight razor blade. 

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If it's 5"X5" upright would be my choice  Most anvils are not 5" across  so you will have plenty of flat face so to speak..   If you have a way to drill a holen or weld on a horn a little lower than the what would become the face, you would be all set for just about any task you can think of except punching but that is what a punch block is for.. 

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Thomas Powers is right, I would try to mount it so it could be used in either direction, As mentioned most anvils smaller than about 250lbs have a face that is narrower than 5in. If the rebound is as good as you indicate I would like to be able to use the horizontal face for laying out and working on longer pieces plus you have holes already drilled which could used as pritchel holes. I don't know that there is a right or wrong way. 

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Doglegged

I have a post anvil like yours.  I set mine on 2pieces of 3/4 plywood ( base ) and then came up with 2" scrap.  I staggered the wood and not all goes full length.  Then I started filling with sand. By the time I got done I have better then 100# of sand in the base.  It is very stable.  If this one fails the next wooden base will not be as tall.  One benefit is I can use the "side" of the post to straighten pieces or as a fuller or rounding surface.  I have not given up on finding a London pattern anvil but I'm not spending a lot of time looking.

Hope this helps.

 

image.jpeg

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Nice $10.00 SCORE!! You have two why pick just one orientation? 5" x 5" x 48" tells my arithmetic challenged brain those puppies weight around 336lbs. EACH! Sweeter and SWEETER $10.00 score.

For a vertical mount you'll need to trim it to a proper working height for you, wrist height is about right for a one smith operation. A cut off band saw would be near perfect for the trim.  The through, pin maybe holes can come in handy I'd leave one at the top end in a vertical mount. You can place round pin in it and use it for bending or perhaps an anvil bic. it'll have 4 edges so you can have a number of different radius edges.

If you are a welder you can make a vertical steel stand you could flip it end for end and have a number of useful surfaces.

Horizontally mounted gives you up to 48" x 4 edges and all the fun with a grinder you can have shaping them. The holes make it easy to roll it with a bar. 

Another thought is a treadle hammer.

There is a LOT of potential there, is there any more where they came from? They'd make dynamite trading stock at a blacksmith club meeting. 

Thinking about it just now, if I trimmed it to MY working height of around 32" the cut off 16" would weigh 112lbs. That alone would be a nice traveling anvil or the combination would make a better treadle hammer than I thought at first blush. 

This is getting better and better! :)

Frosty The Lucky.

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Well I really only have one of those sorry I didn't mention that before I just noticed the picture included the 2nd one, the other he sold to someone else. I'm thinking about cutting about 12in. Off of it and having a post anvil and then using the remaining 3ft. As an horizontal anvil. We didn't have a way to weight them but it took 2 burly men to pick it up.

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