What is the most useful anvil weight and shape?

[Glenn]

What is the most useful anvil weight for most things that a blacksmith would be ask to make today? 

You have your choice for any weight anvil. What is the one anvil weight and anvil shape that you can start with, and still use as the interest in the craft grows and gets serious? (read gets out of hand and turns into a business) 

We can consider all shapes of anvils, colonial, London pattern, double horn, etc. but please limit your answer to one anvil weight, and one anvil shape. 

A bit of discussion on why you chose that shape and weight would be most helpful.

[SmoothBore]

A London Pattern does everything I want it to, ... and about 200 - 250 pounds is as heavy as I can easily muscle around the work area, to re-position it for different jobs.

If I had a "fixed" anvil location, and orientation, ... then 350 pounds would be about right.

 

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[Mark Ling]

I cant speak out of experience about this particular anvil, as I have only used an anvil of this shape and weight a couple hours, and use a 100 pound London pattern anvil in my shop, but i would choose a 250lb double horn anvil.

Reason, is that it does close to everything a London pattern anvil does, but in my opinion they are designed better with the hardy hole closer in and more supported, allowing you to do heavier work in that area, I don't understand the placement of the hardy hole on most London patterns, and why they aren't closer in. But then again lots of people tell me that I don't understand much.

                                                                                                                 Littleblacksmith

[Daswulf]

I can't speak to this as I only have really used my two just under 130# London pattern anvils but I can say I have not been limited in what I have tried to forge yet. I do so badly want a 200+ pound german double horn style anvil tho.

[Jasent]

i can't really give an answer to this either as the only real anvil I've used is a papa rhino. All I know for sure is I want a papa rhino!

[Black Frog]

Budget unlimited?   You can do little work on a big anvil, but tough to do big work on a little anvil.   

Or just a reasonable average best fit for all occasions by most users?

 A 250-400# German double horn with upset block and side shelf would be tough to beat for all occasions   Large enough to do some striking on it, versatile enough for just about anything you could throw at it.  

Unlike normal London pattern anvils which act like almost a diving board at the hardy hole area, the German anvils have great mass under the hardy area for heavy forging.

I'd need some pretty heavy convincing and evidence to sway me from saying that a decent-sized German double horn is all-around tops.

[Marc1]

I agree with the German pattern and I add Southern German with upset block and shelf, but that is preference for a pattern and the question is "most useful weight" and that relates to what is the person going to forge to start with and in the foreseeable future. A bit of a stretch.

Perhaps it can be answered with a minimum weight rather than ideal weight. Whoever has started with a smaller anvil and gone to a bigger one will agree that ... making a sweeping generalisation, bigger is better.

So I say ideally don't buy anything smaller than 150 lb because it is reasonably small price wise, and will serve general blacksmithing task for a reasonably long time even life time if the projects don't grow too large.

[Judson Yaggy]

Yup.  450# South German.  I've owned and or worked professionally on 10 or so London patterns over the years, and bought and sold a score more, and 5 years ago bit the bullet and purchased a Fontanini.  I will never go back, it's a joy to forge on and the tapering heel is especially handy.  

[John McPherson]

I have never been able to locate and try out another anvil that is the equal of my 150 kilogram Euroanvil Southern German pattern with the upsetting block and side shelf. That includes the student anvils at JC Campbell Folk school, and many other places. Still have not tried a big Refflinghaus, Nimba, Fontanini, or Papa Rhino, so the jury is still out.

I will never trust another student on it, so it stays locked away and hidden most of the year. Sacrificial anvils are fine for those who hammer like lightning. (Uncontrollable, unpredictable, always damaging, and never in the same place twice!)

While I can work solo just fine on a 100 pound London pattern, 200 pounds is better. Not 2X better, but noticeably different. But I would want a much bigger anvil if I had more than 2 minutes of team striking with sledges.

Same thing applies to swage blocks. If you are hammering on a 90 pound swage with a 2 pound hammer on a light shape, fine. But you really NEED a big industrial block for big work.

[Foundryman]

Having learned on my 450lb Soho pattern anvil I can't really see me wanting anything more. The hardy hole at the horn end is very well supported and though its a large anvil it can mount two different hardys/stakes/mandrels at once allowing great flexibility when it comes to smaller work. I've even made a vice mount for the hardy holes as it makes a very stable filing platform in the absence of a post vise. I've done a lot of striking on it and it soaks up miss-hits and just doesn't care.

 

That being said it didn't stop me buying a 125lb brooks in pristine condition and I would absolutely love a 150lb church window anvil given the chance, there's just something about the way they look.

[Fatfudd]

I think Black Frog has nailed it. I have had and used many many anvils over the years. I like a large anvil and currently use 3 anvils over 300lbs in my shop. That being said the one I use for everything requiring detailed work is my 330lb Refflinghaus(south German style). The reason is pretty simple; the flat horn and the side shelf make detail work so much easier while having a broad face and really nice round horn. As you can see from the picture it resides in between my much larger anvils which also have their purposes but if I had to only have one anvil it would be the Refflinghaus. 

[Black Frog]

...that's a beautiful anvil FF.  

[gote]

I agree, also I would prefer a south German with upsetting block and shelf. I have the second best, a north Swedish. One sqare horn and one conical. The hardy hole is on the square side. This is better since I have the cone to the right. Thus there is no risk of hitting a cut off with the hammer hand. The hardy hole is also in a place where there is a substantial mass below and not out on a cantilever as the London pattern.

Weight, I have 250 pounds and I am happy with that. I see 200-300 pounds as a good weight. (for shop use not for lugging around) 

[Fatfudd]

Here is a nice video that shows a fellow's favorite anvils and tools-

 

[ThomasPowers]

They need to read Anvils in America----Peter Wright with an Hourglass indentation on the bottom??????????????

[Thief_Of_Navarre]

My 168 brooks London pattern is my favorite but my French double horn anvil is easily the most useful.

I concur with Black Frog and the rest of you though; the German style ones are ideal. I love the upsetting blocks. Saw a kohlswa in that style, but at 330lbs I didn't have the means to pick it up; it went for a steal @ £0.70 a pound. I cried into my beer a few times about that one!

[Frank Turley]

I used a 250# Trenton for about 40 years. It was my first heavy anvil that I purchased. Got it almost 50 years ago. I liked the horn shape, the slender heel and the deep step, the latter often used as a vee block for shaping.

Then Steve Fontanini was passing through town several years ago on his way to an Albuquerque smiths' conference. He called me and said I could have a deal on his 250# "Rathole." (I don't think he uses that name anymore). I said, "What's the deal?" He said that I wouldn't need to pay shipping, as he had several anvils and he would already be in Santa Fe. Anything else, I wanted to know? Well, he had made a sheet metal tray the shape of the base about 4" deep that would hold sand. The anvil would sit slightly into the tray and on top of the sand. He would throw that in gratis. Anything else? Steve said he would appreciate it if I would tell my students about his anvils. The Fontanini anvil has some of the German styling. It has the quadrilateral horn and a round horn, the latter being American ahaped with a belly rather than a straight sided cone. The upsetting block is on the near side with the horn facing left. My helper and I turned the anvil upside down and disc-sanded the side shelf to give it some sharpness. In that way we can forge hot splits on it such as when making barbeque fork tines.