April 22, 20224 yr I love Frankanvil, it has so much character and gobs of useful shapes, all it needs is a couple copper electrodes. The block with the two depressions in the near side would make an excellent Y1K anvil. Nice spread of anvils you have there. Frosty The Lucky.
April 22, 20224 yr I like the Frankanvil too, but I am a little concerned about that anvil stand for it.
April 22, 20224 yr IF that's frankanvil's stand then YES, build a proper stand! I'd assumed (yeah I know) it was for the photo. Frosty The Lucky.
April 30, 20224 yr Well, I decided to forgo permanent wheels for a first cut, and just made a base out of ganged 4x4s of the correct height to raise my lovely 200 pound A2 steel block to a good working height for me. It is a bit unwieldy, but with a 15' length of 1 inch tubular webbing (left over from my rock climbing days and not shown in the photos) and a hand truck it is transportable (if not portable). The base is framed in with 2x4s and the block is held vertical with a frame of 2x4s at top and bottom. I will note that while I'm not yet a skilled blacksmith, I'm also not a skilled carpenter. But it feels sturdy, supports the block just fine, and should at least serve me for now. Next step is to take an angle grinder to the sharp edges of the top face and round them out, at least for part of the length. A lot of refinement of the stand would be possible, but I think I'm going to try to use this as is for a while. Woot! A 7"x4" surface to pound on instead of a tiny railroad track end that was barely as large as my hammer head.
May 2, 20224 yr Pault17 - Nice collection, Frankanvil looks very versatile! That mounting flange looks like a perfect fit for the sledge hammer head. Do you use anything to hold it in there? TommyVee - You'll inspire some serious improvised anvil envy with that beast! I think I would want it closer to one side of the mount to reduce reaching. But as you said, use it as is and see what feels right. There's plenty of room there to add a plate with a hardy hole too.
May 2, 20224 yr I agree with Melancholy, you may find your toes up against the base. It is understandable that with such a mass that one would make such a wide base. Should you decide to modify it at some point, there is a method for working out a new, safe, base width. Robert Taylor
May 3, 20224 yr I have already found myself thinking the base is a little large and I have to lean over a bit too much while working. At some point I will want to modify it. But for now I will use it as is and try and get some actual forging skill going before trying to perfect my equipment. This thing is already orders of magnitude better than my little railroad track.
May 3, 20224 yr i built my stand to the height needed for myself... since then i grew 1-2 inches and am working at becoming a hunchback
May 3, 20224 yr Oh, and one of the things I picked up at the same estate sale as this block of steel was a pair of small stake plates and a cone mandrel that fits one of them. I noted that one of them would fit well in a corner of the top surface if I devised some hold down for it, although it would be a little low. Of course I could always add some support to raise it up... Seems the same plate could also be used to hold a hardy or other square-shanked tools. But that is for later. For now, I've got part of my railroad track ground down into a hot cut tool and it works well enough for the little things I'm working on so far.
May 4, 20224 yr That cone mandrel looks really handy. If you can find a way to mount those plates so they don't spin they would be great tool holders. Maybe not as important for the cone and some other tools, but it would be a hassle if they moved while you're trying to use a bending fork. Once you figure that out I say mount the both. Then add a bolster plate for punching and drifting and I think you would have a hard time finding a better anvil!
May 4, 20224 yr One thing I have run into is people not wanting an improvised anvil as they tend to lack a hardy hole; yes folks managed to forge on anvils with no hardy hole for several thousand years---but it is a handy addition. So to go with your improvised anvils---improvised hardy holes! Picked up this one at the scrapyard today, 25 USCents a pound: A previous find, back when steel was 20 USCents a pound at my local scrapyard: At 50 pounds this slab also works as a nice cutting plate and the round holes do have a 1" square section past the countersink.
May 4, 20224 yr I don't recall but with the lumber anvil stand I assume (Go ahead guys I can take it!) you don't have a welder. Can your anvil be drilled and tapped? If so, a piece of 1 1/2" x 1/4" angle iron can be bolted to one corner with a space between the inside and the anvil side the same as the shank on your bottom tools. Another small piece of angle can be drilled and tapped to make up the 4th side of the improvised hardy hole. So long as one side of the bottom tool rests on your anvil face and you don't hammer away from the anvil it should be plenty strong. If a bolt shears, drill and tap more. Stop when screws stop shearing or the angle iron is so perforated it tears off like toilet paper. I don't know what those pieces with the square female sections are but I doubt they were intended as stake holders. They may work splendidly as stake plates but I don't think it's in their genes. SWEET scores! Frosty The Lucky.
May 5, 20224 yr You are correct, I have neither a welder nor welding skill. However, I am taking a welding class at a local makerspace soon, and will have access to one of those two things and just enough training to be dangerous with it. I planned to fabricate a vise stand patterned off of the one in Mark Aspery's book with this newfound danger -- my new leg vise really needs a stand and to be used. The lumber stand is what I could do with what I have in the short term. It was serviceable enough the one time I've actually squished metal on it (the day after the stand was assembled). The block of steel surely could be drilled and tapped. Your idea for making an improvised hardy hole out of angle iron is one I'll definitely consider if I can't come up with a way of using these circula. I know that these plates probably didn't begin life as stake plates, but they were part of a pile of stake tools that were in a silent auction at the "shop liquidation sale" for a deceased NMABA member, and nobody but me wanted them so they became mine for $10 for the pair. They fit just about every stake tool that was up for auction that day (I only won the auction on the cone mandrel), so I am calling them my stake plates. If I could mount them up so they don't spin and stay put at a comfortable height, I think they will serve well enough.
May 5, 20224 yr You're doing great, you made a working anvil, it's not perfect for sure but it will work. You can use it while you learn the skills and gain the tools to make a better stand. That is so much better than the number of guys who wait till they have the "perfect" tools before they build a fire and start forging. The cone is an excellent score and I would've picked up the stake plate thingies myself. I think if I had your anvil I'd mount one stake plate up and the other horizontally. That way you can use the cone as an anvil horn or a mandrel cone. The socket thingies have some interesting shapes themselves and might've felt my hammer finding out. You're going to make a good blacksmith in no time. Frosty The Lucky.
May 5, 20224 yr One way to anchor the round stake plates would be to cut a hole in some light weight plate that will fit over the tapered base but not all the way down. Then screw the corners of the plate to the anvil stand. Hope that makes sense.
May 5, 20224 yr Oh, it absolutely make sense. Sounds more secure for these round plates than what I was thinking, which was just to cut some small square steel plates with holes in them for bolts, and then just use them to clamp the base down in a few places around the circumference (I did something similar in the mount for my railroad track, and have seen a bunch of posts in this thread with the same idea).
May 13, 20224 yr I fabbed a quick stand from a bunch of 4x6 wood scrap. My youngest is modeling for me the stand survived a long day of beating by a bunch of 10-13 year-olds TommyVee, I sorta envy your cone mandrel. that is one thing I have a shortage of - cones of any sort Edited May 13, 20224 yr by Pault17 clarification
July 3, 20223 yr Mod note: IFI member Seth21 posted here about his homemade anvil: The discussion of this anvil has grown to the point that it merits its own thread. For more photos and to continue this discussion, please visit: https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/69662-my-homemade-anvil/
July 12, 20223 yr I found this 90 pound piece of 1 3/4" plate in the drops area at the local steel supplier. It's roughly 9" x 18" with a 2" x 4" cutout on one end and some 3/8" plate welded to the other end. I cut off the 3/8" plate and welded on some pieces of bed frame so I could lag it to a stand I made from some 4.5" cedar post scraps. A piece of an old floor mat is sandwiched between the plate and stand to mute the ring. In the cutout I added some 1" tube to create a 3/4" hardy hole and reinforced it with a piece of 1" round bar and pieces of the 3/8" plate that had been welded to the chunk. There's an opening so it won't fill up with scale/slugs and so I can tap out tools from the bottom if they get stuck in the hardy hole. I'm very new to welding so it's not the prettiest, but I tested it with a hammer and it seems solid. If any of the welding gives out I'll just take it as an opportunity for more practice. I like the Brazeal style plate anvils with multiple dies so I'm planning to grind a 1 3/4" diameter fuller on one end for drawing out stock but since I can make tools for the hardy hole I'll stick with mostly flat for now.
July 12, 20223 yr Author As you will find you do 90% of your forging over a sweet square of real estate, you may find you have enugh room for a couple of different fullers.
July 12, 20223 yr Thanks, JHCC! Charles, I completely agree with you. My other anvil is a vertical rail with some ideas taken from your thread (thanks for that!) so I'm used to working on a small sweet spot. There's room for a couple more features on the top I just want to use it for a bit before I decide what to add. Plenty of room to cut and or weld features to the sides too
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