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I Forge Iron

Anvils revisited


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To those people who do not currently own a good anvil but wish to do some serious forging - you should definitely study the tools that the Brazeal Brothers developed.

Their demo anvil was a piece of 2 inch thick plate, about 16 inches square, set on edge in an angle iron stand, with 4 different working surfaces available for use. One surface was a butcher or side set, one was flat and the other two were different bottom fullers. A small leg vise and small anvil completed the setup but these guys were able to work wonders with non-traditional tool designs.

Enjoy your London or European pattern if that is what you have or can obtain, but do not ignore unusual surfaces that can be used to forge works of art. Think outside of the box...

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over the years in different places and different countries, I have used almost everything imaginable as a temporary anvil and have actually construdted anvils and forges as needed especially overseas while in the SeaBees, Smithing is not a rating anymore in the Navy and for those who had the training and ability to smith, tools were almost nonexistant, so we learned to Adapt, Overcome, Improvise and occasionally procure by devious means the equipment to work with.

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I like their anvil, it reminds me of some of my improvisations. None of mine were quite that nice though. My favorite and one I should've brought home was a big axle I set flange up in a sand bar on the Resurection River. I don't know what it was out of but the shaft was a good 3" dia and the flange was about 14" dia. x 1 1/4" thick with 10 Or 12 (I don't recall) 7/8" bolt holes around it. The center of the flange was pretty flat for about 3" dia and then domed down to the flange.

It was an excellent field expedient anvil with flat face, fuller, swages and holes for punching, bending forks (pins actually, made from bolts) and such.

London pattern is nice but certainly not the only game on planet earth.

Frosty

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The Brazeal brothers featured their Easy Smith 3? at this year's CBA Spring Conference. It looked kind of like the above, but it had a square and rounded horn. Also, a pritchel hole on the square horn. Ed said it "makes all other anvils obsolete", and I could immediately appreciate its strong points. I noticed a lot of fine dents in the face and asked him if it was mild steel. He said it was. I asked if it lacked rebound, and he replied that rebound would be nice but it isn't necessary. This was pretty shocking to me, but according to one of my forging mechanics textbooks, rebound is not essential when forging hot. Hmmm, perhaps he's right. I asked why it wasn't dinged worse, and someone in the audience said that Ed and Brian never miss. Ed invited someone to strike for him on the Easy Smith, and they drew out a tong rein. So much for that comment.

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That's a pretty nifty setup. Bet it's pretty soild too; that's 145lb of steel mostly under the hammer (unlike London and Euro patterns, where much of the mass is in the horn and heel). Great to think outside of the box.

Coincidentally I've been thinking along similar lines recently; a combined anvil and swage block, a little like Anvils-1. If the weight were kept fairly reasonable, and with a fabbed angle-iron stand I can imagine it being a very versatile tool; anvil, fuller, swage in one, and fairly easy to tote to demos and such.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 6 months later...

That has got to be the greatest homemade anvil i ever seen! As i understand the surface has not been hardened? I know rebound isnt neccesary but doesnt that make for wasted energy? If you were to heat treat this anvil or any other how do you think you would do it? Im thinking you could bring it up to heat slowly for a uniform heat in a big coal fire and quench it in water or oil depending and watch the colors run. If im dreaming let me know:cool:

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My anvil, (though I chose a London pattern like shape simply for asthetics), is cut from mild plate with no heat treating or hard facing other than what little surface hardening occurs from flame cutting. It has a wonderful rebound. Wasted energy? It's not made of lead or cast iron ;) Even mild steel bounces.

DSCN1762-1.jpg

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The Brazeal bro's anvil is cool especially if your on a very tight budget but aesthetics mean a lot to me. So i'd much sooner go with dodges design (plus it has a horn) or just save up for a real anvil in the 100# range. My Gladiator was my big 30year old present which came from parents, grandparents, and family all chipping in. It was a very cool present, one that they couldn't really understand why I would want, but now they are seeing more of my work I think they get it ;)

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Dodge, that anvil looks gorgeous. I am curious what Brian's anvil with a similar design to the one pictured in the start of this thread but with a flat and round horn as was mentioned somewhere on the first page of this post looks like.

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