anvil?

[ThomasPowers]

Farriers anvils generally have a clip on the side near where the horn and body meet. new ones may have turning cams built in on a side or end.

Farriers Anvils tend to be on the small side as they were often moved from jobsite to jobsite and the old large ones made for a shop may have a very narrow face. I once owned a 190# Hay Buden swell horned farrier's anvil that the face on it was about 1/2 the widh of my 90# general smithing anvil. The horn was quite large though and was wider than the body of the anvil!

Some fairly modern farrier's anvils have been cast from "semi-steel" or other varieties of cast iron that are more ductile than the plain old gray cast iron of the HF ASO's.

[Johannes]

most farriers anvill these days are fairly light,
some even have cast aluminum boddy's with a steel upperbody and face.
I would not advise one of those for general smithing work.
the clip on the the side of a farriers anvil is meant to "pul a clip" on a shoe, (a toe clip or side clips). the turning cams are used to adjust the last bend, in the end of a horse shoe, to adjust, not to actually turn them, thats done over the horn, also a hinde shoe has to often have a straightnend out partion in the quarter of the toe, to do this you need a narrow flat surface, that why some farriers anvils have a narrowed heel, or a second or flatend horn.
remember that perfectly fitting a shoe is millimeter work.
some farriers prefere softer anvils, like the O'Dwyer anvils with are cast in SG-iron, witch only have a 24 rockwell hardness, (they are dustibuted by mustad) this is mostely done for sound reduction end to make clod forming work "stick" to the envil better. I no fan of this, and most farriers i know don't eiter, but their all people who do more warm shoeing and less cold shoeing.

kind regards