I stopped at the scrap yard today to see if I could find an anvil or piece of metal better than my one inch stainless plate on a stump. I found this injection die casting mold set that I believe is solid tool steel and weight about 150 pounds. I’m torn between just standing on end and using as is, or cutting it up and welding in a different orientation. I also grabbed a couple bars that I think were fork lift tines. I grabbed them figuring I could either use as a horn on the tool steel, or make a smaller horned anvil. Would I be better off cutting a slab of the tool steel and attaching to a mild base, or leaving it solid? The hammer is for size reference and is 8 lbs. I will mostly be making knives but I want to get into more traditional iron work, and any input and ideas as to what to do with these blocks will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

All kinds of possibilities there. I would be inclined to stand it on edge, mounted on a stump and use it for a while before changing it.

 BTW welcome to IFI, if you haven't read this thread, I suggest it for getting the best out of the forum.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/48833-read-this-first/

 

Welding on tool steel can be an adventure depending on the alloy. I would just stand on edge and get to work. But, I would take a torch and get a little bit of a corner red hot and quench it to see how hard it gets. Try air first, then water.

If the two halves fit togeather tight like tgey shoud i would be inclined to stich weld them togeather with whatever rod i had but use a pre heat and post heat as doc is right welding toolsteel is an adventure but i have had good luck with non critical welds in places that wont hurt if they ( when they fail) 

i would not bother unless this gave me a bigger work surface 

otherwise i would just stand her on end and get to work

du

Since ThomasPowers hasn't chipped in with his forklift tine anvil story, I'll do it for him: check out http://www.marco-borromei.com/fork.html.

Yup, stand it up on edge for sure.  Down the road I think you will find loads of creative uses for those holes that will be on the side:

bending jigs, pivot point for a lever action hold down, plug in dies....just make sure it Ismaili mounted solidly so using the sides doesn’t cause a tip over.

I used it today for the first time to make a tool for work. I needed to make a hook for ripping heavy duty rubber seams. I used one of the locator pins to form the hook and it worked awesome. I knocked one of the pins out and they are also tool steel so I think I’m going to use 2 of them as punches or something. Any ideas on what to do with 1”x6” tool steel pins? I didn’t mount the block to a base yet but with the two pins knocked out of the bottom I’ll have the one inch holes to work with. Next step is a gas forge. I like using coal but I haven’t taken the time to make a solid setup so I have to rebuild something pretty much every time. Thanks for the input guys