So I got this Acciaio anvil a couple months back, it was a great gift and I'm generally really happy with it, but its got a squat horn and from my little previous experience on other anvils, I really prefer to work on a round one.

Well, I'm not going to spend six hours with an angle grinder to make the horn narrower, so If I want something more conical to work on, I'll have to make a bick.

Or two.

So these are what I've come up with... two bicks, one tapers from 2 1/4 down to 1 1/8 and the other goes from 1 5/8 down to about 1/2"

The larger one was a lead screw that came out of a cylindrical grinder (thus the bearing journal and big fat collar at the base of the cone, and the other is a drop left over from a job. Both are 4140 and both will go out for hardening when I have accumulated a few more things to go in one batch.

I haven't cut the shanks for the hardy hole yet, which on this anvil is 30mm or a little over 1 1/8" On the smaller one that won't leave me much of a shoulder to distribute hammer blows into the surface of the anvil, so I'll probably weld on a small collar, maybe 2" around.

Next to the bicks  in the hardy hole is a little fuller I put together the other night while I was playing around making some leaves, nothing special, all just HRS but it did a nice job.

Any thoughts or suggestions (other than where I can stick those bicks) are greatly appreciated!

I wouldn’t bother with putting a collar on the small bick. It’s going to see side forces. So, no worries about having a big shoulder on it.

If you will be happier with the collar go for it and be proud of them. You’ve made some nice tools.

Keep it fun,

David