I recently inherited a huge, fresh cut pine stump that I'd love to use as an anvil stand because the height is perfect, but I know soft wood is... Well... Soft.

Anything I can do to make it take a beating?

It should work fine without special treatment, you're beating on the anvil, not the block stand. My old stand is a white spruce block and was considerably softer than pine.

One last tip, Please do NOT use bolded letters to write the subject of your post. Sure it's attention getting but in an irritating way. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Soft and hard woods is kind of a misnomer. For example balsa wood which is quite soft and light is a hard wood. The hardest hard wood is harder than any soft but there are many soft woods that are harder than hard woods. Soft or hard is the way the resin veins are in the wood not the density of the wood. 

I use pine 4x4's for my anvil stand. Pine is actually a pretty tough wood or else we would not use it in so much construction. 

You could make a couple steel hoops to go around the log but i think like Frosty said it will work just fine as is. A plus to the hoops is that you can incorporate some tool and hammer holding hoops, hooks, etc. into them. 

I've been using the same piece of pine log as an anvil stnd for about 35 years and it is still doing fine.  Around here there isn't much hardwood.  So, an anvil stand has to be constructed out of steel or dimension lumber (pine) or a pine stump or log.  Putting steel bands around the stump or log is not a bad idea although I have done that to mine.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Southern Yellow Pine is one of the strongest and durable of all the different pine species. I learned that when doing repairs to my mothers house that was built in 1947. All the rafters and stud's were made from Yellow Pine and driving a nail into it was nearly impossible after 30 years.

The main thing when using it as an anvil stand is to remove the bark to stabilize it and so critters don't get under the bark and start boring in and weakening it.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

 

17 hours ago, happy days said:

Where did you get those ideas from ? 

Hardwood: Comes from angiosperm trees that are not monocots; trees are usually broad-leaved. Has vessel elements that transport water throughout the wood; under a microscope, these elements appear as pores.

Softwood: Comes from gymnosperm trees which usually have needles and cones. Medullary rays and tracheids transport water and produce sap. When viewed under a microscope, softwoods have no visible pores because of tracheids.

Pine and Cypress are two very different genera of tree.

People get these ideas from reading something other than social media. This for example is from a simple search.

https://pediaa.com/what-is-the-difference-between-cypress-and-pine/

Frosty The Lucky.

"Australian White Cypress Pine" is one of several "Common" names, it is NOT indicative of the species let alone the genera. It is of the genus, "columellaris,"  the genus Cypress. It is specifically, "Callitris columellaris (= C. glaucophylla)."

It is NOT of the genus, "Pinus." Other than being a conifer they are not remotely related.

A "common name" is what people call a thing and is not generally an accurate identifier. Almost every uneducated and some pretty well educated person out there calls any conifer a "pine."

Read something real. I'll link Wiki so as to not over burden you.

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › List_of_Pinus_species

 

You can have your own opinion about anything but you can not have your own facts. And the fact is that it is the growth pattern of the tree that determines if it is a hard wood or a soft wood, not the density or hardness of the wood. Like i said earlier balsa wood is a hardwood because of how it grows, yet is a very soft and light wood. 

Ahh, the distractor is gone we can get back to Paradigm 11's original question by. Your pine block will be more than stout enough for your anvil stand. No mere mortal is strong enough to damage it swinging a hammer at the anvil. You are good to go.

I don't recall if you've shown us a picture of your anvil. Please?

Frosty The Lucky.

 

use it; if it fails or rots, bet another one.

It can outlast you and the new stump could be a job for your childeren/grandchilderen.

 

22 hours ago, BillyBones said:

it is the growth pattern of the tree that determines if it is a hard wood or a soft wood, not the density or hardness of the wood.

Per your earlier article, "hardwood"/"softwood" is a function of biology, while "hard wood"/"soft wood" is a function of both biology and how an individual tree grows. For example, old-growth southern yellow pine is generally harder than second-growth, because the larger number of growth rings per inch means a greater density of the harder "latewood" that forms at the end of each growing season.

We're painting ourselves in a corner here guys. "Hardwood, Softwood," are nouns (pronouns?) where Hard, wood and Soft, wood are descriptive phrases, adjectives. 

For example, "Are you sure it's a softwood, it is really hard wood!" Another example Yellow Pine (softwood) vs Cottonwood (hardwood). I can mar cottonwood lumber with a fingernail where almost any pine lumber laughs at it.

Frosty The Lucky.

Indeed, balsa wood is a hardwood, but hardly a hard wood. 

22 hours ago, Frosty said:

Your pine block will be more than stout enough for your anvil stand.

I agree with frosty.  You will be hitting hot metal on the anvil, not beating the stump.

 both will burn. If you don`t like it , make firewood and start over. 

imo if the shop floor is dry, it won`t make too much difference. Rot has been one reason my previous wood stands were replaced. 

Personally I like heavy stands ( not if you need to move the anvil a lot)  Oak would be my choice,  but i use steel nowadays.  

On 7/26/2024 at 3:38 PM, Frosty said:

It should work fine without special treatment, you're beating on the anvil, not the block stand. My old stand is a white spruce block and was considerably softer than pine.

One last tip, Please do NOT use bolded letters to write the subject of your post. Sure it's attention getting but in an irritating way. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I apologize, I was on my phone when I posted it and did not intend to do so!

As for the anvil and stump, here is the most recent pic I have of both:

The anvil itself is probably in the 60-75lb range. I got this one for free and eventually will be getting a less well loved one once I finish my little forge area (which is this crowded little place). Some of you may remember my post from last year of me building a little forge area. Still working on it, but it survived the winter with flying colors.

Frosty was very helpful in that thread as well

Aw shucks. <shuffle shuffle>

Glad to be of help.

Frosty The Lucky.

I need to get a stump for my small Anvil as well. 

You don't need a "stump" for an anvil stand, just lengths of 4" x 4" lumber cut to the correct length and screwed and glued together with lag screws and wood glue.

Do NOT use screws that go all the way through both pieces, snagging your leg on the sharp ends smarts!  If you have the use of a drill press clamp two pieces together on the table (With a THIN layer of glue between them) so you can match the holes without precision measuring. Start the holes with an oversize bit so you can drop a washer in the hole 3/4" deep is more than enough. Then drill the pilot hole for the lag screw. There are charts to tell you what size drill bit for the pilot, bigger is NOT better.

Without unclamping the stack from the drill table lube the lag screw with wood glue and screw it in tight. NO, don't tighten it as hard as you can, use a cheater pipe, etc. just snug + 1/4 - 1/2 turn. You want to see wood glue squeeze from between the pieces being joined.

Does that make sense so far? Questions are welcome if it's not.

Once it's had a few minutes for the glue to set unclamp it from the drill table CAREFULLY so it doesn't shift. Now do the same thing on the other end of this pair of 4" x 4" pieces. 

When that is done do it to the other two pieces. Then repeat the process to put the two halves of your anvil block together into one very solid anvil block.

It's a LOT easier than it sounds and us old hands wouldn't need the "fail safes" I lined out for you but we have a LOT more shop experience so we can be trickier. 

Give a shout if you have problems,

Frosty The Lucky.

That is how i made my anvil stand. I then ran a "collar" of 2x4's around the top and bottom so it looks kind of like a podium. I later put 2 pieces of 2x8 on 2 sides so that i could use turn buckles to hold the anvil to the stand. A couple pieces of angle iron on the front and back anchored to the floor and she solid. 

My very first anvil stand was a 722.6 transmission case. Set it on the bell housing then ran some bolts through the holes for the tale housing, bolted a piece of wood to it and attached the anvil to the wood. 

A lumber stand works dandy and is more portable. Clamping it down make it ring less, but it's sometimes useful to be able to move the anvil around or turn it on its side or end. If I remember correctly, think these were made from cedar 4x6s, bought on discount. If I'm wrong, then it's fir.

I ran into the wood wanting to split so I made some hoops and iron bound the stump that is my swage block stand.

If outdoors but covered; setting it on some pressure treated 1X planks will protect it from water and insects.

Giving it a good coating of BLO (Boiled Linseed Oil), particularly on the ends would help protect it and probably make it more insect and rot resistant.

We don't have much in the way of large hardwoods out here in the west.  It is mainly various pines, spruces, aspen, and cottonwood.  So, all my stumps/logs are pine.  I have found that any splits that develop during seasoning/drying pretty well stabilize once equilibrium has been reached.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Here in NW Florida we have many, many live oaks.  They're all over the place.  Pres. John Quincey Adams established the Naval Live Oaks Reservation, which was the first federal tree farm.  It was planted so the U.S. Navy would have the necessary wood needed for ship building.  My neighbor cut one down in his yard and offered me several big sections of the trunk.  I didn't think it though and said yes.  They've been lying around my backyard for three or four years. No rot or insect damage whatsoever. I'm eventually going to roll one into my smithy to use for shaping shovels and spoons, etc.  The wife took one for a plant stand.  The others are probably going to the dump eventually, but they're so dense and heavy I always put if off for later.

At the top of my street, they're clearing a commercial lot.  I saw a live oak stump sitting on a triple axle trailer. It was huge, 4-5' in diameter.  Kind of made me sad seeing such an old, majestic tree cut down to landfill waste.