Making Anvils

[warthog02]

I'll make this thread for anyone interested in making anvils using the traditional forge welded method. I recently was able to make a 10 oz mild steel anvil, of 5 forge welded pieces with no pre tack welds. I hope to make more of these and eventually get up to a 10 pounder. If anyone else has forged an anvil, ideally by forge welding but even one piece it'd be cool to see it here. I did a video on making the small anvil, but didn't get a lot of footage of the first few welds. It has a tool steel top, however, and besides its size it is functional as an anvil and stays together.

https://youtu.be/OrZn3NP7cQ0

 

[ShoreB]

Nice video!

 

Joey van der Steeg, who used to (and may still) post here as TechnicusJoe, has some great videos of himself forging small anvils.  Link to his public playlist.

https://youtube.com/@technicusjoe?feature=shared

[ShoreB]

Ignore the above next time ill watch to the very end!  Great vid

[Frosty]

Guys, making videos is a wonderful way to show your stuff but if what you are doing isn't worth watching in detail just skip to the next part the speeded up video shows NOTHING of value and it's annoying as all git out.

YMMV

Frosty The Lucky.

[warthog02]

Yeah I didn't want to speed it up, but my phone camera just didn't pick up much detail with how bright it was glowing. Hopefully in another video I'm able to get better footage. 

[Frosty]

I hear you, phone cameras are only sophisticated in a couple ways. I miss shooting film and developing prints. I don't even know if my Iphone would work with filters. I may try taping some over the lens and see some day.

Cool little anvil, how long did it take you to make?

Frosty The Lucky.

[warthog02]

The mild steel was stubborn in welding, so probably 6ish hours spread over a couple days. I hope to use wrought iron for my next one.

[Frosty]

I probably would've only used 2 pieces, body and face plate but I'm a simple kind of guy. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[warthog02]

That's certainly valid, I had made a little stake anvil with just 2. This project was mostly to challenge myself and imitate the "build up" method early anvils would've been made by. I think postman said most anvils up to 80 lbs, even during the colonial period, were just 2 pieces. So taking 5 pieces to make a 5/8 lb anvil is definitely overkill.

[Frosty]

Nah, "Just because," is as valid a reason as any that don't have lives riding on them. Heck, I blacksmith just because I get to play with fire and hit things with hammers. Good times.

Frosty The Lucky.

[swedefiddle]

Good Morning,

At CanIRON II in Calgary, 1999, an older Blacksmith from Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, brought his 'little' Anvil. He had made it from 5 pieces of 'Off-Cuts'. He didn't need a security chain to keep it in one place. It weighed over 350lbs. LOL  Mr. Plant just did things like this, just because he could. Yes, 350lbs was his 'little' Anvil, not his 'baby' Anvil. You could say he was 'old School', he didn't ask for permission first. He already had his mind made up to do it!!

Neil

[Nobody Special]

Well, it wasn't the manipulating huge chunks of iron at forging or welding temps and the actual forge welding that was such a pain, although it is very much a pain, so much as heat treating 100 to 250 lbs of metal. I've seen a few methods, but mostly they involve insane amounts of rapidly moving water. I guess if you didn't have that at hand, you could allow work hardening, although it wouldn't really be the same.

In one or two of the multitude of books, I read somewhere that it used to be fairly common for at least some smiths to heat and dress anvils when they started to mushroom or get sway and whatnot. Don't know if I'd want to try it, but then again, I live in the era of power tools.

[billyO]

Here's a video of the last day where we welded the tool steel top to the previously forge/welded wrought iron base.  Final weight 82#.  It took us about 8 months to get to this point.  A fun project to be involved with.

https://youtu.be/1WB26KZuuJ8?si=L2tPNUx5B4DLycX3

[Frosty]

Nice Chambersburg, sure takes a lot of the sweat and guesswork out of that scale forging and welding. Looking good so far, how soon do we get a peak at the finished anvil? 

I envy you guys having that much fun for 8 months! 

Frosty The Lucky.

[billyO]

3 hours ago, Frosty said:

, how soon do we get a peak at the finished anvil? 

Frosty The Lucky.

Just bringing back memories, Frosty.  The anvil was finished 14 years ago and has been at Camlann medieval village outside of Seattle since then.  The 8 months were from start to finish of the project where we made 6 anvils from 6-50 lbs before doing this one.  I'll look for a picture of the final product.

[Frosty]

Is the village open to the public? We don't get to the PAC NW very often but the Frost and other clans were early settlers in the area so I have family all over the place and do visit once in a while. 

Heck, we'll rent garb if necessary. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[billyO]

12 hours ago, Frosty said:

Is the village open to the public?

Yes, May-Sept the village is open, the restaurant is open year round, IIRC.

Here's a link:   Camlann Medieval Village

[Frosty]

Well, that looks like a horrible ordeal! Bards and Mimes, keep thy purse tight!

We'll have it on our visit list for when we're in the area. Deb's oldest son lives in Madred Or. IIRC so we'll be close. Thanks.

Frosty The Lucky.

[warthog02]

That's one of my favorite videos on YouTube. Can't imagine the amount of heat radiating off that thing. I hope to make a 20 lb anvil one day, 82 lbs is very impressive.