Are you Left or Right???

[gpworks]

Somebody put something up about which way should you point the horn on the anvil.Heres my question ,what hand do you favor hitting that anvil with?left or right. i stared a lefty but have adapted to a right hand world...

[Rasper77]

I would be a righty

[highlander]

either or, however i prefer to hold the tongs with my left hand, so that usually leaves me hitting with the right hand

[teejay]

ambidextrous myself, maybe favor the right a little more. learned that from an old farmer when I first got started smithing. Now all my shirts fit right!

[Woodeye]

I am right handed and hit with my right hand. My anvil has the horn set on my right side. This way with tongs in left hand I can bend down and to the right and seen under and behind the horn to see what the heck is going on down there.

[HWooldridge]

I am right handed but prefer to use the horn to the right. That puts the hardy tools on the left and I can draw over the horn more easily. I've worked with the conventional style of the horn pointing to the left but I am more comfortable with this arrangement.

[rustyshackleford]

I'm a lefty, horn to the left, and I prefer to hit the steel, not the anvil (ooh, couldn't resist!)

[RainsFire]

lefty, point horn to the right unless I'm working on hammering a bevel for an edge.. then I turn it around and use the "saddle" where the face ends, and the horn begins

[Francis Trez Cole]

I hit with my right hand but like the horn to the left I prefer the harder hole to my right

[orgtwister]

i hit with my right and facing the anvilhorn usally to the left but if i need it theother way i just pick up the anvil and the oak stump and turn it of corse its only 130 pound anvil i guess its around 200 all together i'm still using the muscle over brains some day i'll learn

[Finnr]

Hit right handed, the horn points to my left.
Finnr

[ironrosefarms]

Right hand dominant and typically I keep the anvil with the horn on the right...

[Mark Aspery]

I swing a hammer with my right hand and have the bick or horn of the anvil oriented to my left.

This allows me to chamfer eyes and do bevelled scroll work -where I have to move completely around the bick - without interfering with my hammer hand.

I would prefer the hardy to be to my left over the mass of the anvil. This is not a safety concern as I rarely use a hardy cut off - favoring a hot-cut chisel, but a pragmatic want to get more return to my hammer blows.

Alas I have a London Pattern anvil and the hardy hole is in the heel and so to my right.

[jayco]

I'm right handed. When I started out, I turned the horn to the right. I found that handy for some things, like keeping my hammer hand away from sharp hardie tools.....But I seldom used the heel of the anvil for any thing. It was just awkward, I guess. I rarely turned the anvil the other way because the old shop was so cramped.

When I moved to a larger shop, since I then had room, I began turning the horn to the left. I started using the heel more since it was much more accessable.
I still like the 'horn to the right' for some things, but I was surprised that it was so easy to get used to 'horn to the left' as well.

I may twist my anvil and stump around a couple times a day, searching for what 'feels right'
I learn something new every day!

[Fruityloops31]

hammer with my right , horn on the right

[Wayne]

Hammer with my right, horn to the left

[ThomasPowers]

Yes! and also pointing directly towards me and directly away from me. (right handed; but my main shop anvil has a hardy hole at either end so that's a non-issue)

[Hammered]

Swing with my right, and horn to the left.

[Blackbeard]

Im a lefty too horn to the left but im ambi so hit with any hand
Bb

[rustyshackleford]

I need to work on my ambidexterity, just for giggles

[Irish Rover]

Right handed and use the horn on my right.
I have an old 400 lb Wilkinson anvil sitting on a hard wood stump buried 3 feet into the floor, it took me a long time to make up my mind on this one!
Moving that thing is not something I want to do often.
If I need the anvil the other way I simply step around it, the metal ain't gonna cool that fast.

[Daryl]

My anvil (having two horns) is placed such that the position of the hardy hole is closest to the hand that holds my tongs - away from my hammer hand and lessening the risk of injury when cycling from the anvil to the cut-off hardy when it is placed in the hardy hole. This also puts the upsetting block toward me and the preanvil at the far side of my manvil face.

[CBrann]

Horn right, hammer right, working on left hammer, but thats a work in progress.

[Arbalist]

Hammer with my right and the horn to the left.

[Frosty]

Hammer right handed, horn in whichever direction I need it. I turn the 125 lb and walk around the 200lb.

Frosty