As to rails, I’ve long wanted to find a small section. Anyone know
where to get piece 6" or so?
Allan
Thanks to everyone for their comments on helping me improve my anvil
situation. Apparently my hunk-o-junk is the previously described
"anvil-shaped-object." I really like the idea of the anvil made from
a rail track.
Thanks,
JamieK
The other hard part was drilling the four holes to bolt it to my stump. Instead of buying an expensive carbide drill bit, I used.223 cal armor piercing rounds. Except for the one that ricochet (sp?) off the thick spot and lodged in my hip, it all went swimmingly
Aw Dude, you should have just use rail spikes 
You could have
even pre drilled the stump.
However, shooting holes in metal appeals to my wicked side 
If I
had to put a hole in metal like that, I’d mix up some powder and burn
a hole through it.
Regards Charles
Hi Allan,
As to rails, I've long wanted to find a small section. Anyone know where to get piece 6" or so?
If you have a rail line going through your locality, you might check
with the folkds that work on the section crew. They may be able to
help you out. Another place is a local junk yard.
Dave
I think one important thing that hasn't been broached is what you need an anvil FOR.
Good point, John. While large anvils are sometimes overkill, they
can, however, perform nicely for much smallish work. My 200 lb.
Trenton stays put, rebounds like a champ and its steel-over-iron
construction rings politely with an ‘indoor voice’. Although prices
for older anvils have doubled and even tripled over the last decade,
well-cared-for anvils can still be found for far less than new. Mine
cost $1.35/lb delivered, but these days, expect $2, $3 or even $3+
per lb.
Portable? Not really. Which is why I have a couple smaller anvils,
too. Do I really need it? Not as much as I used to, but I’d hate to
give it up. Other drawbacks? I had to put in a few hours smoothing
some small dings before polishing the top plate and upper horn (I
left the patina on the rest, of course). And as I didn’t have a
seasoned stump, I had to build a stand out of walnut left over from
two workbenches.
Here’s a pic before I refinished the working surfaces.
Now if I was buying a NEW anvil, I’d choose something big enough to
do serious work, with enough mass to grow into but not so much I
couldn’t occasionally move it. I’d probably opt for the smallest
Nimba anvil. Sweet. And nowhere near $2,500.
But for casual and smaller work RR track is just fine and certainly
much cheaper.
David Barnett
I’ve got the Old World Anvil’s 44 pounder “Austrian Style” anvil -
pretty nice anvil for the price, especially compared to used ones
that often need to be reground to be of any real use, and sell for
even more!
Bought it about 8-9 years ago, and made a 16x16x22 anvil block for
it from glued-up 2x6 stock. Mounted next to the anvil is a
stake-holder, with a piece of old belt screwed in loops around the
top edge to hold hammers.
It passes the ball-bearing test nicely!
Regards,
Bob Edwards
Chromis Designs
San Francisco
Interesting thread..... I think one important thing that hasn't been broached is what you need an anvil FOR.
Very true, if you’re going to do light work, like making a plain
steel knife or ferrous jewellery then a small block of steel will do,
it doesn’t even need to have a hardened surface (just replace it when
it’s too buggered).
Regards Charles
However, shooting holes in metal appeals to my wicked side ;-) If I had to put a hole in metal like that, I'd mix up some powder and burn a hole through it.
Try a cutting torch. Prooven technology, and a lot less likely to
leave you crippled or your house blown up.
Peter
I assume the original poster on this thread has a real need for asking, but for others who are reading this thread and thinking they need a big old anvil in the middle of the room, you might pause and ask yourself why? There's all sorts of things you can bang on if it's just casual and occasional, like me. But many people really do need and use the big boys..
Ill agree whole heartedly, and will make the recomendation on an
anvil made by Nimba. I purchased their smallest anvil the Titan,
and small is a silly word, its 120lbs…I have a short writeup on my
blog.
http://patpruitt.ganoksin.com/blogs/2009/01/19/
I will say this is some super hard steel, several months ago, I
tried to machine the surface to get it super flat…well, the anvil
ate up a number of solid carbide endmills…needless to say ive still
got a lot of hand clean up to do on this surface…its close, but not
where I would like it to be.
Yes, having a big anvil is used a lot more than I origionally
thought.
P@
Well, I have certainly been enjoying the path that this thread has
taken. I remember asking my mentor, when he gave me the railroad
track, if he didn’t think I needed something bigger. His reply:
“Well, you ain’t shoein’ horses, are you?”
Guess not.
I use my railroad track every day, working in our store/workshop 5-6
days/week, (not exactly casual use) and have never really needed
anything bigger.
I guess I’ll purchase something bigger when the need arises, or when
that horse walks through the front door…
Peggy Wilson
Harbor Jewelers
Try a cutting torch. Prooven technology, and a lot less likely to leave you crippled or your house blown up.
Funnily enough the powders “are” proven technology
As with anything, if you do the research and set up safety
procedures, then you’ll be less likely to have an accident.
A cutting torch is not as fast, as the powders.
Regards Charles
Sometimes you can get lucky. I once happened on a 210 lb farrier’s
anvil at an antique shop. They were glad to get rid of it for $40!! I
used it for many years, then had to get rid of it when I moved into
an apartment for a while.
John
Indiana
I have an anvil made from a railroad rail. A friend at church made it
up for me. He made one end tapered and attached a horn at the other
end. There is a hole in the area below the top of the rail; I have
run some steel strap through there and nailed it to the stump on
which the anvil sits, to keep the anvil from bouncing. I think he
flattened out the top a bit, at the horn end, so that the curved top
of the rest of the rail is not a bother. He even put my initials at
the bottom of the rail. The only drawback is that the rail rings
like crazy when I do a lot of hammering, even though I put some
leather underneath it (I also tried the magnet idea, mentioned some
time ago by someone on Orchid), to no avail. I wear my "ear muffs"
when I hammer on this anvil.
I also use an old iron (one without steam holes), minus its handle
and sitting upside down in a wooden base, as an anvil. It’s great,
too, and doesn’t ring or bounce.
Judy Bjorkman
All,
I had struck up a friendship with an accredited scrap metal recycler
who set up shop in my neighborhood (Gallup, approximately) a couple
months ago.
Turns out he has a steady and legal access to surplus railroad track.
I told him how many jewelers were looking for six inch to 12 inch
sections of rail for anvils and willing to pay good money for them.
He’s also a steelworker, among other things, and so he is able and
willing to slice up track to your order.
You can contact him at [poohoover at yahoo dot] com for price.
He’s going to slice and serve me up a foot as my commission for
finding you guys as a market for him.
Cheers,
Andrew
I’ve had a Nimba Gladiator for about 15 years. It’s a great anvil,
standing up to serious forging. Their choice of 8640 cast steel is a
good one.
Farriers’ anvils will provide good quality at a more portable size.
Check out http://www.piehtoolco.com/ for a good selection.
Good used anvils are hard to find, and thanks to the resurgence in
ironworking, won’t come cheap.
Mark Layton
The Millrace Studios LLC
Hi Charles,
Errr…It’s hard to tell over email: were you joking about using
.223 AP rounds to punch bolt down holes in your RR track anvil?
Rather than.223 AP, which leaves holes that look for all the world
like someone poked a very small pencil through >whatever<, might I
suggest .303 Rod Core AP? That’ll punch a hole big enough to
actually get a lag screw though, while the .223 will just poke
surprisingly small holes through it.
Needless to say, if you’re going to try this for real, you might want
to give serious consideration to being belly down behind a rock, a
goodly number of yards away.
Regards,
Brian
As to rails, I've long wanted to find a small section. Anyone know where to get piece 6" or so?
Many junk yards sell RR track.
I have an NC anvil that my farrier GAVE ME! I love it. It’s about 85
lbs. I can just manage it (I only weigh 128). I can get it from my
horse trailer to my studio, and then it stays put until I leave in
the Winter to go South to work.
This winter I did not have a place to work, so for the first 3
months I used it in my trailer-what a pain. A dressing room in a
trailer doesn’t afford much room, but I could move it around on the
mats and use it. Finally I was able to take it into someone’s garage
with my drill press and my buffer but that only lasted 3 weeks.
I love this anvil. It’s great for all kinds of forming and forging. I
have the Deluxe Planishing Stakes (12 of them in the wood tray) that
fit perfectly in the Hardy hole, so I can take them with me. I added
2 thick pieces of leather and that snugs it up perfectly. I have the
base that came with it bolted to my barn beam, so I can use that
when I get back, or use them with the anvil.
My main farrier at Cornell fixed it up for me. He had the students
clean and sand and polish it, and repaint the base. I took him a
piece of I-Beam and they fixed that as well. I did take a 3’section
of RR track to them, but it’s still at the farrier school :)…
They’re still trying to cut it down to size, but eventually I’ll get
that as well. Chances are it will be fairly teeny for me to be able
to cart it around without it weighing more than I.
Kind regards,
Dinah
All,
I now have my foot of rail, now what?
The rolling side is about 12 inches long. The resting side is about
15 inches long.
The entire piece is aged metal, brownish grey on the rolling side and
rusted on the resting side. It looks like a very old piece of rail.
I’m not wanting to do much other than small silver/copper work on
such an anvil, so my questions are these?
-
Do I want to use it horizontally, or vertically like the
bladesmiths do? -
If horizontally, do I hammer on the rolling side or the resting
side? -
Do I need to mill my surface squarely flat and then sand then
polish afterward? -
Do I add groves or holes?
Thanks again,
Andrew Jonathan Fine
Speaking of railroad track, years and years ago, my fathers friend
was scrounging around a railroad yard late one night looking for a
piece of track for himself. He had come upon one he was looking at,
thinking it looked just about right, when he heard a yard boss or
watchman suddenly yelling at him and running toward him. Quick as a
flash he grabbed the piece, threw it in his car and took off as fast
as he could. Later, when he got home, hr tried to lift it out of his
car and found out he couldn’t budge it. Back at the yard, he had
gotten so scared at the sound of the yard boss his adrenalin flowed
like water into his muscles, helping him lift more weight than he
could normally possibly carry.
Ray Brown