Recommendation? Anvil

[Okie405]

I'm looking at getting a big chunk of steel for an anvil. Something in the range of 10in x 4in x 30in then building a base around it out of 4x4s. I saw a YouTube video about it and from an uneducated viewpoint I'm thinking that it would work for knives and swords. The guy in the video says it will. What do you fellas think?

What type of steel should I be asking for when I start calling the steel yards? Just any carbon steel or tool steel? Hardened? Other than size I don't know what to ask for.

I know not everything on YouTube is correct so if I am wasting time with this idea and just need to get a normal anvil let me know.

Thank you for your assistance.

 

[Lieblad]

Block anvils are perfectly good for bladework. Tool steel will be best. But a piece that big is going to be hard to find as a drop or scrap. If its its prime, its gonna cost as much as a couple new anvils. If you go to harden it add the price of a third anvil...
(Nothing wrong with your dimensions, but its quite a bit larger than what you really need. Whatever.. go big or go home...
Structural steel will be much cheaper and somewhat easier to find.
Hardness is good, but not hugely important. Anvil needs to be reasonably harder than the redhot workpiece, so you can get by fine with a big chunk of unhardened structural steel.
Fwiw, we set up the neighbor kid with a railway coupler knuckle.
Far as I know he still beats on it these years later. last I known he went on to making armour & viking crap, I suppose he has alot more tooling now.

 

[i4Marc]

Be patient and look constantly for anvils. Tell everyone you meet that you are looking and ask if they know anyone who has an anvil. Eventually you will find something decent within your budget.