Building an anvil

H

Hesparus

Joined
Oct 31, 2004
Messages
1,442
Hi Everyone,

To make a long story short, I'm dying to get back into knifemaking (I haven't been able to do any for the past five years while in grad school), and one of my biggest problems is acquiring (building) an anvil. I've been thinking of taking the head off of a 20-30lb sledge hammer and burying it 2/3 deep in a 5 gallon bucket of cement or adobe (kind of like a cheaper/smaller version of what Tim Lively uses). I know that a bigger piece of steel would be much better, but I'm not sure that would be feasible in my current situation. Would the cement make up for the small mass of the hammer head enough that it would be usable? I'm also concerned that such a small surface would make it too difficult to keep/make blades straight. I also worry that, being totally supported by the concrete, the hammer head would quickly work itself loose. Last, any idea how the cement will affect the noise? This whole thing will be a bust if the neighbors get upset.
I'd really appreciate any help I can get on this.
- Chris
 
Pardon a stupid (and perhaps impertinent) question... but with a 50 lb anvil going for about $45 at Harbor Freight, why would you want to do a makeshift anvil that wouldn't work as well?

- Greg
 
That's actually a great question. I had discarded the idea of buying a real anvil because all of the ones I had previously seen were miles out of my price range. I'm looking at a 55lb anvil from Harbor freight for about $70 shipped. That'll be an option I may want to think about the the future, but for now I'm looking to spend less money than that if possible (that's part of the long story). So for now, at least, I wan to keep looking at building my own.
Thanks for giving me the heads up on that anvil, though, that will be useful down the line.

- Chris

p.s. Would cast iron work? I was also thinking of maybe using a dumbell.
 
You could scour the classifieds/internet and yard/barn/antique sales looking for RR track, scrap steel, even real anvils!

I used a 4x4x14 piece of 1045 steel. buried in a chicken feeder. It is very quiet. I have a friend who used a piece of RRtrack... to dampen the ring, he wrapped the hell out of it with chain. I think I've seen folks do that with anvils too.

All together, mine cost me $75...

forging.jpg
 
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A 30 pound sledge?!?! I want to know where you're getting one, I've never seen one except in strongman shows. I think you'll be hard pressed to find one over 12 pounds.

Greg, to answer your question: A harbor freight anvil is junk and will not work well as a forging tool. It won't give good rebound.

Magnussen's post is a good one. :)
 
Back when I was looking into anvil options (I couldn't find any solid 4x4" mild steel), I thought maybe getting about a 12" length of 4x4" square steel pipe then filling the pipe with concrete to make it really solid and heavy. If you wanted, you could have someone weld closed the ends afterward and maybe weld some anchor feet to it. You could then bolt it horizontally to a heavy stump base. It should (theoretically) be a pretty heavy/solid work surface. Probably not a lot of rebound, but I think it would work.
 
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If there's a local steel supply place or junkyard, you might be able to find a cut off piece of 4x4 or 5x5 steel they're willing to let go for 50 cents a pound or less.

Even better, go a forklift place - they might have a broken fork lying around.
 
Thanks for all the input, guys! I think this'll get me going.
Magnussen: Is that anvil buried in sand or concrete?
NickWheeler: I think I may have been thinking of 12lb (I couldn't remember how heavy the ones I saw at the hardware store went. Embarassing). And thinks for the heads up about that harbor freight anvil — I'll cross that one off the list.
R.C.Richert: That sounds like a great idea, I may look into it.

- Chris
 
I don't know about 30lb, but I've used 20lb. hammers on the rigs before. Don't know where they got them, I wanted to stay as far away from them as posible.

Best bang for buck is the russian cast steel anvil from Harbor Frieght, if you can find one. They stoped import a while back, but some stores may still have one.

I had wanted to make a Japanease swordsmith type anvil, just a retangular chunk of high carbon steel and harden it. Never could find any thing in these parts except for mild steel. I did try welding a 3/4" piece of spring steel to a solid chunck of mild and it worked great. Except I had to keep welding it as the welds keep cracking. Might have been OK if I could have forge welded instead of just arc welded.

To me the best knife anvil would be something like the Japanease sword smith anvil, you can work all sides without the horn getting in the way. Now that I've got a press and a power hammer the most use my anvil gets is final forging to shape, no heavy drawing or swaging.

Good luck.
 
My best advice is to take a deep breath, try to be patient, and keep an eye out. Tell everybody you know that you're looking for an anvil.... someone will know somebody who has one laying around.

That's how I got my first one.

I went and bought a brand new one the last time around. My current anvil is way overkill but there were a lot of factors in my decision to buy it.

Craigslist will leave you frustrated quite often, but CAN pay off if you watch. I just went to a blacksmith shop the other week that had everything from a 100ish pound Peter Wright on up to a 400+ pound Hay Budden for sale. I saw a fella with a 70ish pound Vulcan for sale the other day for $100. That $100 bill would give you something WAAAAY ahead of the game. :)
 
Will52100 said:
I had wanted to make a Japanease swordsmith type anvil, just a retangular chunk of high carbon steel and harden it. Never could find any thing in these parts except for mild steel.
Click to expand...


McMaster has pieces of 4140 and 1050 like that. They do cost quite a pretty penny though, not to mention the shipping for such a large piece of steel.
 
Well I bit the bullet and just embedded a 30lb dumbell in 5 gallons of concrete. I figure that, even if this doesn't work very well, it will tide me over until I can get something better. Thanks again for all of the advice.

- Chris
 
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