Rail Track anvil?????

C

Celtic Archer

Joined
Jan 8, 2006
Messages
28
Hi all. Well I'm finally getting around to setting everything up and embarking upon my attempt to make some blades.

I have one of the cheap (soft) harbor freight anvils that I've had around for a while. I know it's not very well suited to what I'm trying to do. I also have about a 12" long section of rail track that I was thinking I could fly cut the top smooth and make a decent small anvil out of.

Has anyone else done this?
Is there some reason why this would'nt work?
 
That was my first anvil about twelve years ago when I made my first attempt at teaching myself to forge.:eek: I had a friend that was a steam locomotive mechanic for the Mt Rainier Scenic Railroad and I mentioned to him that I needed a short chunk of rail for an anvil.

A few days later I came home from work and found a 10' and 8' chunk of rail leaning up against my front deck. He left a note saying something along the lines of "I forgot how much you needed so I hope this is enough". It took every bit of strength my wife and I had to move them over to my shop so I could shave off a piece for the anvil.

I found that the convex radius on them works really good in hammering the edge. All you have to do is keep the blade flat. If one end is cut clean and square then you can get a real nice and clean ricasso plunge with it. I did eventually take mine in and get it ground flat though. Soon after I gave up forging out of frustration. Ten years later I jumped back in and got around most of the frustration. Having the right tools makes a big difference.
 
I ACQUIRED a 24" section while camping once.

I got a buddy at work to cut it in exchange for half.

He was looking into forging himself.

It is currently a 60lbs door stop, but someday.... TING! TING! TING! CLOMP!! DAMMIT!
 
Consider turning the rail over and using the " bottom " for the hammering surface. It's flat. Fred
 
FredRowe has the solution.

My neighbor was in the Blacksmith's Guild, that's what he did, welded a stand/frame, and placed the piece of rail upside down using clamps.

He was able to unclamp it, and turn it back around to use the curved side when forming radiuses. Quite ingenious.
 
Check out the RR-tools tutorial here.
http://anvilfire.com/iForge/index.htm

Actually I think fly cutting the track is a bit of overkill. I find the rounded edge of the track good for drawing out and the length of the track is mostly flat, a little dressing with a side grinder or belt sander should work fine. The top of the track is hardened so removing a bunch of metal is counter productive

The end mounted track will give you a better mass to hammer ratio. If you use the flat bottom of the track it is not hardened as the face is and it doesn't have enough mass for a good anvil used that way. It's way to springy

Wayne Goddard welded plates on the inside web of his RR track anvil to increase the mass, he's pretty pleased with the results.

If I had to pay for the fly cutting and buy welding rods and plates to fix up the anvil, I think I'd just buy a Harbor freight Russian anvil instead

my .02
 
The Harbor Freight 110# anvil (Russian made) is a good deal. They list for $89.95 but I got mine on one of their every-other weekend sales for $69.95.

Spent a few hours getting the tool marks out and working the duck-bill into a horn. You can go here http://alexbealer.org/forum/3 and click on the dressing an anvil thread for details...
 
You cannot beat it for the money...
Nice pun Mike.

One word of warning, the smaller HF anvils were not as hard as this 110# one. They did not ring like a bell when whacked with a hammer.
 
The smaller HF anvils are cast iron. They are pretty much worthless. The russian 110# is cast steel and with a little work to the horn makes a dany anvil. The top on the one I got was smooth out of the box.
 
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