
More than anything else, I will try to impart my love of this ancient craft to you. In addition, I will answer the most common questions I see from beginners, and I will try to give advice to those of you on an extreme budget later on in the article. To help you on your quest for your first blacksmith anvil, I have compiled a list of them that are available for purchase, and I have made a list of pro’s and con’s for each of them. While scavenging can be fun, the results are uncertain, and it can be hard to fit a junkyard day into your busy schedule. It doesn’t help that most online articles and youtube videos recommend that you scavenge for yours. It can be overwhelming for a beginner smith trying to pick the best anvil possible. Whether you are crafting a sword, a knife, armor, tools, decorative scroll-work, or tools for your own use, you will need to use an this pivotal tool at some point in the production process. The blacksmithing anvil is central to almost everything that happens in a blacksmith’s workshop.
#50 lb anvil for sale free#
If you’ve got any questions please feel free to send me an email.A blacksmith anvil is one of the most important and expensive purchases a blacksmith will make. Anvils like this are typically the cheap Chinese ones or anything sold at a hardware store. One mishit and you’ll have marred them to the detriment of your future work. If these holes are chipped out it can take a lot of work to fix.Ībsolutely avoid anvils made from cast iron or inferior quality steel.

This is about return - how much energy is bounced back out of the anvil. Drop a 15-20mm ball bearing onto the work surface from about 20cm and see how high it bounces back. Check for hardness by using the bounce test.Look for crisp and clean edges, missing chunks indicate abuse.If an anvil started life with a horn, and now has no horn then stay away from that mistreated anvil.Make sure it has a flat deck on top (check with a ruler - no light / gap / dips), any big dips are very hard to grind flat.Very worn anvils indicate heavy use and likely cumulative defects.That said if an anvil is looked after it should last a few lifetimes They often have many defects, some of which may not be apparent. In some cases you might need to drop them an email and ask about what they can get their hands on.īuying an old anvil is fraught with pitfalls, and sellers often have an overinflated view of what their anvil is worth. Here’s some places we know and recommend. This buys you peace of mind - you know it’s not been abused, you know it’s flat, and you don’t have to spend 20+ hours regrinding it. Unless you happen to stumble across a free or nearly-free anvil, we STRONGLY recommend buying a new anvil.Ī new 55kg anvil can set you back around $1,000. Often use additional mass from a base of concrete, etc, to increase efficiency.Made from a single large piece of hardened steel, Railroad rail, Forklift tines, etc.Ideally have large mass, high hardness, flat surface.Typically “if it’s stupid, and it works, it’s not stupid”.


#50 lb anvil for sale upgrade#
You’ll know when it’s time to upgrade your anvil when you don’t feel like asking that question again. That’s the best one - the one you’ve got. Read on, we’ve got a list of where you can buy one.Īs for the best anvil? Head out to your workshop and take a look at your anvil. Anvils aren’t rare, you just have to buy one. We often encounter people who sound like they’ve expended a lot of effort scouring the Internet for used anvils and never thought to look for a new one.

Let’s cover the two most common questions first: Where can I get an anvil? What’s the best anvil?įor many there seems to be an aura of mystery around acquiring an anvil.
