![]() My previous job included a lot of travel, and I was also probably foolishly) adamant about starting with a good anvil before I did anything else. I'm a newbie, but I have wanted to start blacksmithing for over a decade. Then eventually, after doing plenty of research, and ideally trying out and examining other people’s gas forges, make one that will work well for your typical project.After doing alot of research, a week ago, I finally got my New Holland 190lb anvil. All that taken together, my advice would be to start with a coal forge, provided you can find fule for it, and use that until you get a feel for the kind of work you tend to do. Building a coal forge is cheap and easy, and no more dangerous than a bonfire. Coal on the other hand, is cheap, if you can buy it in person, but it can be hard to find a good supply. Propane is fairly ubiquitous, but it can get very expensive if you’re exchanging grill-size cylinders for $25 a pop. Another thing to consider is fule availability. And if not built well, they aren’t going to heat your metal very efficiently, and can potentially be quite dangerous. There are some downsides though: you’re limited by whatever the size of your chamber is, and building them well takes some know how, and can be expensive. If this is somthing you’re planning on continuing long term, I’d recommend getting comfortable with a gas forge. They’re what most professional blacksmiths use, for good reason. I’ve run coal forges more than propane, but I have actually warmed up to them recently. The answer depends a lot on a few details. I know how emotional scarring it can be if someone uses pictures you took, that were on google images, for a non-profit article, without express permission.) (POST SCRIPT, AND DISCLAIMER: The pictures of the dumbbell, the stone anvil, the monkey, and a couple of the chunk anvil pictures are not mine. So, while stone anvils suck and should only be used as a last resort, they CAN be used. Folks back in the olden days forged iron blooms on granite slabs, as back then a good anvil was almost as expensive as it is today, and they made some pretty cool stuff on those rocks. That said, I've hammered out steel on a block of limestone before, and you know what? It worked just fine. And yes, it's going to leave a rough surface finish, and yes it is prone to cracking. It will at worst crackle bit if you use a porous stone that was recently rained on. ![]() To placate some of those before there asked, no, it will not explode. I almost did not include this page because of all the irritating comments I know I'm going to get about it. No, the real bummer with all these designs is that they all lack a hardie hole(the square hole) and thusly, cannot be fitted with tools. Well, rest assured that, in my not so humble opinion, the horn standard on most anvils is grossly overrated. Some of you might be disturbed by the lack of a conical horn on all of these designs. ![]() many of them though, are lacking in some way. Some of these improvised anvils are kind of terrible, while some of them are in my opinion, comparable to real anvils. But in the end, they all come down to a chunk of metal upon which to hit other chunks of metal, with a chunk of metal. There are good anvils and bad anvils, simple anvils, or ones with lots of bells and whistles. So, partially in a pure philanthropic spirit, and partially as a friendly slap to the face of the anvil snobs, I'm going to show you how to make a few simply dandy improvised anvils. There are still a lot of people who just can't comprehend why we don't all just do what they did, and take advantage of some poor fellow didn't realize how much great Granpappys old Anvil was worth. Imagine then, my surprise when I found that complaining about it on the Internet had not made the problem go away. I have, in my previous instructible, addressed the issue of anvil snobbery. ![]()
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