Musical Anvil

[Perry Winkle]

Originally Posted by Griff

Is that a pretty big anvil in the world o' metal working?

It's pretty small. The bigger the anvil the better when it comes to blacksmithing. Jeweler anvils tend to be 20 lbs or less.

100 lbs is the minimum knife maker anvil. That's because the hammer weight should be at most 1/30th that of your anvil.

Most people use a 2 lbs+ hammer to forge knife-sized high carbon steel stock. If you do partial tang knives you'll probably go up to a 5 or 6 lb sledge to draw down the tang with a spring fuller. (Assuming you don't have a power hammer or hydraulic press.) That means your anvil needs to be 180 lbs if your sledge is 6 lbs.

I have a band new 250 lb Fontanini anvil on order. Should be ready sometime in August if the foundry holds up their end of the bargain.

I've got some pics of me making knives at the class I took this week. I need to resize them, then I'll post them with a bit of commentary in the Creative Expression forum...