A Concise Guide To Anvils

The blacksmith anvil is central to almost all operations when forging hot iron - making it a super important purchase for an aspiring smith. To complicate matters, anvils are expensive, which makes the purchasing decision even more stressful for beginner smiths. If that weren’t enough, the internet is full of cheap anvils that will make a hefty dent in your wallet and then add insult to injury by being ineffective for the job they were purchased for…

Sounds crappy right? Well it doesn’t have to be. In this article I will attempt to give you the information you need to know before purchasing an anvil. To make matters even easier, I will screen out most bad options and recommend a few anvils that I think will help you get started off right.

Blacksmithing is an enjoyable hobby that will allow you to fill your home with hand made tools and utensils infused with your unique personality. The satisfaction you will get when you wield a tool made by your own hands will more than make up for the cost of buying an anvil.

Let's get down to it:

What You Need To Know Before Buying An Anvil

There are two factors you need to know when buying an anvil. They are:
  1. Material Composition of the Anvil
  2. Size Of an Anvil

The proper Composition Of An Anvil

Most modern anvils are made of primarily two materials:
  1. Cast iron
  2. Cast steel

In short: cast iron is junk and cast steel is superior. Cast iron is hard, which is great! But that hardness comes at the expense of brittleness. Cast iron anvils chip easily and don’t tend to last very long.

In addition, many smiths find it harder to work steel on cast iron anvils. This may not be a big deal for the occasional weekend project, but if you will be forging a lot, a good cast steel anvil will make a world of difference for your hands and elbows by reducing the amount of work needed to move your stock.

Proper Size of an anvil

The proper size of anvil is that you want the biggest anvil that your budget will allow. Bigger is better - but not if you can’t afford it! An often quoted ratio is the 50:1 ratio. Which just means 50lb’s of anvil for every one pound of hammer. Bigger anvils cost more, but they provide more utility with less headache.

A Note On Buying Used Anvils

Some really old anvils may be partially made of wrought iron. This is a much softer metal and is something to keep in mind when shopping for used anvils. If you are unsure of an anvil's material composition, there are a set of tests you can run such as a ring test or a bounce test to figure out what the thing is made of. I won’t go into detail on that as this is an article catered to buying new anvils.

Summary

To sum it up, you want a cast steel anvil that has 50lbs for every 1lb in the hammer you use. Easy peasy? Great, let's look at some of your options.

Best Anvils For Sale

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My Top Pick

This 70lb ductile steel farrier anvil has all that you need. It is made of quality material and has a standard sized hardy and pritchel hole. It’s a great anvil for blacksmithing, knife making, and everything in between.

This anvil comes with a built in turning fork, which negates the need for a hardy turning fork on some projects. Based on the reviews, the quality of the manufacturing seems to be consistent through time. I believe this anvil has the best value/price ratio of all the anvils listed in this article.


Best Budget Anvil

This may be my “budget” option, but don’t let that dissuade you from this anvil. It’s a high quality anvil made out of cast steel and is a great little forging anvil. It weighs 68.6 lb and has a hardy hole and a pritchel hole.

My only real complaint with this anvil is that it has the pritchel hole at the base of the horn which is kind of weird and it has a small hardy hole that is smaller than the standard 1”. If you buy this anvil you may have to taper down any purchased hardy tools to make sure they fit in this anvil.


Best Anvil For Professional Blacksmiths

This 275lb Peddinghaus anvil is not just massive, it’s also made of some of the highest quality materials possible. This anvil has been engineered to withstand heavy production workloads. If you are a professional blacksmith looking for a stationary anvil that will sit in your shop, this is it. It just doesn’t get any better than this.

Conclusion On Finding An Anvil For Sale

People have already written a lot of great articles on anvils. My only complaint is that they were a bit wordy. This article tried to provide you with only the need-to-know information regarding anvils so that you can make a choice and get on with your forging. Being paralyzed by all the options before you have even had any shop time is a bad outcome in my book.

I understand the desire to own the “best” anvil, but if you are new to forging you must understand that you do not at the moment have enough shop experience to know your own preferences. It is your personal preferences that will ultimately determine which anvil is “best” for you. So make a choice, get in your shop, and make some stuff.

Happy Smithing!