Did I hear my name
Yep I have two anvils currently in my workshop. The main one is a couple of bits of forklift spikes welded together and a couple of spikes on the underside to hold it to a log. The other is a small post anvil from a late 19th/early 20th century power hammer. The forklift spikes are a bit soft for my style of baldesmithing, where I need to get a very fine edge, so need sharp hard corners. But it works fine for general lumping and bumping
The anvils I use on my group courses are all made from 10" lengths of the spikes with some grinding modifications and a couple of spikes underneath.
Other good anvils I've used:
* Reground and retempered sledgehammer head (ground to be flat on the face, retempered to reduce the hardness and prevent it form chipping and thus throwing sharp lumps of metal at my face!)
* RSJ, though this rang like a bell (read -hurts the ears and is inefficient), so I only use it for leatherwork these days.
* Railway track, though in england it's round on the top and the flat underside is thin, so rings like the RSJ
* Lumps of steel from scarpyard. Vary from soft mild steel (about same as forklift) to -
* Large leaf springs, chopped up and welded together. need ot be good welds!
* Lump of hard igneous stone (granite rounds here, but finer grained is better). Works very well, but don't try sharp corners on them
I use a piece of granite curb stone fro ethnographic demonstrations)
I've also heard that the half shaft (or is that drive shaft, not a mechanic me) from lorries is very good if cut through, that's what Tai mostly uses I think.
Here are the three main anvils I currently use:
Post anvil. You can see why I need sharp corners!
Two bits of forklift welded together for lumping and humping
The smaller anvils I use for group courses.
Hope that helps people a bit
(oh, btw, I would like to have a nice new London pattern anvil for general work, but new ones are ruddy pricey and old ones are oftn knackered or collect only from 300 miles away!
)