Homemade Rail Anvil

[Tony T.]

That's the word I was trying to think of in the first post "annealing".

I did find the link to the homemade anvil I was looking at the other day. http://www.castle-ranch.com/crafts/Anvil/anvil.htm

Thanks for all the info so far guys.

Tony

[boilerman]

here is one i made awhile back....rough it out useing a saw and torches and then grind and draw filed the horn....put it on a mill for the face.....i have a piece of rubber gasket material between the anvil and the mount to take the ring out of it.....the piece of rail i used was new so i didn't have to deal with the work harded surface of a used rail so it cut and worked up nice

[cutter]

CEC, I can't take much credit for the little guy. I was once invited to a private estate sale, meaning I was the only one there. The anvil and an 70-80 year old GE ceiling fan were the only things that caught my eye. Most everything else of any character had already been pillaged. I had to un-install the old fan from down out of the ceiling joists in the garage and it hangs - and runs - in my shop today.

[CEC]

Originally Posted by cutter

CEC, I can't take much credit for the little guy. I was once invited to a private estate sale, meaning I was the only one there. The anvil and an 70-80 year old GE ceiling fan were the only things that caught my eye. Most everything else of any character had already been pillaged. I had to un-install the old fan from down out of the ceiling joists in the garage and it hangs - and runs - in my shop today.

Cutter,
I remember reading about that ceiling fan under your shop build thread. (great reading almost as good as "the Vise")
When I do bring home that piece of RR Iron. I will try to post pics and everything about the tranformation into an anvil.

CEC

[Bolt]

Here's a great homemade anvil.

http://www.metalwebnews.com/howto/anvil/anvil.html

I remember reading a more detailed writeup years ago, not sure if this was the same one or not.

[Brian C.]

If you plan to get into any serious forging of steel, you would be better served to continue your search for a proper anvil. That does not include the 100 lb. or so cast iron ASO's (anvil shaped objects) that are sold thru HF or on ebay. RR rail anvils are quite handy for some projects, but do have their limitations. YMMV

[LW Hiway]

If you plan to get into any serious forging of steel, you would be better served to continue your search for a proper anvil.

Good point Brian, but we gotta start somewhere. lol

Anything is better than using a concrete floor for hammering steel tho. I know, early on I had tried my best.

[OZWELDER]

Heres mine,

It is from an old coal line rail.
The traffic is that high on them that they have to to be replaced every few years.They wear out on the bends,


Ozwelder

[digr]

This is my rendition

[IForgeIron]

If you go over to the IForgreIron.com site and then to their gallery, do a search for rr anvil. There are several photos there.

Why spend all that time cutting, shaping, and polishing a piece of rail track to look line an anvil. By the way, no one mentions that the track work hardens while in use (grin). Just get the biggest piece of track you can find and stand it on it's end and start pounding on it. See attached photo. No matter how large your anvil the metal only moves in the area directly under your hammer blow. The end section of the rail road track is just about that size. This also puts all the mass of the track under where your hammer is hitting, making an effective anvil.

If you lay the rr track horizontally, you have a larger target area, but with much less mass under where you hammer is hitting. The track tends to bounce around a lot with each hammer blow. The better way is to lay it down horizontally when you want to use it as a swage block.

Go to IForgeIron.com > Blacksmithing groups to find a group in your area. Texas has several groups. Go to one of the meetings and you will generally find someone with an anvil for sale in their pick-up. They will have other blacksmithing tools so ask.

The IForgeIron.com > Lessons in Metalworking > Blacksmithing introduces you to the information you will need get started in blacksmithing. Don't forget to look at the rest of the site including the Blueprints which are how-to tutorials on tools, jigs, and projects.

IForgeIron.com is a site dedicated to blacksmithing. We support SFT and try to provide answers when blacksmithing related questions are ask.

The attached photo is the rr anvil that I sometimes use for demos etc.
And yes, I do have a "real" anvil.