Anvil buying is becoming a bad habit

[Matt Shade]

I blame Jack...the horse. When it became clear I was going to be making shoes more often I decided it was time to buy a better anvil.

I have been using a russian cast steel anvil that was briefly sold by harbor freight. It is supposed to be 110 lbs, and it cost around $100 at the time. The hardy hole is on a diagonal, the horn is stubby, and it doesn't have the best rebound but it is definitely the best value you will ever find in a usable anvil at under $1/lb.

I had been walking past this JHM journyman anvil every time I was at Ken Davis and Sons, shoeing supply. I finally couldn't walk past it another time and I brought it home. It is 125lbs and has a much more narrow waist with a long heel and horn. The long horn has a nicer taper and gives me a lot more space to work with when turning shoes. The nice sharp point lets me make small diameter bends as well. It also has a slot in the heel where you can wedge the work to make acute bends. This is a ductile iron anvil, but the face is hard enough to skate a cheap file.

I had originally planned to hold out and buy the 160lb version JHM makes, but decided that this one would do the job, and would be easier to move in and out of place in the shop. So far I am very happy with it.

Pics have the harbor freight anvil next to it for comparison.

[Matt Shade]

I don't have a portable forge, so after making the shoes in my shop at home I have to cold fit them at the farm.

I had been doing this with a home made stall jack. It has served me well and I will continue to use it at horse shows but it was clear I was going to beat it to death shaping the bigger shoes I have been having to use.

I checked out my options for a better quality stall jack. I found a few with heavier tops than mine, but the legs were severely lacking. To get anything remotely decent was going to be around $300. This Cliff Carrol 70lb Big face anvil was $438 and I decided it was money much better spent, so I brought it home on my last trip to the shoeing supply. Cliff Carrol anvils are not as well finished as the JHM, but still leaps and bounds above the harbor freight.

The horn and heel are nicely sized for most shoeing jobs. The heel has rounded edges so that you can put a shoe over it and hit it to spread the shoe without the corners chewing the shoe up. The little stubs on the side are to wedge a shoe into and make tighter bends. They call that "turning cams". Basically it has all the features you want for cold shoeing, but is also a serviceable for actual forging and shoe making if needed.

The only thing left to figure out was an anvil stand to put it on. I looked at the commercially made ones and they are all kind of light weight and meant to be portable. Some had a spring operated foot vise on the end, which also looked pretty handy. I decided to go home and check the resource pile and I came up with my own version. Its a bit taller, and made much heavier. I plan to leave it at the farm for the most part and just have a work area set up in the lesson barn.

[Matt Shade]

Tripod legs are 2 inch pipe, roughly 1/8" wall. I can't remember what the specific sizes are, my steel supply carries it to make livestock gates/pens out of mostly.

The body is a piece of 10" channel iron.

Vise it made with 2x2x3/16 square tubing for the riser, and 2.5x2.5x.25 square tubing for the sliding jaw. I did have to rasp the seam down flat. Jaws are half inch thick A36. I may tap them and put some hardened vise jaws in them at some point.

Every single piece was left over from another project at some point. I love it when a project comes out of my hoarding pile

[greywynd]

Looks like a couple of good pieces of ‘kit’ to add to your inventory.


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[Samcord]

Anvil Collecting Disorder. Resistance is futile.
This one showed up a week or so ago.

[toprecycler]

Looks like a nice custom setup! Good job.


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[Scratch]

Nice, I like that vise you made, and I really like those turning cams!

Here’s a pic of my anvil stand holding a 151 pound Peter Wright.

[digr]

Looking good!!

[mccutter]

I'm pretty sure I've posted this before but it is STILL for sale on FBM... I would venture a guess it was used as a salt-water mooring at one time. 75lbs, wants $275 for it!

[Matt Shade]

Originally Posted by Samcord

Anvil Collecting Disorder. Resistance is futile.
This one showed up a week or so ago.

I gave $820 for the 125lb JHM brand new. I'd have jumped on that one at that price and that condition. I never come across anything like that around here.