miab16•12d ago

Had my anvil shift mid-strike on a kitchen knife yesterday

I was at my forge in the backyard working on a chef's knife for a friend and the anvil wobbled just as I came down with a 3lb hammer. The hammer bounced off the edge and put a nasty gouge in the blade that I had to grind out. Anyone got a good trick for keeping a cast iron anvil from walking around on a wooden stump?

2 comments

2 Comments

wright.michael12d ago

Man, just bolt it down. People overthink this stuff. You can get a set of heavy duty lag bolts and drill them right through the stump into the anvil's feet. Or use a couple of long screws to anchor the stump to the ground. The whole wobble problem goes away. Yeah, it's a pain to move later, but how often do you relocate your anvil? Probably never. Cast iron anvils are heavy enough that bolting them is the only real fix.

blair_lewis8512d ago

My cousin tried bolting his anvil down like that once. Ended up drilling straight through a water line he forgot was under the stump, flooded his whole garage. Now he just straps it with ratchet straps to the stump and calls it good enough.