how do I into blacksmithing? why are anvils so expensive?
>>2975853>steel is expensive>anvils are huge lumps of cast & machined steel>also hardened & tempered>wHy iS tHiS ObJeCt so PrIceeEhy bRo!
jannies see threads like this and think>yeah this is fine
Pieces of railroad track are free if you're brown enough, at least in spirit
>>2975853Take a railroad track, harden it and it's a cheap anvil. Not very nice one but good enough to make old viking style anvils from better steel.
>>2975855>machinedanvils are expensive because blacksmithing became a very popular hobby more than anything. cast tool steel anvils and forgewelded tool steel faceplates were hard to do and useful since antiquity but you could pick em up for scrap prices in the 60s and 70s. power hammers even moreso. many of the original (american) forging equipment (power hammers, old leather belt or maple board drop hammers) from the 20s-40s was either scrapped or sold to hobbyists at scrap value back then. now it sells for prices/lb. that make other cast iron machinery look like scrap>>2975868better than this would be a 50-100 lb. offcut block of 4140 or even just mild steel on marketplace. probably $50-200 but much more working surface area and you don't need to baby it. you'll put in slightly more work than if it had a nice hardened face but when you're just starting out, it won't matter. and if it's 4140 you can do a bodge-job of hardening it anyway
>>2975888This, anvils got expensive because everyone decided they wanted to "blacksmith" I have 3 of them I've acquired for cheap over the years. Deals are still out there, but getting harder and harder to find because flippers gotta make their scummy bucks.
>>2975853DIY means Do It YourselfWhat is doing it yourself? it means that if you don't know what, where, when, or how? first go to google then youtube THEN ask here.Almost anything you want to know how to do is on youtube now. I realize that you grew up in a period of time when you weren't allowed to play outside and roam the streets or nearby wooded areas. You never knew a time when your parents sent you to the corner store (by yourself) to buy milk, eggs, or bread. that you had helicopter parents, and only ever played video games, but today you grow up, today you learn how to do things yourself. be an adult... be a man. figure it out for yourself.
can you use rocks as anvil
>>2976043Bro, a bad mf back in the day used a meteorite as an anvilhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucson_Ring_meteorite
>>2976043Realistically you can use anything heavy, and solid as an anvil. Some things are obviously superior materials than others. I've hammered shit back straight on tractor weights, forklift counterweights, forklift forks. Just use your imagination and look around at what is readily available. Rocks and concrete will work for a while but eventually crumble.
>>2975853Anvils are cheap now, you won't scam some granny out of her dead husband's old one in the barn for less than the scrap value any more but new usable quality hardened steel anvils are like 2$/lb, if you're a beginner one of those chinese 60lb ones for around a hundred bucks is great and all you need.
>>2975853Expensive anvils are expensiveOtherwise get a 4 to 6" square block of 1045 and make a striking anvil mounted on a stake or log. Heck even mild steel will be fine for most stuff with odd bit of resurfacing once in a while if it gets too bent. I bought a 30kg vevor anvil about 6 years ago for fuck-all, delivered for free and I don't think they're expensive, works just fine for some blade smithing and smiting once in a while.
>>2975888>anvils are expensive because blacksmithing became a very popular hobby/Thread
>>2975853>how do I into blacksmithing? Protip:Having the need to change the shape of a metal is a good booster. >why are anvils so expensive? I literally use the head of a Sledgehammer as an anvil. And you can use a bonfire with wood or charcoal to heat the metal.
>>2975853Just got a 150lb anvil free a couple weeks ago. Feels good.
I've been eyeballing some giant ass weights off of an oil pumpjack that is sitting at the local gettin' place. There's 4 of them, and they're about 4" thick, 2-3' wide and 3-4' long. Kinda an oddball shape a bit tapered. I bet I could cut some scallops and grooves in the edges and some holes and scooped out parts in the middle and make a kick-ass blacksmith bible/swage block with one of them....
>>2976749The GPT says that would weigh about 1500lbs
>>2976751I'll have to get some more accurate measurements sometime and calculate what they weigh. But yeah they're a big ol' chunk of steel. I think they recently updated their price to .75 a lb on good uses steel, but I bet I might be able to get him jewed back down to .40 a lb because they've been sitting for a while now.
>>2976753NoiceI got some railroad plates the other day, bigger than tie plates, maybe about 100lbs apiece. Railroad crew was there, they said just take em. Gonna make em into hanging rifle targets
>>2976755Took some pics today. Went to town to get some oxygen bottles and co2 bottles refilled but the welding supply house was all out. Truck comes tonight so I'll get em in the morning. Figured I'd swing by and check out those weights while I was thinking of it. These two (one right below it that matches) are 56" long, 34" wide and 4" thick with the one tapered end.
>>2976755And these two are 47" long, 34" wide and tapered on the one end as well. Pretty big chunks of steel though.
>>2976755Noice
Weren't there some Chinese cast steel hardened anvils on Amazon? Accio/happy buy or something? Not super heavy, and not quite shaped right in every way, but would be good starters. When I started, the only new anvils were from Sweden and Germany and cost a large amount of money, and the antiques were no longer cheap. Ended up with two anvils (65 lb Hay Budden and 100 lb Trenton) for a decent price out of luck.
>>2977523Harbor freight sells a 65lb cast steel anvil under their Doyle brand for $140. I'm sure someone could get it cheaper if they watched the coupons and deals. Has good reviews.
