Knife making Anvil?

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Lawlzor96

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May 23, 2017
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Ayo, absolute beginner here and I'm looking for an anvil that will suit my needs for just knife making. I'd prefer something that is more portable too. Price is also a factor, the more affordable, the better.

Any recommendations? :)
Anyone want to get rid of their old steel anvil? ;)
 
Finding a used anvil going for a low price is probably the hardest things you'll be looking for. Took me 3 months of searching to find mine, 125lb peter wright $200 (got a $100 "youth" discount from the guy selling it).

If you want something "portable" look for between 100lb and 150lb. Big enough for general use but light enough that you can move it on your own.

There are also modern anvil companies, try looking at some of those. They will have a much flatter surface that a old used anvil. My anvil has a few deep hammer marks and long lines going perpendicular to the hot of the anvil. So at some point in time someone was messing around and ruined the serface a bit (this doesn't negatively effect my forging but it is really anoying).

The moder ones are going to be between $300 and $400 for a small anvil. There are some very cheap modern ones out there but they are not made of good material and have 0 rebound, so be careful you don't buy one of those.

Good luck and I hope you have a lot of fun searching and forging,

Kevin

Edit: modern 100lb anvils are more around $600, not $300-$400
 
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Thanks, guys!

Is that 4x4 enough surface and weight for knife forging? I really like the simplicity of the design, as I've heard that the anvil horn is not necessary for forging knives. But should I get something with at least a hardie hole? Or not necessary?
 
Go get the heaviest sledge hammer you can and embed one side in a log and presto an anvil. That was my first anvil and though I would not part with my anvil It did alow me to forge out blades. You don't need really that much space to forge a knife. You move the knife under the hammer not the hammer. I use the edges the most as the trick to forgeing is reducing surface area contact. You don't want to lay the entire bar on the anvil and start smacking it. You want to concentrate the hammer blows into smaller areas so more work can be done.
 
i think it also depends on what knife blank size you want to end up with, and what blank size you start with
if I was doing small folder blades with 1/8" laminated steel, the 4x4 would be perfect and all I need :-)
 
Second that on the sledgehammer.
20 pounders are the biggest commercially made. But kind of scarce second hand. 20 pound is huge thing to swing more than a few blows. Not many folks will buy or use 20 pounder, not many will be found second hand.

As mentioned, good second hand anvils are not inexpensive or easy to find.
Good makeshift anvils are as abundant and easy if one has any ingenuity.
Most forging does not need much surface area. Bladesforging does not need a lot of anvil weight either. Of course more is better, but assuming you are not working big stock down to blade thicknesses, 20:1 anvil to hammer is decent ratio for knife & trinket size forging.
 
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I plan to forge mainly puukko/leuku knives, so something between 25-50lbs would work well?
Whatever I get, I don't want a horn, as I can't see myself using it ever and it just adding to the cost and weight in places I don't need it.
I think the largest sledgehammer I have is 15 lbs, but it's in rough shape. Very rounded around the edges.

Should I just try to get something as heavy and square shaped as I can for my budget (approx~300$ or less), since I won't have much to place underneath my steel for a stand, unless I can manage to steal a tree stump from a tree killing neighbor?
 
Lawlzor96 said:
I plan to forge mainly puukko/leuku knives, so something between 25-50lbs would work well?
Whatever I get, I don't want a horn, as I can't see myself using it ever and it just adding to the cost and weight in places I don't need it.
I think the largest sledgehammer I have is 15 lbs, but it's in rough shape. Very rounded around the edges.

Should I just try to get something as heavy and square shaped as I can for my budget (approx~300$ or less), since I won't have much to place underneath my steel for a stand, unless I can manage to steal a tree stump from a tree killing neighbor?
Click to expand...

I would save money and get the 4x4. Make a stand with 2x10's screwed and glued "standing up". Weld tabs to the anvil so you have a way to bolt it to the stand. That is all you "need" for hand forging knifes. Save the extra money for a old anvil find on craigslist or the like in the future. Also get a sturdy leg vise and use hardy tools in the vise, they don't have to be anvil mounted.
 
Somthing like this is all you really need for the light forging you will be doing. Weld a base to it so you can bolt it to somthing and your set.

http://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/263041278678

Of this
http://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/291944048017

Don't get sucked into the idea that it has to be hardened. Hardness is good for long time use. One of two things are going to happen. 1 your going to realize how much work this craft is and you will give up and move on to somthing else. 2 you will become absesed and spend every dime you can on acquiring more and more tools. So until you reach one of these paths don't spend a lot of money on somthing that you will never use again or will just replace.
 
Personally I'd go to a place like metal supermarket, buy a foot or so of 3-4" 4140 round stock, harden it, and set it on end. That'd be a great knife making anvil.
4340 would be a bit better, but it's not as easy to come by. And as long as you don't get too much over 4", thick 4140 will harden well enough in water. Up to about 3" oil hardens fine.

I use the horn a lot, but that's more habit than anything else. You really don't need one
 
After a long, long, time, I finally got a hornless anvil and it's great for blades. That said, all you really need is a square or rectangular block of steel. A post anvil works well, just a 3-4" square, or round but I like square better, block of 4140 about a foot long in a tube filled with sand works well. And don't discount mild steel, it'll work fine, at least for a while. A hard anvil is better for sure, but I used a pair of harbor freight Russian cast steel anvils for a number of years. They were soft and one I cut the horn off for blade work. Another option is if you can find a hunk of a large forklift tine, they make great blade smith anvils.

This is my ideal anvil, a Refflinghause hornless, mounted to heavy steel base filled with concrete and buried 4-6" in the floor. But it took me 15 years to spend the money. https://storage.googleapis.com/wzukusers/user-19259053/images/5906a12135eeeB3wnIrL/IMG_0827.JPG
 
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