Forging A Stump Anvil

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[gilbert]

Excellent video! It is well-photographed, and the audio was kept to a minimum (thank God). Clearly you know what you're doing, and I am grateful that you chose to share your knowledge with all of us.

[couriersec]

Very skillfully done, man!
I'm just about to get into blacksmithing and am really enjoying looking around at different projects like yours.

[Yamyrider]

Great looking stump anvil. It is good to see what imagination, sweat and hard work will produce. Keep it up.

[brothergimli]

Now you have to make another anvil, on top of that anvil, on top of the first anvil.

[drason]

Nice job. And a handy tool, or even something very nice for beginning smithing. I have done a LOT of money making work on just a piece of worn railroad track. Been progressing over the last 20 years. Once again, great work!

[paradisefalls]

Well done, stump anvil looks really nice and functional. Great video.

[DANVIIL]

Your steel isn't near hot enough to move metal as you begin forging at 10 and 37 seconds. Get the steel up to a bright yellow when you are trying to move a lot of material.

[ruglette]

Who is your Anvil made by?? Mine has the same markings but it is not readable. I have been trying to figure out who made mine since I got it about two years ago... Good job on the stump anvil by the way.

[peterott-tnpf]

Excellent video man! That is a very nice stump anvil!!

[reneemills-mistretta]

Did you need to heat the water b4 quenching?

[charlesnissen]

I love what you did for the stump anvil. Beautifully well done. However, I have 2 questions. Where did you get such an anvil? And do you have any recommendations on anvils for a beginner smith-er?

[johnknoefler]

Love it. Great video. Thanks for not talking it to death the way some folks do. If a person needs all that talking and explanation then the job is beyond them anyways. I think it looks very nice.

[tylershields]

What kind of steel was used for this build?

[leeknivek]

next time, try isolating your heat to the center while trying to upset that bar - you'll be able to get a more consistent diameter at the end, avoiding all that mushrooming. good job

[alaskanfrogman]

Interesting project, nice build but... You used "1045 Steel, " which is classified as a low carbon steel. This falls under the category of mild steels, and is therefore not very harden-able because of its low carbon content. When I watched as you were hammering on the coppery wire, i could not help but notice that the copper was denting the surface of the stump anvil. That was very telling and it illustrated my point about the low carbon steel. Next time, try a high carbon steel. When you upset your anvil head, try having a second person work as your striker while you control the anvil head. Do it this way first, heat to yellow hot. At the start of the forge. half of the hammer head on and half off. Strike once, change position, strike once, change position, strike again, change position, rotating either clockwise or counter clockwise as you forge. As the heat draws down and its color fades, keep upsetting the steel until it reaches a bright cherry red. Stop at that point and put it back into your forge for a reheat.

During your forge, it is actually better and easier for an upsetting process, to only apply heat to the portion of steel that you want to upset and broaden. If you heat too much of the steel, the upset will end up off centered as it did with your anvil. There is an art to upsetting steel correctly and properly. Try to keep your blows even and evenly spaced around the circumference of your work piece. If you decide on high carbon steel, do not let it lose all of its heat color, or it could cause problems of stress fractures and cracks.

On most pieces that require a tang like knives or chisels, you want to do the tang first. But I believe that for the stump anvil, you actually want to do your upset first to broaden and thicken the steel for the head. This way you have control over how wide or, broad the head becomes right of and it will allow for better control. Heavy round stock tongs are essential. Once you have the steel mushroomed to your desired shape, stop and either allow it to cool, or quench after it loses all of its color. Once thoroughly cooled, change your approach and start drawing out your stump tang spike, always forging evenly on all 4 sides. Once your tang is properly shaped and sized, then you can turn your attention to transforming the square stock to octagonal with subsequent reheats. Finish shaping the head and round it over slightly at this point.

Use your hammer to "Planish" the head to smooth it and to work down most of the hammer marks from forging. Do the same for the body so that you don't have any unsightly hammer marks and unwanted folds. Planish out the stump tang, or the "spike" as well to dress it and true it straight. If you forge the spike correctly you should be able to reach your desired length without a need to trim it shorter. By following these few simple steps, the stump anvil and its stake will be properly centered. Finish the forge project by chamfering off the corners and finishing making the head the octagonal shape you seem to want. Most stump anvils are either square or round by the way and are slightly domed, not totally flat. Before you do your heat treat, put your forge ID marks where you want them to appear.

When you have finished shaping your stump anvil, bring it to your heat treating color on the head only. To minimize or prevent heat from traveling down to the stake and the rest of the body, you can coat it with clay so that it absorbs the bulk of the heat. When the head reaches its critical temperature for heat treating which is nonmagnetic, quench it in oil, not in water. If the proper heat treating temp was was achieved, a file will just slide right off the surface after it's cooled.

If you have a belt sander, sand and grind the anvil face to its final contour and bring it to a bright finish. Do the same for the body if you desire. After you have the anvil face heat treated, polish off the oil scale and bring it to a bright finish. Heat your kitchen oven to about 450 degrees if you don't have a heat treating oven. Put your anvil on a cookie sheet and allow it to bake. After about 45 minutes examine it. If it's still bright and has not changed color, allow it to heat longer. The minute that you see the color of the steel start to change, then you want to watch it very closely. For a knife, you want a pale straw color. For other work tools, you want a straw to a tan color. For a good solid striking surface such as dies or in your case, a stump anvil, you want the heat to reach an almost bronze color. When it is just before turning the bronze color, shut the oven off and allow it to cool over night. After that, your anvil should be good to go and ready to use. And, you won't have the problem of copper deforming the face like you did with this 1045 steel. You ALWAYS want to use a tool steel for making decent stump anvils.

If you want to give your anvil an antique finished look, start by brushing over the whole body with a brass wire brush. While it's still hot after pulling it from the oven, start rubbing beeswax all over it, especially on the body and the spike. This will blacken the stump anvil body, which will give it a nice blackened patina look. It will also help to preserve the steel and minimize rust because the beeswax burns and adheres to the steel as it cools. Nice video... nice build, thanks for sharing.

[tedebear]

you can build up the short side with welding rod GREAT JOB.

[lebommjohnson]

If you hadn't reforged the tang (spike) after cutting it short, you would have had a much closer fit in the hardy hole. The whole point of forging while resting in the hardy hole is to achieve that close fit. Otherwise, well done !

[ModernBladesmith]

you need a lower anvil or a lower stand to move your anvil to when hammering on the steel when it is long so you can get a level swing at it.

[citizenVader]

Why hardn it? That only makes everything more dangerous..

[dementedbowine]

why baby it put it to a real test unless you are planning to sell it still like the video great job as for the spike once it starts going one way there is almost nothing you can do to fix it