Does anyone use a post type anvil? I am currently making one out of the bottom of a railroad rail and some 4" square tubing. Any ideas for tooling etc. I started making it because neither of my current two anvils has square corners for creating the pinch at the recasso. Also any pointers for making it last?
For a long time I used a 3ft piece of track stood on end. The good part was that it put a lot of mass directly under the work piece, on the down side it only offered a few inches of flat surface (for most things it was plenty but it is nice to have a bigger surface for straightening), and it isn't hardened. I know you can harden it but that was a bigger job than I wanted to mess with. I'm having a hard time envisioning what you are thinking but the biggest problem I would see with using the bottom of the rail is having enough mass under your work. If you already have two anvils and are just looking for a sharp edge you might want to consider just using the end, to keep it stable I put it in a bucket filled with sand.
The "Anvilfire" web site has a page on railroad track anvils you might want to look at, as I recall they were all based on standing the track on end.
Jared,
If your anvil has a hardie hole and just doesn't have good corners for pinching out the cutting edge, check this bottom set out at Blacksmith's Depot.
I do some demo's at the local antique club show and the county fair, our anvils are sway-backed and edges rounded or broken-out so I made one similar to the one at the link for when I demo knives at the shows. You could also go with a guillotine type tool or a spring fuller type tool to accomplish creating the initial pinch.
Hope that helps.
Steve Seib
Thanks guys. What I ended up doing was taking some 1/4" thick X4" square tubing that is three foot long and stood it on end. Then I cut off the bottom of a railroad rail and welded it on the top end. Then I cemented the tubing into a 30 gallon drum with reinforced concrete to get the weight up. I don't know how or where Don Fogg got or made his post anvil but that is kind of what I am trying to reproduce. You can see his in some of the pictures on his website.
