THE ANVIL

This Saturday's featured artifact is the anvil! The anvil was known as the blacksmith’s work surface. Forging included heating and pounding iron, therefore the blacksmith needed a strong surface on which he could pound the iron to form various objects. The anvil was a heavy iron block, weighing up to 300 pounds and sat on a tree stump which sank into a deep hole in the ground so it would not wobble while the blacksmith worked on it. The blacksmith would cut the stump in order to be the right height, which could be neither too high nor too low. Most of the blacksmith’s work was done on the face of the anvil. The face had a coating of steel on it to prevent denting the anvil while the blacksmith would pound on it. The blacksmith would use the chipping block to make a bend in a piece of iron. The end of the anvil was known as the heel. The horn on the other end of the anvil, also known as the beak, was used to shape iron into curved or round objects.