The steel will harden plenty well for a hardy. You would want to upset the base a little more or start with a slightly thicker cut and draw the shank down a little. Yes, it would be a very similar process, just more forging. Used rail often has cracks and almost always has cold shuts where the surface has been extruded over the original surface from years and years of heavy freight rolling of the rail.Ĭan you make a hardie like you did the fuller? This final image is a little armorer's anvil with a dishing bowl carved into the stump. With a little welding and grinding that small target can be improved.Ī small anvil built this way gives you the kind of rigidity you expect from a 100 pound or more anvil at 1/5 the weight. This is such an efficient design that since describing this style anvil years ago many bladesmiths have started using anvils made form 3" to 6" diameter piece of steel shafting. If you turn a piece on end and weld it to a flange it is easy to get 9 to 12 inches of rigid MASS under your hammer. The springiness is due to the designed in flexibility of the rail. Any of you that have tried it know that it is very springy and the curved face can take a LOT of work to dress. Here a stake is made out of the top section and welded to a piece of mild steel shafting.Įarlier I said that rail makes a lousy anvil. The carbon steel in rail is excellent for making stakes. However, the tapered flange must be machined or ground parallel to the back. The steel is hard enough not to need a separate die. Rail can make a relatively low cost power hammer ram. Such tools can be flat with sharper corners than the anvil, or dressed to a dome or radius shape.Īnvil tools do many of the jobs of a swage block with less expense.Īfter cutting two fullers off the opposite ends of a short piece of rail I had a handy bench anvil. Other anvil tools can be sawn or torch cut very close to shape.Īfter shaping the rough tool it can be heated an a bar or shape sunk into it. Rail is just high enough carbon that if water quenched while overheated it will crack. Very little forging is required to make a fuller from rail.Ī little tapering and dressing of the corners, then grind or file smooth. So a one foot piece of 140 pound rail weighs 46.7 pounds.Ī one foot piece of more common 120 pound rail weighs 40 pounds and when cut to "anvil" shape maybe as little as 30 pounds.
Note that rail is measured in the pounds per yard, not per foot like structural steel. This fuller was sawn off the end of a piece of 140# rail.
Heavy rail has about a 3/4" web and is great for the beginner making anvil tools to fit a small anvil (100 to 150 pounds). The entire anvil's purpose was for making horse shoe nail rings. It has a through hole and impression to support a #6Ĭapewell nail for putting initials on the faces of the head. It has a spring steel top plate welded on. This little 6" anvil is made from some old pre 1865 Pre 1860's rail is lower quality and some is actually wrought iron. Modern Rail road rail is a medium to high carbon steel (aprox 1075). There may be some ideas for the rest of you. Is stuff for the beginner or the scrounger. This demo is on making tools out of RR-rail.
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