Had a talk with a farrier at a hammer-in last weekend that made me reconsider my anvil setup

He was maybe 70 years old, been shoeing horses since the 70s. I was complaining about rebound on my 150 pound Fisher anvil. He just looked at me and said "son, how often you actually need that rebound?" Then he showed me his setup. He uses a beat up old anvil with a dead spot the size of my palm and he just works around it. Said he spends more time thinking about his hammer technique than his anvil. Got me wondering if I've been chasing gear instead of skill. Any of you old timers feel the same way about anvil quality vs technique?

2 comments

2 Comments

joelwells1mo ago

But that's not really what he was saying though. He wasn't telling you to ignore rebound completely. He was telling you that a 150 pound Fisher is way more anvil than most people ever need. Dead-spot technique is fine for him because he's been forging for fifty years and can work around anything. For someone starting out, a dead spot just teaches bad habits. You'll start striking too hard to compensate. Then you'll mess up your hammer control. That Fisher has plenty of life left in it, but don't use his setup as an excuse to downgrade. Just learn to use what you have first.

miles_sanchez1mo ago

Exactly. I've seen too many new guys blame the anvil when it's their hammer control that's the problem. That Fisher will still move steel fine for years if you work around the dead spot. Just don't stand there and try to hammer through it like a stubborn mule.