What Is An Anvil For?

Wondering how to use an anvil in real life? What is an anvil for? Discover a blacksmith’s most vital tool to deform metal.

By Robert Thomas
Updated on August 7, 2023
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by AdobeStock/Fxquadro

Wondering how to use an anvil in real life? What is an anvil for? Discover a blacksmith’s most vital tool to deform metal.

If I could describe blacksmithing as any one thing, it is the process of controlling kinetic energy to deform metal. A great deal of that energy comes from the anvil.

This may sound counterintuitive; after all, an anvil is (one hopes) the most solid object in a smithy. It’s still a cultural shorthand for massiveness, weight, and stability; long after most children are likely to encounter a blacksmith in real life, they still know what it means when an anvil is dropped on a cartoon character’s head.

But when a blacksmith swings his or her hammer, they are expending kinetic energy, of which they have a limited supply. Smithing is hard work. To be able to work long hours crafting a fine piece of metal, the smith needs to be able to recoup as much of the energy they expend swinging their hammer as possible.

That’s where the anvil comes in. An anvil is heavy enough to not shift when the blacksmith strikes it and hard enough to deflect the strength of the blow back up, returning a portion of the blacksmith’s energy for the next swing. It’s like running on asphalt: runners find it much easier than softer surfaces like sand.

To control the upswing and effectively use the returned energy, the shape of the anvil is important. Every curve, point, corner, and edge on the anvil has a specific function, and where the smith places the metal on the anvil allows for the creation of different effects.

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