Anvil . Iron block with a special shape and with surface tempering, which is used to hammer metals on it (forging process). They come in various sizes, from the large ones used in blacksmiths, to the tiny ones used by watchmakers and jewelers. The bigornia is a kind of small anvil used by shoemakers and saddlers.
The forging process
The anvil is one of the oldest tools in metallurgy . Since the dawn of this technique, it has been used to hit metals, mainly iron , to give it higher quality, improving its structure by refining the size of the grain. The metal is heated red hot in a forge fire and then struck on the anvil. Forged metal is stronger and more ductile than molten metal and exhibits greater resistance to fatigue and impact.
Currently the steel is received already refined, so the anvils are used almost exclusively to form the metals in hot or cold (bending, straightening, drilling, cutting, reducing or increasing their thickness, rolling, etc.).
Anvil parts
The main parts of an anvil are:
Body . Central piece in the form of a block with a rectangular section, in whose upper part is the table, in the lower part the support pieces, and on the sides the cone and the square.
Table . Flat top on which the steel is struck to forge it. It has sides at 90º that serve to fold the pieces.
Cone . Conical lateral extension whose conformation allows to give a curved shape to the pieces.
Square . Lateral prismatic extension with edges at 90º to bend the pieces at a right angle.
Eyes . Holes, generally one round and the other square, which serve to open holes in the pieces with a punch, and also to hold certain auxiliary tools.
Hitches . They are the extensions that are located in the lower part of the anvil and that serve to fix the anvil to the support table.