With many railroad tracks now in disuse, some being converted into bike and pedestrian paths, you might be able to get your hands on a section of used railroad track. If you’re wondering what to do with a (legally sourced) piece of track, one option would be to build an anvil, like Youtuber “Smalltown442.”
In the video below, a section of track 11.5 inches long (weighing in at a hefty 33 pounds!) is “upcycled” into this basic metalworking tool. First the top and sides are cleaned up and shaped with an angle grinder. The front four inches is then turned into a horn by cutting the sides to a point, then cutting the bottom out with a cutoff wheel. You might notice that the wheel is worn down at around 1:00. As you might suspect if you’ve ever used an angle grinder, it actually took 6 wheels to get things cut.
More grinding is then done to get the shape worked out and the anvil is sanded to finish everything. The author notes that the bottom could have holes drilled in it for mounting but the basic shape is there. As he puts it, the anvil “looks pretty good.” I would definitely agree!
4 thoughts on “How to Make an Anvil from Old Railroad Track”
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Really nice job
Should be fun kids, just look both ways when you’re grabbing you a piece of that rail..
:O
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Did the you do any hardening of the striking surface afterwords? Any plans to add a hardy hole/ Pritchel hole?