My First Go at a Horned Anvil in the Viking Style

Over the last couple of weeks I put some of my free time into forging a small, horned anvil with my friend Jonathan.  I chose a simple form reminiscent of some of the horned anvils of the Viking era – basically a squarish anvil with a tapered base and a small, flush horn off of one face.  The idea was to gain some skill with assembling an anvil body with a horn and to face both the body and the horn with one plate of steel.  For the body and horn I chose mild steel and for the face I chose 1060 steel which withstands forge welding quite well and is nicely hardenable.  To join the body and the horn so I could heat them together in a coke forge I borrowed an idea that I got from a random picture I saw on the internet.  It was a copperplate engraving which showed the horn tenoned through the top of the anvil – probably from the Diderot encyclopedia.  I scarfed the horn so that I could blend the seam of the weld to the body and it worked quite well.  The steel face was tacked on with a few TIG welds to keep it on during its welding process.  When it all survived the quench to harden the face I was very relieved!  The anvil weighs 4.7 kg (10 lbs 6 oz) and is a little over 7 inches tall.
Below are pictures of the process and here is a LINK to video footage of welding the horn.

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