I use a 400 pound chunk of harden steel for my anvil and it had worked just fine for my knife making needs, until lately. Trying to make my own hardware has convinced me that I need a hardy hole and hardies.
Any other way to use a hardy without having to buy an anvil? Will clamping one in a vice work?
Dean, If you have a sturdy blacksmith vise, you can clamp down on a hardy stem and get by but there's not much mass behind the tool. This is exactly the reason why I use a traditional pattern anvil so I can use hardies and make use of the horn as well.
You can make a tooling stand. In it's simplest form, it just a steel pipe with legs or the other end buried in the ground. Make a bolster plate to fit top, hole size is your choice. Mark Asprey has a good design in the first volume of his blacksmithing books.
Thank you men. I am in the market for a leg vice now. If that does not work well I will make a tool table. I was hoping to find a hardy fixture to help me along.
