RR Anvil

[Frank S]

Throughout the history of anvil making there have been numerous makes with double horns this may be the first one Ihave seen with dissimilar horn and bick shapes. Really a nice feature when I think about it however not many smiths actually ever take full advantage of the bick or damage them due to their not knowing the somewhat delicate nature with respect of the rest of the anvil.
Having a short reasonably fat horn on one end with a blunt bick gives you a slight advantage over other 2 horned anvils since you can rough form on the shortened one and finish forming if need be on the more elongated slender horn with the sharper bick.
Having a hardened steel face welded to the anvil body is a practice that got started in the US by several anvil makers the face was heated to white hot and placed in the bottom of the mold then molten iron was poured in causing the face to be bonded with the body by some manufactures others dir this in the inverse by first casting the body then re heating it and the face then causing the bond by the use of a very large steam hammer Both practices had given way to cast steel by the early 1900's
Having the wider face on your anvil will give you more flat area to work with however the thin body or in the case of RR track the web with the wide face can not transfer energy from hammer blows as well as the narrower faces of RR track anvils when striking near the edge This only poses a problem for the smith if he has to use his anvil for long periods or time resulting in fatigue to his arm But most smiths will never experience this since they do not normally swing their hammers for hours at a time as a blacksmith would when beating out plow shears and the like.
The wider face does give you the ability to use it as a replacement for not having a heal since you have 2 horns and many was the time when I was working as a blacksmith apprentice I had wished for a deeper step but my mentor always told me, son you just can not have everything unless you make it yourself.
All in all in my opinion you have created a next gen RR track anvil which you should be very satisfied with for years to come