Stake anvil from pickaxe

[Philip Davies]

Yesterday, my protege, Jack, finished his stake anvil, patterned after one I made a couple of years ago. It’s the one stuck upright in the lawn. Mine is leaning, to the left. To make it, I drifted the pickaxe eye, so it was circular, forged a bar that fitted so that the shank would fit the hardy hole of my anvil. Well, that meant it was level only in one direction, as I had to bend the shank. Consequently, I straightened it to fit in my homemade swage block.
Jack’s is different. The stake is a jackhammer bit, inserted into a bar I found which already conveniently had a 1” hole bored through it, as shown. A round bar of stainless, 1” dia completes the core to the level of the bicks. A slit was cut in a tapered piece of 2” iron pipe, to take up the slack around the shank in the eye. Jack also had to insert wedges before welding and grinding flat. Jack still has to dress the bicks, but he is jolly pleased to have a makeshift anvil for small projects. We shall find a suitable log, or something for it.