Blacksmithing Stake Anvils

These are Stake Anvils, also called T-Stakes, Bicks, or Bickerns.  They are useful for forging hollow forms, welding chain links, and other thinks needing a slimmer horn or more clearance than a traditional anvil offers.

This big Bickern is forged of wrought iron with no steel face.  It is 24 inches tall and 32 inches long.  It weighs around 180lbs.  It is one of the bigger and older stake anvils that I have seen.

It has a fluted column, shield shaped boss on the top, and both square and round horns.  It was probably made between 1700 and 1800 in Europe.  I found it in the Adirondack region of NY.

A smaller Bick Iron is used in the shop.  It is also old, and is make of wrought iron with a laid steel face.  It is much smaller, and was found in the Northern edge of the Catskill Mountains in NY State.  Why did both of my Bicks come from Mountain towns?  Both areas had English immigration and migration from Colonial Massachusetts.  That meant that settlers in both places had belongings that came to North American in the period before 1800, regardless of when they moved to NY.  Mountain folks tend to not throw things out.  It is nice that both of these anvils survived to the present day.

This style of Stake Anvil became less common after 1800-1830 as anvil horns became larger.  This small Bick was also likely made before that time period.  I use them lightly, as now they are recognized and collected as a rare tool.  Perhaps they will both survive another 200-300 years.

More Adirondack Blacksmiths' Pictures!

Here are a few more from the Hammer-in February 2014.

Many thanks to Marty for hosting!

His Armitage Mousehole Forge anvil is a great example of an early 1800's English anvil.

Marty and John Scarlett showed off their Blacksmith's pocketknives.  The upper one is Johns, made in 2005.  The bottom one is Marty's, made in January.

Marty has a nice Little Giant Power Hammer.  It is useful for heavy forging.

And for recycling.

Thanks Marty!  It is always fun getting together with the ADK smiths to try new projects.

Bickerns, T-Stakes, and Stake Anvils

One of the oldest kind of anvils is the Stake or Bickern.  A T shaped anvil that fits into a hole in the bench or stump is much more economical to make than one with a massive iron base.  Wrought Iron and steel were extremely expense prior to the 19th century's innovations.  Medieval woodcuts of Blacksmith shops often showed a stake anvil along with a hornless main anvil.

Stake anvils are very useful in a traditional shop.  They are used to bend small coils, fit inside a hollow object, or finish small forgings.  They ranged in size from tiny ones used by Jewelers to 20lb. stakes used by smiths to 200lb Bickerns used as an anvil in the shop.

My small stake anvil is forged of wrought iron with a steel face.  It has the classic shape with one round horn and one square horn.  It is an old one, and has some wear from use.  It had been -34F the night before I took this picture.  It was still well below freezing in the shop, and the stake anvil is very frosty!

My large stake anvil is from the pre-modern era.  The fluted column, shield shaped boss, and combination of round and square horns may place this anvil in the 18th century or earlier.  It is wide, long, and tall and weighs around 180lbs.

It is all wrought iron with no steel face.  This style of anvil would have been used in England to supplement the shop anvil.  Pre-1800 English anvils were fairly solid and rectangular with small horns and a short heel.  They were excellent for general forging but sometimes you needs a horn or skinny heel to forge inside a bucket, set rivets, or work on tines of a fork.  The Bickern, T-Stake, or Stake Anvil was needed for those jobs.

Stake anvils are still used in the Blacksmith Shop.  At the SOFA Quad-State 2013 Conference a team of smiths used a steam hammer to make the one pictured below!

They are still a sought out and useful tool for Blacksmithing and sculptural form.  As I heard one old smith say they are, "as useful as pockets in a pair of pants!"

Anvils in the Blacksmith Shop!

A good anvil is the center of a Blacksmith shop.  I am luck to have found a number of good anvils.  I have hand forged Bickerns, Peter Wright anvils from England, a Vulcan made in the Mid-West, and a Kohlswa from Sweden.  You only need one anvil but hunting for them is something of a sport!

Here in Northern New York our towns and farms have been in use for more than 200 years.  They were settled in the golden age of Blacksmithing and before the Industrial Revolution was fully underway.  Half the settlers of my region were coming from New England or more Southern parts of New York.  The tools that they brought with them may have already been generations old.  In my travels I have seen everything from pre-1740's English anvils with no horn or hard hole to anvils made in my lifetime.  Compared to the West Coast this is an anvil rich region.

I have anvils from 250 years old to about 50 years old!  My main shop anvil is the youngest one.  The 113kg. Swedish Kowlswa is cast steel and was made in the 1960's.  I bought it from the original owner.    While it is around 280lbs. it is the London pattern.  That makes it fairly narrow faced and long horned for it's weight.  Good forge work doesn't require a large anvil.  Historically a lot of small town Blacksmith shops used a 125-150lb. anvil.  But a larger anvil is steadier when using a sledge hammer.  I like this one.