steveb leatherworks: the blather

Anvils are one of those tools – you don’t know how much you need one, until you’ve got one at your disposal. I punch a lot of slots, tips, holes, etc – and find my anvils essential to a clean, neat and safe punching job. Nothing provides a more stable surface and you want a stable surface when your committed to swinging a lump hammer at sharp tool your other hand is holding. I have a 15lb’er, a 5lb steel block and a little 1/4lb steel pad and they see constant use.  The littlest unit can slip inside a piece (wallet or tool bag) if I need to set a rivet after construction – very handy.  I top off my anvils with dense rubber mats allowing me to save my tools the hardship of a poly cutting block surface… rubber is much kinder to a sharp edge than polyethylene cutting surfaces, a consideration unless you want to spend all of your time dressing edges….Not so much.

As I suffer a terminal case of tool envy and lust , I wish I had the room for a big boy – a “manly man’s anvil”, that would rule, but somehow I make out just fine with these little tough nuts. I’ve already stuffed my shop, the proverbial 5lb bag, with 10lbs of shit as it is.