I picked up an 80lb piece of railroad rail that's about 2 1/2 feet long.  I'm trying to decide if I should mount it vertically and use the cross section of the rail as my surface or use it horizontally.  As rail goes, the top of the track (the hard surface) is not too badly radiused and one edge is pretty straight and sharp. But still a bit radiused.  Vertically, in cross section, it has a very flat surface with nice sharp edges, but it is only 3"x2".  And it would have the advantage of more mass beneath it since I wouldn't be pounding over the webbing.  I know that you don't need a ton of area to work on... but is 3x2 TOO small for anything other than tiny blades???

Mount it vertically!!  You can do nearly everything on that surface except straighten a large blade.  Visit anvilfire.com for some mounting option.  I like one with a large plate in the stand w/ a hardy hole

That is what I'm inclined to do... mostly because of what I was reading on Anvilfire. But it seemed like they had bigger pieces of rail than I do. They don't really have dimensions on there. It just seems so dang small.

Scott, I agree with Jeremy, I basicly use the "Sweet Spot" on my anvil with the exception of the times when I use the "horn"  and when I straighten the blade!

Steve
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Potomac Forge
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IN GOD WE TRUST

okay boys... I've got a guy fired up to cut with a torch tomorrow.  If I decide to go vertical, then I can let him off the hook. So... Just to be sure... 2"x3" sounds good?

I don't know why I'm fussing over this. I have another smaller piece of rail. I can always do it both ways.

MY post anvil is only 4 X 4 - definately post it vertically.  Flat it won't let you move metal hardly at all.  On end you have the mass of the anvil to resist the steel and improve movement of the hot steel under your hammer.

I'm gonna do it that way... but I wish it was 4x4 rather than 2x3!  Anyway... I guess this will get me by until I can move on to better things.

Karl posted a thread here recently on this very subject with pics of his portable setup. He used the rail on end and addeda a thick chunk of steel on top for the surface area.

http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=110;t=001826;p=1

well sheeeeit. I've been searching all over the web and I didn't search here. Shame on me. That's what I needed.  I was thinking if I welded something on to that small surface to make it bigger.. it would overhang too much and I'd still be using that small area as my 'sweet spot'.  And I also wondered how hard any steel I found would be compared to the relatively hard steel the track is supposed to have. I suppose I can try to harden the surface though.

But that setup looks good.  

Another idea somebody gave me is to set up the rail vertically, cut out the webbing and weld a 20# sledge hammer head (verically so the face is the working surface) in between the rail and the base.  But... so far I haven't found an old 20 pounder anywhere. Anyway... back to scrap yard to scrounge a chunk of steel.

Something else came up in that thread that I didn't understand... He mentioned that you could use it for 'Brute de Forge' style blades because it was mobile and that you could keep it close to the forge.  Can somebody shed some light on this for me??