How Many Have Old Anvils?

[cowsrus]

Used to sell at farm sales around here (N.E. Okla & S.E. Ks.) for about a dollar a pound. Might be higher now. I have to ask, what is shooting the anvil? I,ve never heard the expression before.

 

[Corky]

Used to sell at farm sales around here (N.E. Okla & S.E. Ks.) for about a dollar a pound. Might be higher now. I have to ask, what is shooting the anvil? I,ve never heard the expression before.

It's about as strange as it sounds. The purists still use one of the old antique anvils which had a small hollowed out spot in the base. The basic idea is you set the anvil with the hollow spot in the ground upside down so the hollow spot is up. Then pour in a liberal amount of gunpowder, lay a couple of feet of fuse across the anvil and then place another anvil on top, light the fuse & run.You can generally get about 100 feet of height with this technique.

The two guys that shoot at our festival do a couple of shots like this just so people can see the old way, but they also have a newer setup which uses a custom made base with a much larger, flatter surface area, plus a much larger powder chamber. They both go to all kinds of competitions throughout the year. Last year their best shot at the festival made it to around 350 feet. If you ever get a chance it's pretty impressive to watch.(':shock:')
We used to shoot fairly close to the festival grounds, but have now switched to having the guys out in the peanut fields behind the festival a pretty good ways for obvious reasons.

('8)')

 

[milesvb]

Used to sell at farm sales around here (N.E. Okla & S.E. Ks.) for about a dollar a pound. Might be higher now. I have to ask, what is shooting the anvil? I,ve never heard the expression before.

It's about as strange as it sounds. The purists still use one of the old antique anvils which had a small hollowed out spot in the base. The basic idea is you set the anvil with the hollow spot in the ground upside down so the hollow spot is up. Then pour in a liberal amount of gunpowder, lay a couple of feet of fuse across the anvil and then place another anvil on top, light the fuse & run.You can generally get about 100 feet of height with this technique.

The two guys that shoot at our festival do a couple of shots like this just so people can see the old way, but they also have a newer setup which uses a custom made base with a much larger, flatter surface area, plus a much larger powder chamber. They both go to all kinds of competitions throughout the year. Last year their best shot at the festival made it to around 350 feet. If you ever get a chance it's pretty impressive to watch.(':shock:')
We used to shoot fairly close to the festival grounds, but have now switched to having the guys out in the peanut fields behind the festival a pretty good ways for obvious reasons.

('8)')

The idea "back in the day" (at least around here) was to use an anvil with a hole bored in the top, filled with black powder and a trail of powder that led to the edge of the face, then put another anvil upside down on top. Let some brave (inebriated) fellow grab a long stick out of the fire and touch the glowing end to where the powder trail is.

Now that I'm thinking about this, maybe hearing problems in this family aren't hereditary afterall.

 

[tytower]

My anvil is a saw horse arrangement. four pipe legs and a piece of rail track welded with cross braces under the rail . Pipe sinks into the ground and it works great for bending and hammering things

Another point is the best sawhorses (tressles) are a piece of 3 x 3 angle iron with four pipe legs on it and a brace accross the legs.
Solid as a rock