My little first anvil
I started making jewelry from very humble and simple beginnings. My tools were very limited to what I already owned and I did not have much to work with. My first teaching book was Ben Hunts silver smithing book. Ben teaches the Indian way of silversmithing. The older generation Indians were very resourceful,and still are, and made tools from found objects. They made stamps from valve stems, cement nails and bolts. or railroad spikes. Any metal thing that had a metal hardness was used. Their anvils were pieces of railroad iron. They worked off an old stump and pounded forming dents into the stump and mounted there railroad anvil to it.
I went to the Albuquerque flea market every weekend. It was a very big flea market located on the New Mexico state fairground. One weekend I cam across a little anvil made from a piece of small railroad iron. It was probably from a mine as it was a lot smaller than train track. But it had been very abused and had even been welded on. The top had the welding marks on it and needed ground off and smoothed up. But it had been trimmed at each end to look like an anvil. The top was flat at one end and the other was tapered to a point. It was a perfect size for jewelry, I was excited to get it. I think I paid under ten dollars.
I took it home and cleaned it up and ground the welds off and smoothed the top. It was made from hardened steel and would ring a little. I wondered the history of this little anvil ,had it been a rail track in a gold mine?. I wondered how old it was and the history of it. I fell in love with old tools and retooling them for making jewelry. Much more meaning in a tool when it has been used for something else and has a old history. It is much more rewarding to find old tools and adapt them. Old tools were also well made with good metal and have a different feel. They speak to you from the past.
Copyright 2010 @ James Saunders
