Anvils Through the ages

By: Don Plummer photography by Nick Vincent

This is a coffee table book full of photos of Anvils, swage blocks, stakes, and cones.  Each page has a one or two photos of an object with a very brief description of the object below it that names what type of object it is, the age, size, and weight. 

If you buy this book what you’re getting is a large coffee table book of beautiful photos of anvils which is an absolute joy to look through.  It is not a book that has a lot of written text about the history of anvils or anything like that. It is just a book of photographs to flip through.

Is this book needed by the beginner blacksmith, advanced blacksmith, or a great source of information? No.

Is there some historic value to the book? Yes.  It will give you a good idea of how anvil shapes have changed through time though the lack of text limits the knowledge you’ll get from the book.

Is it a whole lot of fun to flip through this book and look at all the amazing anvils? Yes, yes it is. This is a book I find myself pulling off the shelf fairly frequently just to flip through it and admire the anvils.  That fact gives it 3 out of 5 stars for me even though it scores pretty low in each of the breakout categories. 

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