I recently purchased a RIDGID® Peddinghaus 165 lb anvil and made a stand for it using an old section of a tree trunk. The noise made with a 1″ steel ball bearing was amazing, pure, and piercing! Here is how I eliminated it!
The Nostalgia of Blacksmithing!
Some say the ringing sound of the anvil is nostalgic and romantic. I agree, the sound a good blacksmith makes hammering in rhythm to the beat of creativity and imagination is mesmerizing. That being said, an untamed anvil rings louder and truer than a tuning fork.
According to the Physics Classroom, “Sound waves are produced by vibrating objects. Whether it be the sound of a person’s voice, the sound of a piano, the sound of a trombone or the sound of a physics book slamming to the floor, the source of the sound is always a vibrating object.”
In this article, the Physics Classroom continues to explain, in detail, how sound waves work, but all I really needed to read was “vibrating object.”
No Vibration = No Sound!
That’s why when you grab a tuning fork, mid-ring, it immediately quiets down. It quiets because there is no longer vibration.
Question: So how does one ‘grab’ an anvil?
Answer: Start with a good stand and hold the anvil down. Furthering the analogy of a hand holding a tuning fork, the hand has certain insulating properties like flesh and blood.
How I Quieted My Anvil
Foam, Rubber, and Silicone
I’m an aspiring blacksmith and want to be considerate oj my neighbors. At the moment, my workshop is half of our two car garage. It’s not much, but everyone starts somewhere.
Based on my situation, I needed mobility and flexibility.
I started with the base of the anvil. Since I’m basically blacksmithing in my garage I needed an anvil stand that I could move around and put away when not in use.
So, I glued a piece of foam to the bottom of the stand and then glued an industrial high density rubber mat to the foam.
This insulated the anvil stand from the cement floor. It also inhibited stand’s ability to resonate and softened (ever so slightly) the impact of stand to floor when the anvil was struck.
I finished by applying an ample amount of 100% silicone between the anvil and the stand. Then, I secured the anvil to the stand with metal brackets.
The foam, rubber, and silicone act as a hand silencing a tuning fork. Except in this case, they silence an anvil.
The results are amazing!
There are a few other popular ways to silence an anvil to include chains and magnets. I have heard good things about both. In my case I went with items that I had around the shop and I wasn’t disappointing.
Thanks for reading!
