The most essential tool for your garage or workshop! 

Great idea! I went out and found a piece of rail just laying on the ground. It was part of a rail that seemed to go on for miles but I still managed to cut out a 14" piece. It'll be perfect!

My dad made me one of these many years ago. It's still in my shop and at my age ( 72 ) it still makes me think of that talented man.

I built one of these a little over seven months ago for my shop just south of Unity, OH, and it's been a game changer. Rail wasn't readily available locally so I had to get creative, but it all worked out in the end. Thanks!

Loved it. Went and cut me a 24 inch piece off the track about a mile from here that runs through our woods.

This was cool, I went out to the back yard this afternoon and chopped a few feet of track, came back in and made this, just about when I was done I heard this loud horn and a big rumbling, and it felt like we had an earthquake!! Then all I heard was screams and sirens etc, must have been a huge car crash or something. Anyhow the paper weight is great I love it

I have had a rail anvil for 65 years. I tapered one end on top to a very long tapered point. One end on the bottom is cut square to approximately a 25 degree angle. Don’t use it often, but extremely handy when needed, often for sheet metal type work. The wood block absorbs energy, but reduces ring. I sent it in a vice when I want to use the bottom. Recently used both side to make a downspout adaptor that needed a square corner on one end and a rounded corner on the other end. Have a regular anvil for forging type work.

In engineering, (and mathematics) the simplest possible answer to a problem is always considered the most "elegant" or "beautiful". This is the most elegant rail-tie anvil I have ever seen.

Anvil was just the excuse, to demonstrate inspiration, multiple tool use and great craftsmanship. Really enjoyed it 😊

That is just masterful thinking, - When you removed it, and re-inserted it upside down to the flatter bottom section, it was sheer brilliance, so good, Thank you.

Railroad track has been used for small anvils for a many of years, but you found a way to make them look nice, easy to move around, and the flipping over idea is just brilliant! Plus I assume being wrapped in wood helps take some of the loud ring and ping out of it, but not so much that it deadens it completely. Quality work!!!

Honestly I wasn’t sure how this idea was gonna turn out, incredible job! Very well done!

Thats an awesome anvil. Made completely from scrapped parts found around work shop. Absolutely genius.

BRILLIANT idea! LOVE IT! Regular anvils are far too expensive for common people to afford and this would be PERFECT for a garage shop and takes up FAR less space!

Cool ideal. I have a 18" piece of track I have been saving for 20 years. I'm going to copy this idea now that I have my shop built. Thanks for the video.

My Father-in-law gave me a piece of track (1971) and told me that it will come in handy at some point in my life. I have been using it for almost 50yrs.

Very nice, don't forget to watch for the trains.

Eugene! I love that! Especially that you made it to invert. I wondered why you cut out that curve where the flat bottom of the rail would be. Very smart, and very well done!

Awesome job! I have an anvil ( anvil shaped object, ASO,) that I made from a piece of rail track, it took me a few weekends to shape it but jeez it has been a handy bit of kit in the workshop. We’ll done to you for an ingenious design and use of the rail track. I’m inspired to make one. Cheers cobber

It took me a hellish long time to hacksaw a piece down at the local rail yard. ..in the dark made it a lot harder. But, a small section makes a spectacular solid surface when pounding the life out of something is required; a lot better than hands-n-knees on concrete. Yours is very elegant compared to my raw-rail. Congrats. Jim

Thats awesome, I knew I saved that piece of railroad track from my grandfathers garage for a reason lol I am going to follow this guide and do the same thing you did, thanks!

I love this and could really use it, and the kicker is that I used to have every bit of this project laying around - both band saws, palm sander, big ol table saw, drill press, welder, chisels, leftover plywood, steel, and a small rail section. It is all still sitting in the workshop at my old house with my ex on the other side of the country. Whomp whomp.

When I was a jeweler I had a foot long piece of rail I used for an anvil. It wasn’t quite as fancy as this but I did take it to a machine shop to get the top perfectly smooth and highly polished. Nice video, thanks! And Happy New Year!

I had NO idea where this was going, but that was the half the fun of it. Great idea, who would have ever thought of going beyond just using the raw rail piece as an anvil? Only this guy!

There’s 8 minutes of my life I won’t get back

I love this Idea. I already use a piece of track as an anvil, but the support to use the top and bottom of the track is awesome. 2 suggestion for you and your viewers: 1) Angle one side of the top of the track into a dull point. This will help when working with some cone or canister shaped items. 2) For eliminating rust (even all the way into those pits) I like to soak any rusty steel or stainless steel in distilled white vinegar for 24 to 48 hours (about $2.00 per gallon). Then broom off with stiff non-metal brush; rinse with water; immediately spray with 90% or greater Isopropyl Alcohol; then dry off with towel or compressed air. It will look new, except for those clean pits. Now ready to be primed and painted with no worry of rust ever bubbling up under the paint. DO NOT use vinegar with alloys or soft metals; the vinegar will eat some of those away or turn it black.

Fyi, for those wishing to use this, the head of the rail (the rounded side) is harder metal and will take much more hammer abuse than the flat side.

This should be called the Rube Goldberg Channel

Very impressive, especially being able to turn the track upside down.

Nice project but as a blcaksmith I can tell you that a piece of railroad track works better as an anvil if you mount it vertically rather than horizontally. It puts more steel and mass under the point of impact. All you really care about is the area directly under the hammer blow. Try taking the rail out of the mounting block and setting it on end. Then try using it vertically and horizontally to experience the difference. It is a bit counter intuitive but it really works better vertically.

What a great idea! I'll have to do this with my little length of rail as well!! Thank you!

I love the sander being in tune with the background music at 00:45!

As a chippy I have a small piece of rail way line in my kit. When needed it is so usefully for many many situations. Makes a great anvil.

Sweeeeeeeeeeet! I spent one summer before college laying tracks in Ohio for the B&O. After that no work was ever hard! lol Very creative, my friend. I really enjoyed watching you make that anvil. I wish now that I'd kept a slice of that rail. ;-)) Shalom/gw

My railroad track has been on my work bench for over 40 years now. It's certainly not as pretty as yours but every bit as functional. Thanks for sharing your project.

The way you synthesized each process of the job, that's the way to do it.

An old railroad spike has been one of my favorite masonry chisels for years, when it gets dinged up I just grind a new edge.

I just made a railroad track piece into the shape of an anvil. It's useful for hammering mild steel and non ferrous metals. Tried hammering rebar cold and it gouged the track. Tried hammering the rebar when it was red hot and while it did eventually get hammered into shape correctly, it took way too much work to do it because the track is specifically formulated to REDUCE vibration which means that it has very low rebound. These types of non-anvils are very useful especially for hammering bent steel sheet, but the aren't good blacksmith anvils. Currently a one foot length of 3in 4140 heat treat is running about ten percent the cost of a good new anvil, and mounted vertically next to the train track anvil will pretty much do anything a beginner needs.

Hi Eugène! Good to see someone capable to do so! Just by looking at you puting the wood glue,I can tell you know a lot!Not like those guys puting all the bottle down to glue nothing! You also have nice machines, your shop looks great! You know how to use tools,not like those guys having everything for doing nothing!

My dad always kept a slab of 1” steel on his work bench and so do I. Simple and very handy.

The most amazing thing about this video was when you flipped the RR track over! Mind blown! It’s made almost symmetrical, I’d never guessed that.

I’ve been using a piece of rr track as an anvil for a few years now. Just In my bs little home work station. Really like what you did with your setup. Mine I just found in the at the local public shooting area and took home but it has a lot of craters. This makes me want to get a clean pice and try to recreate what you have done

Waow! Simple but amazing, you're a genius and the result is really pleasant for the eyes. Thanks a lot for your vids 👌👍🖖

A big ass chunk of rusty railroad tie was the first tool I had in my first shop that I didn't share with someone else and I still use it today!

incredible. I have a piece that was my grandfather farm anvil that I have used and I love the idea about cleaning it up and making it a more attractive tool. I do think I will cut my grandfathers down to size as it is 2 feet long so it's a chunk to move. Thanks for great idea.

That's a neat trick being able to flip it upside down, I've got a couple of anvils made of rail track

Wonderful and so satisfying to see excellent work performed by master craftspeople with the right tools. Also, your ideas are really clever and the results so attractive. This one would make an excellent gift and I want one, too. Your no-nonsense videos with good views, good lighting and pace are a real joy to watch. Thank you for taking the time, adding a becoming sound track and sharing.

I admire your skills. I enjoy seeing things like that done.

huh... a portable anvil that is a really good idea.

You got my subscribe when you started tossing collected scraps onto your bench! ;)

I think it looks beautiful and has a lot of uses but I also think the wood comes up so high around the side of it that it makes the side of the anvil less available and I think the side is important for shaping things.

I've seen this thumbnail pop up 20x. out of jealousy I hadn't clicked it till just now. Such an awesome idea. And I have a 12" section of crane rail hidden out at work. Waiting to go back so I can ask to have it. Love the idea of having a solid base on it.

I have a rail section I use for this same purpose. This setup would make it much more useful! That's it I'm making garage space for a bandsaw this spring.

Thanks first to Eugen for this excellent video tutorial. In addition to other commentators, I have been using such a piece of rail as an ambos, and I often discovered the different bend and curves on this tool as very helpful to deform, process and assemble metal parts. Therefore, I could still use a supplement to the solution described here, which allows to be able to put the anvil on the side as needed, while it protrudes out of the holder, so that these corners and curves are something freely accessible. And as already mentioned in a previous comment from "George M. the Blacksmith" if it is put in the vertically position You'll have more mass under the point of impact when working on heavy duty pieces. Maybe some idea comes along ...

Awesome. I can see one improvement. Where you are using the hex nuts to remove the handle/stopper, change them out to wing nuts for ease of use.

Wow. Certainly an example of fine craftsmanship. I guess I never gave my avil a second thought, I just throw minel upside down in my bench vise when I need it like that and then throw it under the workbench when done.

Just absolute genius. Just loved watching your filming sequence. Inspiring and beautifully crafted. WOW !!!!

The anvil from Rail Road track rail is something we've made may times in several USAF Machine Shops. Depending on the type of rail used, we would make some really nice small anvils that looked like the larger Blacksmith Types. By type of rail, I'm talking about the height of the rail. I believe the US SAE Rail Specifications call it "Rail Depth", that is the height of the rail. They can be from 1 9/16 to 6 1/8 inches tall. The width of the base, the flat part that sits on the ties, will be as wide as it is tall or the same as the depth of the rail. The smaller ones would either be used for a desk display or used for small items, much like a Jewelers Anvil. But I do like the one featured here as well. The plywood shell or base he made for this would probably work best with the short to medium height rails. The taller rails can get a bit heavy and we always drilled mounting holes in the base for them. To make the horn on the anvil on these rails takes a lot of grinding. But these RR rails are made from some of the best steel you can get.

Thank you for the very nice video! A knotted wire brush attachment for a 100mm angle grinder would remove the rust really well and only take a minute.

I actually have an old piece of track just like this laying around. Thanks for the idea!!

As a blacksmith, and an accomplished Knife Maker, I would say this isn’t a good idea without being a snob. The main job of a good anvil is to reciprocate the force of your hammer blows back up through your work piece. This cannot happen with railroad track because of the width of the rail beneath the actual track surface. The energy transfer of an anvil occurs due to the mass of the surface directly beneath the the face of the anvil. If you wanted to actually get a reciprocal hit from your anvil, your best bet would be to turn the railroad track on its end, long ways up and down and then work on that 1.5x 3“ surface of the actual rail on its side. As it is, railroad track is perfectly fine for doing things like adding on snap toggles and the like, but for any kind of real forging you will simply wear your elbow out using something like this. Buy a 75 pound anvil and throw it up on a cube made from 9 4x4 lengths of about 28-34 inches. The anvil face should be about the same height that your knuckles are, resting on the surface if you were standing next to it. Trust me, saving $300 to do something like this rather than just getting a proper work. surface is not worth blowing your elbow out two years down the road.

Truly impressive work. The finished product looks fantastic. The saw cutting through the anvil was like a hot knife through butter.

Nice work, seems like just as much enjoyment building it as it using it. Especially like the fact you can customize the build to whatever length you may need, but this example seems like a very practical length for most uses & still very portable. 👍👏

Amazing project but what also stood out was the production value of the video, well done.

One of the most ingenuous ideas I've seen in years. Thanks!

At first I thought, why build the wood container, UNTIL you flipped it over to have the large flat base. Genius. The only negative would be if the heads of those internal bolts ever decide to spin in their cutouts, then there is no fixing it. Nice video overall.

Que buena idea y buen trabajo compañero. Te felicito.

You had an anvil with just the hunk of railroad track. If you scrounge up a wider piece of thick metal, you can secure that to the work bench without all the cutting and assembly.

Good job! Not having access to a railroad tie myself, now all I have to do is figure out how to attach handles to my favorite anvil.

Evaporust works wonders for rust removal and the best part is there’s no elbow grease involved and all the rust is gone.

Nice project. Looks very professionally finished. I might personally have used full lengths of threaded rod and welded them to the handle strap at one end (Or turned up some plain rod and threaded the last 30 or so millimetres), then possibly used wing nuts on the unwelded end...... but it was your project, so you get to choose how to do it.

That's a lovely bit of work. Thanks for making the video to show us. Inspirational!

What a fantastic idea! And it looks great! On windy days it could be a very effective door stop!

Hi Eugene, That was a very interesting project, I may make one myself, One thing I like to do with a Rusty piece of steel is spray it with WD-40 before using a wire wheel or a Brush to kill the Dust, >Joe, Baltimore MD.

That is the nicest looking diy anvil I've seen of late!

Nice, I like the look of the advanced door stopper a lot more then before.

That is some snazzy craftsmanship.

You made a great design, and built a very useful tool for your shop. Excellent job!!

I had been thinking of ways to get my first anvil and considered the rail method but thought it would be clunky and was just considering trying to buy a cheap anvil somewhere. But this interests me a lot more, I already do a little bit of woodworking so I can just do the rail anvil in the stand like you did here and I’d get to avoid the possible issues with just the plain rail Because this one I can move around and put away when it’s not needed a bit easier I’d think since I can mount this to one of my worktops, I dunno all of the benefits really so I might just be spouting nonsense and there’s no actual difference between this and a normal anvil, but I’m assuming this one is lighter, and it definitely looks prettier and has a shape that seems easier to store. I can make my the banded shield I was thinking about making now with this

EXCELLENT 111 EXCELLENT 111 Just a great idea to make the rail tie so versatile as an anvil !!!! A great addition to any shop !!!! Thank you

I wouldn't say this will be my most essential tool but I have been in the market for a anvil and this is actually perfect for my needs and is cheap. I know where to get scrap rail for around $35 for a 20ft section. And I have a bunch of ply wood scrap that I can use to make the base.

A suggestion for removing the rust from the rail without sanding would be an electrolytic bath - it also works great for cleaning cast iron cookware.

Интересная идея!!!

That is a nice stand design for a small bench anvil.

I have several chunks of rail and now I know what to do with them!! Thank You!

I was wondering the whole video “what the hell could this thing possibly do to be THAT essential?” Then it is so obvious at the end…and so obviously essential for any serious metal working. The suspense/intrigue was palpable😂!

You could use threaded rod throughout plywoods. İt would support the glue to hold together the woods. Nice works

I love this idea. I acquired a piece of rail a long time ago just to use as an anvil. But I haven't done much with it because of how awkward it is to move it around. it's been just lost somewhere in storage. I now have a reason to dig it out. Thanks again

Great work. I don't have a wood shop and seeing your daring acts of bravery with your hands makes me nervous. Maybe I'm just over protective of my digits! Subscribed!

I've done this many times over the years. Strangely, everytime I make one of these, there's a mysterious train wreck shortly thereafter.

I work for train transit in Bay Area and the third rail is electrified. So in order for me to cut out a section to make this anvil I had to get a electrical safe clearance and involved 4 electrians, 2 track operators, 4 communications worker, 3 structures worker, and foreworkers for each department. It cost the transit agency $15,000 in labor for me to make this 1 foot anvil.

GREAT JOB!! And your nice workshop makes me jealous. Wonderful.

i have a 22inch piece of track myself. I went to local rail yard and asked if they had any small pieces. Told them i wanted to make an anvil out of it. They gave that to me. People on here act like it's some unattainable thing. This is great idea, because right now i'm just turning it upside in my vise to hold it.

Nice! Not sure how the plywood underneath would stand up over time if in constant use but for occasional use great idea and would also make a great weight for glueing up projects while they dry to keep them flat while clamped etc.. could maybe have the bottom exposed to have more solid hard wearing base but esthetically this looks great! Good job! Cheers from London England 👍💪😎🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🙏

Great project and very useful. However you need to be more safe when using power tools. Especially your table saw. Losing fingers will not help your projects.

Yeah, what a great idea... I have 2 pieces of track much smaller that I use as anvils, clamping them in a vise... Thanks for the inspiration...

Excellent job! Great idea. Mine rests under the bench and is very heavy to lift up to my bench.

I can't tell if everyone on here is being sarcastic or my brain has broken. I just wasted this time waiting for something to happen and it turned into nothing.

Too much work involved, I’d just clamp the rail in a large vice, great idea but a lot of effort required.

A wonderful solution to a problem that didn’t exist. I have a rail anvil without the wood and it does exactly the same but takes less room and it has a horn.

I actually have a piece of rail a bit shorter that I've sometimes used as an anvil. The wood addition seems a good idea.