Heritage Shared Essays, Papers, and Poetry

Anvils: An Appreciation

by Robert C. Pavlik

I have long admired the strength, solidity, and utility of anvils. They have no moving parts, they are heavy, and they possess an artistic flare with their pointed horns, flat faces, and slender waists, not to mention their splayed feet and solid heels. Anvils are also musical, ringing and singing with each hammer blow or tap.

Anvils are that mixture of industry and beauty that I have always appreciated. From them, attractive and useful things can be made.

Anvils come in many sizes, from very small (for jewelry and other fine work) to those weighing several hundred pounds. Most anvils are between 100 and 300 pounds, and are usually attached to stout blocks of wood. Some are portable, for example, those used by ferriers who shoe horses. They occupy a central place in any blacksmith shop, along with the forge and the water tank for cooling hot iron or steel.

Accompanying this article is a small gallery of some anvils I have encountered over the years.

In Painesville, Ohio, some of my cousins work at Dyson Corporation, a manufacturer of steel fasteners whose logo is an anvil with a large D on the side.

In Port Townsend, Washington there is a manufacturer of anvils, called Nimbus. I like the allusion to weather, as there is a shape of cumulonimbus cloud called an anvil. When it rises into the upper atmosphere and is pulled and distorted by high winds the cloud becomes a "slanted anvil."

I've realized that my ideas are a lot like the clouds, composed of water vapor and shaped by dreams. It is my hope that I can produce volumes of poetry and prose that will serve as cultural fasteners, binding writers and readers.

Copyright 2008 Robert C. Pavlik All Rights Reserved