Eli5: why are anvils shaped like that?

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Basically the title

In: Engineering

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

So the blacksmith can make different shapes.

The pointed end “horn” is used to hammer curves

The side is for bending curves

The main part of the top is to hammer things  flat and straight

Anonymous 0 Comments

Horseshoes. Major work of most early blacksmiths was making and fitting horseshoes and you need to create rounded arc of different sizes to fit different sized horses hence the pointed cone on one end.