Anvils have been around since ancient times. Basically, anvils are used to forge and shape metal. The first anvils were made of stone, then bronze, then wrought iron, then steel-faced wrought iron, ...

The news has been spread in many ways throughout the years, but perhaps Peter Thomson, the Lafayette pioneer blacksmith, had one of the more unusual ways of telling his community what was happening.

No other object is shaped quite like it. Unique yet ubiquitous, it was the tool upon which all other tools were made for centuries. It is the common anvil. "How do you feel when you're surrounded by ...