Anvil
A heavy chunk of iron with a smooth face, used to hammer silver into shape. The most common homemade anvils were fashioned from short lengths of railroad rails. Sometimes a protruding heel or horn was formed, making the anvil look more like the ones used by farriers to shape horseshoes. The horn is useful in forming bracelet shanks. Some silversmiths carved swaging channels in the surface of the anvil, usually triangle or half round shape. Rods of silver could by hammered into these slots to produce shaped bars—wire—to fabricate bracelet shanks or other elements.