Anvil

This page was last verified for Vintage Story version 1.21.1.

Anvil
Material	Metal
Stackable	No
Drops	Itself
Blocks

Anvils are functional blocks used as the work surface when smithing metal items.

Creation

In the game, you will need a Tier (n-1) anvil to work Tier (n) materials, i.e. you will need a bronze (Tier 2) anvil to work iron (Tier 3) ingots.

Copper (Tier 1) and Bronze (Tier 2) Anvil

The first step in this process is to create an anvil mold via the clay forming mechanic. The anvil is then cast using the casting mechanic. An anvil requires 900 units (9 ingots-worth) of copper or bronze alloy to fill the mold. Once an anvil is cast and removed from the mold, it may be placed like any other block onto a solid surface. No tools are required to break an anvil to pick it up and re-position it.

Iron and Meteoric Iron Anvil (Tier 3)

An iron anvil base with applied borax waiting for the top part.

Anvils made out of iron or meteoric iron cannot be cast in molds like copper and bronze anvils, since iron and meteoric iron cannot be melted in a crucible. The player first has to make the upper and lower parts of the anvil separately, smithing them with any hammer on a bronze anvil. Then, the two parts need to be welded together with powdered borax .

To make a complete iron anvil, a total of 10 iron ingots are needed, 5 each for the anvil base and anvil top, as well as one powdered borax. One ingot amounts to 42 voxels added, and the anvil base and top need 196 and 210 voxels respectively.

Tip: The recipe has an upper height limit of voxels, which means adding too many ingots too fast without first distributing previously placed voxels might effectively delete voxels altogether! Make sure to add the next ingot only after distributing the voxels from the last one.

Anvil Base

Start the crafting process by placing a heated iron ingot on the anvil - bronze or higher anvil tier is needed. Select the anvil base and start hammering. Note that for the base, a total of 5 ingots need to be added, and there is at maximum 14 voxels worth room for error. This process might be easier when starting with one iron plate as the base, and then adding 3 more ingots, one at a time.
To lessen the chance of wasting voxels - and thus ingots - it is necessary to add one ingot, flatten it out and only then add the next - and so forth. The space on which the next ingot will be added is always the same, and the player can make sure that this space is flat and below the maximum height limit of the recipe, which is 6 voxels, or 3 ingots stacked. Keep in mind that a new ingot added will only fill in the empty voxels in that specific space, so it is recommended to keep the ingot place as flat as possible. The ingot will however rise with the rest, meaning it will be added on top of the current surface.

An optimum way of smithing can be seen below, with the focus on keeping the "ingot landing space" as empty and flat as possible. However, keep in mind that this is the best way to save iron ingots, not the best way to save coal.

Tip: You do not need to leave space around the anvil to go behind to work on the back part of the item. Just do a right mouse click with the hammer in hand and the item you are working on will rotate.

• 
  2 ingots
• 
  3 ingots
• 
  4 ingots
• 
  5 ingots

The anvil base needs a total of 196 voxels, divided into five layers:

• 80 first layer
• 38 each for second and third layer
• 20 each for fourth and fifth layer

Anvil Top

For the anvil top, follow the same process. However, keep in mind that for the top part, not even one voxel should be wasted. This means there is no margin for error, and any wasted voxels will result in a sixth ingot added to finish the item. As the top part is rather slim, a plate is not helpful as the smithing base.

• 
  1 ingot
• 
  2 ingots
• 
  3 ingots
• 
  4 ingots
• 
  5 ingots

The anvil top needs a total of 210 voxels, divided into five layers:

• 78 first layer
• 48 second layer
• 40 third layer
• 24 fourth layer
• 20 fifth layer

Welding

After both the base and top are finished, heat both of them up in a forge. Once heated, first place the base part down on the ground. Take one portion of powdered borax and apply with a Shift+right click on the placed base, then add the top part. Hammer until both parts are welded together, this should take about 12 hits.

Usage

The anvil is the work surface used for smithing metal tools from ingots heated in a forge . When a heated ingot is placed on the anvil, a dialog box opens to allow the player to select the item to be crafted.

An anvil can be used to work ingots/plates of the same tier or 1 above:
a copper anvil can accept bronze but not iron or steel; a bronze anvil can accept iron but not steel; an iron anvil is needed to work steel. However, a bronze anvil cannot accept meteoric iron; an iron anvil is needed. It's not possible to craft steel anvils at this time; there are also no metals in the game higher tier than steel.

A copper anvil may be used with any hammer or helve hammer. The anvil's material only matters for the ingot/plate being processed.

If you attempt to place an ingot/plate that is below its working temperature, the info overlay will state that the item is "Too cold to work." If you attempt to place an ingot/plate that is more than 1 tier above the anvil's tier, an error message will appear just above the hotbar: "Working this metal needs a tier [#] anvil".

Recycling

An anvil cannot be smelted to recover the material used in creating the item, however since version 1.14, the player can combine an anvil with a chisel of the same metal type or better in the crafting grid to recover 8 ingots worth of metal. Keep in mind that both the anvil and the chisel will be destroyed in the process, meaning from the original 10 ingots, two will be permanently lost.

Since version 1.14, falling anvils do considerable damage when hitting a player or other entity.

Video Tutorials

Detailed guide through the iron anvil smithing process

Notes

• While the metal tier matters for the anvil, it doesn't matter for the hammer or helve hammer.
  • A copper hammer may be used to smith a steel ingot. But higher tiers are preferable for their higher durability (more uses before breaking).
  • A bronze helve hammer may be used to smith a steel ingot. Helve hammers have no durability, and there's no reason to prefer higher tier metals.

Gallery

• 
  Different tiers of anvils. The steel anvil (tier 4) is currently unimplemented.