[Sean Flynt]

FWIW--everything I've done, including some light armouring--has been on a 25 lb Harbor Freight anvil. Yes, it's marked up and no good for fine surfaces, but good for turning edges, shaping quillons, making brass buckles and penannular brooches, forming steel sheet, etc. For a finer surface i'll use the polished face of a 5 kb sledge or cheap hand weight (minus rubber covering) in my bench vise.

One nice feature of a soft anvil is that it's a snap to drill various sizes of rivet sets on the square end.