By putting a hot piece of metal on this area, blacksmiths can use the horn to bend what they’re working with to whatever shape they want. This corn-shaped part is specifically designed to help blacksmiths shape metal pieces into rounded and curved shapes. That side portion that’s jutting out of the anvil is called the horn. It’s a bit higher than the horn but lower than the face, with some blacksmiths using the table to cut and bend metal on its edge. The table is quite small, not really useful for hammering your stock like the face is. The next part of the anvil is a small area between the face of the anvil and the horn, which is the part that’s strutting from the side of the anvil. Although you’re not going to be actually hitting this part of the anvil with your hammer (it’s your metal that will be getting hit), it’s still designed so that it can sustain a serious pounding if needed. This is the long, flat section at the top of the anvil, which is used as a platform to strike metal. The largest part of the anvil is called the face.
As such, every part of it has a deliberate function in mind. Over hundreds of years, blacksmiths have been slowly but steadily improving the shape and design of their anvils. While you might think the anvil is a relatively simple object – and to some extent, it is – a fair deal of thought went into the design.