The anvil is an essential tool for metalworking, on which the red-hot metal is placed to be beaten and shaped into the desired form. It is composed of a block of steely iron, resistant to impacts and heat, mounted on a wooden block that absorbs the strong blows struck by the blacksmith. The upper part of the anvil is called the “table”, flat and smooth and at the ends the block ends with two conical heads, called “horns”, one with a circular section, the other with a flat upper face, called the “tongue”. On the “table” you can find one or two recesses that are used to fix smaller anvils for particular processes, or tools such as the punch and the cutter that are used to pierce and cut the metal.