If you want to venture into the world of wire-work jewelry, you may want to have an anvil of sorts so that you can hammer wire flat and work it into various shapes. Since you're not actually going to make horse-shoes and swords on a forge on anything, you just need a small block of steel that will fit on your crafts table.

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I haven't done too much hammering myself, but I went ahead and purchased the Jeweler's Solid Steel Bench Block from Jack's Tool Shed through Amazon.com (see link below).

Unfortunately, it didn't qualify as a "free-shipping" item under my usual Amazon free-shipping arrangement. The bench block itself was $16.97 and the shipping and handling was $7.95 for a total to me of $24.92.

I did receive the product in just a few days and am very pleased with it. It's a solid steel bench block measuring four inches by four inches and three-fourths an inch thick.

It's imported from India and comes with a thin veneer of oil to coat it, which makes it a bit icky to handle at first. However, the oil coating is sensible considering how it's coming from a semi-tropical tropical country and we don't want it to rust.

I went ahead and picked up a small ball-peen hammer at the hardware store, and am going to use it with the Jeweler's Solid Steel Bench Block as my wire-hammering arrangement.

In the third photo (sorry about the glare) you can see a piece of round copper wire (20-gauge) that I've flattened in a satisfying manner on my Jeweler's Solid Steel Bench Block with my ball-peen hammer.

I don't have to go into the garage or anything to do hammer on this. I just put a folded towel between the Jeweler's Solid Steel Bench Block and my crafts table to protect the table top, and do the hammering right there. You could also follow the even better advice given to me recently by a reader: glue a foam core to the bottom of your steel bench block so that it's always ready for use and you don't have to bother with the towel.

Always remember to wear safety goggles to protect your eyes (or your regular glasses) when you're doing any hammering or snipping of wire. The Jeweler's Solid Steel Bench Block is available from Jack's Tool Shed through Amazon.com here:
Jeweler's Solid Steel Bench Block - 4" X 4"