Blacksmiths work by heating pieces of wrought iron or steel until the metal becomes soft enough for shaping with hand tools, such as a hammer, an anvil and a chisel. Heating generally takes place in a forge fueled by propane, natural gas, coal, charcoal, coke, or oil. - Wikipedia
By the way, check your calendar, its sunday today, a bit late for friday threads…
Not everyone pick “anvil” as a race.
Not what you asked but if you don’t want to be a Robognome you can use this:
Correction: anvil, hammer, spanner, campfire, forge, jewellers kit, skinning knife and herbalist spade as a race.
Friday thread? I’m pointing out that all crafting can be done while anywhere in the world while blacksmithing can’t. I think we should either all require crafting stations or none at all.
Not requiring an anvil and being your own anvil are two different things 
This made me laugh, have never given that a thought before! But you’re right, ofcourse. It makes no sense.
It would be an interesting addition to the game. Not sure I want to volunteer all my characters to carry more stuff around but still fun visual.
Yes.
Bear in mind I have seen all the above activities carried out for reals with my own eyes. At LARP events. I’m not -actually- from the 1400’s…
You don’t need a table for tailoring, many people -prefer- to use one to keep the materials flat and straight, but you simply don’t need one. The same is true of Leatherworking, and yes, you can actually make jewellery, even casting rings, without the necessity of a table, I saw it done with a stone that was carved once, it was pretty impressive. I mean the guy had a fair amount of tools to make the cast for the ring that was being made, but then, I guess a Jewelcrafter has a lot of tools, hence of all the Profession tools a Jewelcrafter’s tools are the most expensive in game to buy.
Try as you might however, you cannot hammer a sword flat on the bare earth. It will warp. You cannot make armour if you cannot move it around an anvil and position it in order to hammer in the right contours to make it fit a human body (Or inhuman, this being Warcraft 
)
Basically without an anvil you’re not performing your craft of skillfully making something that can end lives hopes and dreams with a stab, or save the souls of those wearing it.
You’re basically just an angry person beating the heck out of a lump of metal on the floor, and flattening it into a crooked bent mess. Possibly listening to violent music as you do so, you know the stuff, like an angry Belgian trucker shouting into a metal bin after too many Stella’s.
You’d basically look like a crazy person, and what you do create would be of no use to man nor beast.
Thats why. 
So how do you make a sword without hitting it against something hard with a hammer? Stone would break.
C’est le truth.
There is a reason anvils are shaped the way they are, and are not just a block of metal. They’re for shaping the metal, not just whacking away at it, which is why they have that kind of definitive shape.
I mean these days obviously our technological advancements largely render such concerns irrelevant apart from hobbyists, but there is a -reason- Anvils were generally shaped that way.
I will use cooking as an example as it makes more sense to what I am trying to say. We have an icon we click and instant fire, we do not have to go out and collect stones (to contain the fire) or wood to burn or something to light the damn thing, or carry any of this in our bags 
So for me if they had a similar thing in the proffession toolkit, it can also add to the immersion. Maybe a tailor would click on a loom item and the character can be seen sitting at a loom and crafting, is this adding immersion? I would say yes and I do not believe it will matter to those who don’t care for ‘role play’ as you will still craft as fast as normal.
The horn on the front is shaped suspiciously like a horse shoe don’t you think? It’s almost like you could make different sized ones using a different part of it.
I still think there should be a sewing kit like a jewellers kit. Most leatherworking needs a knife and needle. Most thing need a kit, like smelting needs a forge.
We needed simple wood and flint and tinder some time ago.
Yes I remember
It’s especially annoying when: what is clearly an anvil, doesn’t count as an anvil and you need to go find another one.
Almost as if that was entirely why it was designed that way…
Heh heh, yeah, you’re spot on. Was also used for the curvature of the arm holes in breastplates, I mean they came in two halves, but you know what I mean.
Yeah, that actually makes sense, you need the, well, the tools of the trade, to do the trade…
I thought -I- was old…
lol thanks for the reminder that I am ‘an old git’. But yeah I do remember when I first started to play WoW we did need materials to make a fire 
Although even in real life for me as I have a log burner, so I guess I still do this 
Thats Ok, I remember the Great Fire of London as if it were just yesterday, we’re both ‘seasoned’ rather than ‘old’ is how I would look at it. ‘Vintage’ rather than modern, or if you really wanted to be contentious, we are ‘Classic’ and not Retail. Runs off cackling
I…I…I guess you’re…
Teleports away
Just more of blizzard’s advocacy of working class oppression, making life difficult for the industrial backbone of society.