A small anvil or block used by metalworkers, especially blacksmiths, for shaping and finishing metal work.
From Middle English bikerne, possibly from Flemish or Dutch origin. The word entered English through contact with metalworking traditions in the Low Countries, where blacksmithing was highly developed.
Bickerns are the forgotten specialty tools that show how metalworking was so precise and evolved that different anvils had specific purposes—what seems like one tool to us was actually a whole toolkit to a master smith.
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