I grabbed this off ebay recently. It was going at a pretty reasonable price, and I just had to have it for the mystery factor.

I'm pretty sure this is a stake and not a hardy due to the tapered shaft and one other give away... The shaft is just under 4" long and the end is slightly mushroomed. ~4" is pretty common for a swage block.

The point isn't sharp enough to be for cut off, and is worn down more on one side. The bottom edge of the table appears well worn.







Any thoughts? It is just so odd, surely it had a specific purpose.

I seen a guy using something similar to put the groove in horseshoes where the nail heads go.

That hadn't crossed my mind at all! Interesting.... Do farriers typically use stakes\swages?  How was he using it?

What I know about blacksmithing you could write on the back of a business card. As I remember it sat in the hardy hole in his anvil. He grabbed the shoe and held it on the swadge and hit it with a hammer. He was known locally as a good man with plow shares but to crude for most other things. What impressed me was that he managed to do a staight line working blind. He retired when I was about 10 years old so the memory might be a fuzzy.

It's some kind of special use hardie, one I've never seen before.  I find it difficult to imagine it being used for setting the groove in a horse shoe.  Did the fellow groove them first, and then curve them to shape?  "Creasers" are made for this purpose. 

See: http://stockhoffsonline.com/acatalog/Creasers_Fullers.html

It's more likely for decorative iron work.  ABANA might be able to identify it.