Anvil

Anvils are interactive Blocks that were added in Update 0.12.1. They allow the Player to Enchant, rename, or combine alike items, such as weapons and Tools.

Crafting

 * 3 Blocks of Iron + 4 Iron Ingots => 1 Anvil

Uses
Anvils are used to enchant items using Enchanted Books. They also allow the Player to rename and repair items, and can also be used to combine enchantments on certain items by using Experience Points. Anvils can also be used as a weapon, as they do damage when they fall onto Players or Mobs.
 * Enchanted tool/weapon + another tool/tool => Repaired tool/weapon
 * Enchanted tool/weapon + Enchanted Book => Enhanced enchantment on tool/weapon
 * Map + 8 Paper => Zoomed out Map
 * Map + Empty Map => Two copies of Map

Degrading
Anvils have a 12% chance of degrading once used, and may break once used enough times, on an average 24 uses. Depending on how degraded they are, when mined, anvils may drop as either a Slightly Damaged Anvil or as a Very Damaged Anvil.



Trivia

 * They produce a 'heavy metal' sound when placed.
 * Anvils obey Gravity like Sand, Gravel, Snow, and Ignited TNT.
 * When dropped from large heights, an anvil can become damaged, and can even break.
 * This is a reference to the common cartoon trope where an anvil falls on the victim's head.
 * Anvils can enchant even non-tools, unlike Enchantment Tables. (E.g: Shears, Flint and Steel, etc.)
 * Some items are too expensive to combine or fix as they have been combined or fixed to many times.
 * In Creative Mode, it can combine all items, no matter how expensive it is in Survival Mode.
 * Anvils damage players and mobs by 2 hearts (4 Health Points) if they drop on top of the player/mob.
 * They will increase the damage if dropped from greater heights.
 * If you rename a Spawn Egg on an anvil, it will act as a nametag on the creature spawned. However the easter eggs (jeb_, Toast, etc.) will not work if the Player tries to do so.
 * During the Update 0.14.0 beta builds, anvils still required XP to be used in Creative. This was fixed in a later build.
 * The position of the Anvil depends on how the Player places it.
 * Until Update 0.14.0, the player couldn't use the anvil (or any appliance) in Creative Mode.
 * As of Update 0.15.0, anvils are used to name Name Tags.