My buddy's old framing nailer kept jamming on reclaimed timber, so he swapped to a manual coil nailer for the whole project.

Come on, it's just a weird snack choice. Not everything needs a whole backstory.

Honestly that whole "cheap anvil stand" market is a total gamble. Tbh a lot of those are just scrap metal welded to look right, with zero thought to the forces involved. The real cost isn't the two hundred bucks, it's the risk of that thing failing while you're hammering and sending hot metal flying. Seen it happen once and it was not good. Sometimes paying more for a known design from a real smith is just buying safety.