The much-requested feature of anvils are being added into Minecraft after being passed over for more important things—like witches and Slenderman-inspired monsters. They look like this:
The picture above was released today by Mojang developer Nathan “Dinnerbone” Adams, who asked: “Does this look like the thing it’s supposed to look like to you?” It’s a sentence I attempted to paraphrase, but it stopped making sense the second time through.
While tools and weapons are generally created on a basic Crafting Table, it’s possible that the Anvil will allow you to imbue weapons and tools with additional properties, or perhaps forge entirely new items.
Then again, perhaps they’ll only be good for as traps—to be dropped on Creepers like in some old Roadrunner cartoon.
At this point, the full potential of the anvil remains to be seen.