John, I agree. I'm not lazy but I sure am not consistent yet. That said, I haven't used full radius anvils, but here's my thought process: As I was planning my own wheel build a few years back, I researched the flatted vs full radius anvil thing a lot. I could only afford one set of anvils, and wanted them to be right
for me. This old post from Wray helped me decide on flatted anvils, as most of my anticipated work would be lower crowns:
http://metalmeet.com/forum/showpost....69&postcount=4
Reading the above between the lines also led me to conclude that true radius anvils would be harder for a beginner to master. In retrospect, I am glad I choose flatted anvils as I ended up building a very stiff frame and if I am not careful, I can still get ridges with my flatted anvils if I crank down too hard. I am far from mastering this thing, but am glad for the, as I see it, "forgiveness" of the flatted anvils.
Pre-build, I also consulted John Glover's book and plans, which detail flatted anvils.
As far as when it started, I just checked my Glover copy, it's copyrighted 2001, pre-dating Wray's post above, so the concept of intentional flats dates back to before that at least. Later if I have time, I will go through the book more closely to see if he discusses the flats.
I was helping my nephew with some bicycle fenders and wished I had some smaller, full-radiused anvils, so I for one, am not stuck in one camp over the other.