The $45 anvil horn attachment that finally made sense to me
I used to think anvil horns were just for bending hooks until I watched a guy at a demo in Portland use one to flare a pipe end, and now I see why that money was worth it.
The flare trick is where it finally clicked for me too, but the real money move is using the horn to shape the inside of a bend. You can work the metal from the outside and the horn pushes right back, so you get a clean radius without crushing the pipe. Once you start doing that, you stop reaching for a separate mandrel or a wood block. It turns the horn into a second hand that never gets tired. That demo guy probably saved you a couple hundred bucks down the road.