foundryguy

I researched anvils and what to make them out of on this site before I ever made my first one. A couple guys asked me if I made anvils, never even thought of it. Stumbled on this site about 7 years ago. I greatly appreciate it I check on here every couple of weeks. I try not to get involved with the Holland comments on social media anymore. Happy to answer questions though.

Chad, it is my company. We are a working tool and die shop and do not have a typical storefront. We would love to have you visit, just reach out on the website and let us know the time and day you would like to stop by. We love visitors, it's just better when we know someone is coming. We have almost every anvil in stock right now. As mentioned, I am not on here very often so the website is the best way to contact us. Cheers, Greg

It was nice meeting you and thank you for the kind words. I hope you enjoy your block! Cheers

Thank you for the kind words my friends! 6 years now and over 60 Michigan made blacksmithing products! Cheers

Thank you for the interest in our Holland tools and the kind replies. We make everything in our foundry in Michigan and only sell direct. Hope you folks have a great month of August and stay cool! Cheers

Hey friends, Greg from Holland Anvil here. I was asked to toss in my 2 cents on this topic. Heat treating is a complicated topic as seen in the many comments on this tread. We out source our heat treating to a couple different companies. On our H13 anvils. They are fully machined then hardened in a vacuum furnace by quenching them with liquid nitrogen and then tempered twice. This is the only steel we make that is hardened in this process. It is very predictable coming out of temper which gives us great consistency in hardness. The down side is, it is very expensive costing us just under $1.00 per lb. We get very little scale during this process, in fact they look brighter coming back to us than when they are sent. Typical steel hardening leaves a dark scale that is blasted off. Another thing about this process, we do not see any distortion to the part itself. Most castings would get hardened, then machined. We do not need to do this on anvils. We pour 8640, 4140 and other steels that can be normalized or quench and tempered then machined by our customers. They would typically be done in a more traditional method that is not done in a chamber void of oxygen. Prices for a standard Q&T might be in the $.25 to $.45 per lb range Honestly, heat treat could be a college course as there are so many processes. Luckily west Michigan has quite a few companies that are specialists. Typically, large foundries have in house heat treating although a vacuum furnace with a nitrogen quench might not be part of it. Cheers friends!

This thread popped up today. Thanks for this idea Tom! It seems Armour people use it? We sell abou the same amount of ductile and H13 bowls. One famous artist I will not mention here uses is upside down as a floor upsetting block. The H13 model. He says it sits flat because of the bowl form compared to a flat plate he used for years. Thanks again for bringing your idea to us!!! We really appreciate you!

Holland/Fisher.... hahaha, kidding on that!!! Josh and I have been talking for a couple years about getting something going, time to get to NJ. I hope everyone has a fine holiday season.

Hey Josh, hope you have a fine Thanksgiving. Its time to pay you a visit and hit NYC. Lets make a plan for after New Years. On this block, I would scan the pattern and make iron core boxes, the boxes would be a ton of work. The pattern would stay exactly in its current condition. Too much going on to run air set cores on that one. We need to revisit that other project we have talked about as well. Cheers my friend

Thanks for the mention of our Michigan made Holland Anvil tools. We are trying to bring at least one of every product we have in stock when we pack up the trailer. Count us in on Iron in the Hat and Auction items. Cheers!

The guy bought the only anvil we make that does not have a prichel hole. We heard from him after he had drilled through it half way with a magnetic Milwaukee drill. If he would have contacted us before he drilled it we would have bought it back from him or advised him, do not drill the anvil. He was also upset that he did not receive a free T-shirt. Some folks may have received a T-shirt but it probably had to do with a delay or someone that stopped in our shop and we enjoyed their company. Someplace he heard that someone got a shirt and he assumed it came free with every anvil purchase, he assumed wrong. After dealing with him on some messages it was obvious that there was no good solution to the situation. That is when he started his video reviews on the anvil and our customer service. We appreciate everyone's support in our Holland Anvil project!

Hey friends, I make the Holland stuff. We are out of stock on a lot of items currently as mentioned. While sales have been good the reason is due to commercial casting orders in our foundry and tooling orders in my pattern shop where anvils are machined and horns are polished. We are swamped. Add to that the inability to hire here in Michigan, its crazy. It would be hard to find a business in Michigan that is not in need or workers. We never had issues like this pre Covid. The anvil items take a back seat to the commercial orders that have kept us in business for 75 years. We take small refundable deposits on anvils that are not in stock and we will be casting a bunch of sizes next week. Many of the anvils in process do not make the website, they are sold to those that put a deposit down. I do not want to use this group as a sales platform, just let you all know what we are up to. We appreciate the support we have had from all of you on IFI, its been a great 4 years making these tools! More sizes and shapes are in the works including a 190 double horn in the coming weeks! Happy Holidays, Salud!

Greeby, I make them and thank you for posting this. This part is a unique tool. We saw this as an old auction item and could find no history or other photos of it. He had some time on his hands and drew it up, we made the patterns and cast a few. The legs are cast iron, steel rods and the block is ductile. I am guessing we have sold 7 or 8 of them complete, maybe 10 of the blocks without the stand which is about what we expected. I have had good feedback on this as a couple of them have been sold to people we see at shows we attend around the midwest. Friends have sent a couple of photos of stands they have made for the block they bought separately. We have a couple more blocks drawn up that will fit into the stand that will have different features. Greetings to all and thank you for the support of our Holland Anvil project. Cheers! After writing this I read the chain again and noticed you ordered the block, we sold 2 this week which surprised us. Can you break it? Anything can be broken. Will you? I highly doubt that will happen. We stand behind all of our products if they are used as intended, to date nothing has been returned and to my knowledge we have one unhappy customer but that is a story for another day. Thank you for buying a Holland!

When you purchased the Holland 20# I had no idea it would end up in your museum, what an honor. A NEW Fisher-Holland collaboration anvil may be in the works one of these day!

Hey Arteus, We appreciate your review and with all of our customers, if you are not happy with your purchase we will pay the freight to and from along with a 100% refund. I am really sorry that you found us hard to work with. I run two businesses, a pattern shop and foundry and sell these tools as a side project. It is under 6% of our monthly sales and takes up 50% of my time on emails, messages, calls and visits. I dare say I am the easiest manufacturer to contact, I have been told that 100s of times. We start all communication on our website or facebook page and occasionally a message here. I can not post my cell # and you do not want to talk to my front office staff, they have nothing to do with anvils, busy working on commercial accounts. On shipping. Its a xxxxx! Our commercial accounts tell us what truck line and where to ship it. We call the truck and off it goes. Each anvil sale needs communication, those over 150 lbs need to go freight, the lighter ones can go Fedex to a home. People that do not have a company with a forklift present an even bigger challenge, we will probably be bouncing 5 or 6 messages to figure things out. Fastenal works great in the midwest but not to western states at this time. Spending my Sunday morning working anvil and block messages, it is a 24/7 365 business. Cheers!

We shipped a 260 lb Holland Anvil from Michigan to your Ak for $300, Cali is a bigger challenge for us. Many freight companies do not want to deal with the state.

Hi Jason, I make the Holland Anvil tools. Thank you for putting us in good company with the other American manufacturers you mentioned. Our Holland tools are all made in house, both the patterns and castings.. All of our anvils are H13 tool steel and that is really what sets us apart. We have a lot of tools in Kentucky, at least one 440 owned by my Mennonite knife maker Sam Stoner, he loves it! Sam lives near Scottsville, look him up if you are in the area. If you have any questions contact us PM. Thanks again, cheers!

It was great, 140 lbs. Sold it to a very good bladesmith at the Blacksmith Gathering in Pennsylvania this weekend. We should get more rolling in the coming weeks.

We make a 100 double horn and a 125 with an upsetting block and a side shelf, looking at doing something in the 175 lb range one of these days. Understood on Covid safety. We had a great direct flight on Alaskan Air out of Chicago. We will be back up in May or June chasing fish so maybe we can connect then. Patrick Garleys place is something everyone should see according to my son. What amazing work. Cheers

We have 5 or 6 Holland anvils near you in Ak. We were just up in Alaska and my son attended a hammer in up in Palmer and let them raffle off a 20 lb single horn. Contact me and i can give you some names around Palmer and Wasilla of the owners.

Hey gents, Thank you for the kind words about my Holland Anvil tools. As mentioned, we make all the castings in my foundry and patterns in our tool shop. I look at it as a project, not really a business. That said it has been a blessing to have this work when things were slow in either of my shops. My grandfather founded Holland Pattern in 1945 I believe and my father started our foundry in 1975, I grew up in the foundry, started pouring iron at 15 and its the only job I have ever had, that's 42 years in the foundry, 34 years full time. I bought the companies in 2001 and my father kept working everyday until a few years back, retired at 89 or so. Some of our customers are Cat, Deere, Borg Warner, Dana, East Jordan Iron Works, Bliss Clearing Niagra Press, Columbus Mckinnon just to name a few of the big ones. The other American made steel anvils that I would compare our tools to would be Mr Hoffmans H13 anvils, Rathole and Nimba. I think H13 is the better material so Holland and Hoffman would be a good comparison. If you are an American Smith making American artwork, blades and shop tools please consider buying American made products, it matters! We always have something new coming out so watch. Currently working on Drifts of different sizes and casting our first hornless church window anvil this Tuesday, it should weigh about 130 lbs or so. I also plan to cast an anvil over 1,000 lbs in the near future. All messages to us are answered by myself or my son Hobie, he handles most of the anvil and swage block sales and shipping. We have communicated with thousands of people over the last couple of years, its been fun and interesting! Cheers and Happy Labor day!

Thank you but probably not on this design. We have it on other models. You never know what we might come up with.

Very good! I met so many people that weekend. Have a fine day and hopefully we can do that again in the fall. Putting out a ton of new products right now, had to share that one with this group!

Thank you, it really is a beautiful tool and i have thought about putting it my living room. Did we meet at SOFA by chance? We appreciate the support and advice this community has given us over the last two years! Cheers

Good question. We did two of these as prototypes. Some historic ones in this style only had the Hardy. I do not want to put anything at the horn and deck transition as that area is often the sweet spot for my double horn customers. Complicating this one is the depth we would need to drill through the horn behind the Hardy. Lastly, I have a core i cast my double horn Pritchels and the core is not long enough for this one, that core box is cast iron. We may do more and we may cast a Pretchel.