TechnicusJoe

Peddinghaus anvils drop forged steel anvils. Up to 110lbs - 50kg they used to forge them out of one piece of tool steel. Above 110lbs - 50kg they forged them out of 2 parts and then they were forge welded at the waiste (Original P.F.P. 1903-1930 period) After WWII they went to arc welding them at the waist, because this is cheaper and faster. This is done by a skilled weldor, all of these anvils made of 2 parts were joint one at a time. It's a precise and quality demand a machine can't do well enough yet, so a person does this. Peddinghaus used to have problems with making the square hardy hole. These holes are punched and drifted (can be seen on the other Peddinghaus anvils I have). And occasionally the punch (machine of course, not a man job) would break and replacing it was a tedious process. Thus in the mean time they needed a replacement for the holes. This is the result, a drilled hole with a shortly drifted square top section. I used to own 3 Peddinghaus anvils with this feature 22lbs, 44lbs and 88lbs. The 88# I sold to a young ladd who is attending farrier school to become a farrier. It was an ideal size for him and he wanted something good. That's what his teacher advised him. And they're right. Now some smiths have given me big grief over this hardy hole. Thinking it won't work and any other comment you can think of. I simply don't understand how this can be said without even having experienced it. Having the 22lbs and 44lbs still, I made hardy tools for them to take with me on demos. They work just as good as square holes. The only thing is, you'll have to spend 10 minutes extra finalizing the shank and you're done. You won't see or feel the difference. Needless to say these hardies need some clean up. They work fine just as a normal square hardy hole. No fuss about it. Today's Peddinghaus anvils hardy holes are drilled and broached square instead of punching and drifting like they used to. My advice would be: Don't ever touch the face of an anvil, the hard layer is only a few mm thick on any (most) anvil. To my recollection Rhino anvils and another brand or 2 completely make them out of air hardening steel. Thus they're hard all the way through. These Peddinghaus anvils aren't. Solely the top portion of the face is heat treated like most other anvils. Leave the hardy hole as it is and use it as it is. I have tried multiple ways of of getting the hole square, but it's not worth the time and effort at all. The steel is a very tough type to work through. And you can forge perfectly without noticing the difference. The only thing different is that little shank you spend 10 min max. on altering when you forge one. I know both worlds and it's absolutely nothing to worry about. Leave it as it is and enjoy forging on it and make a few hardy tools for it :D

Sorry, I was what?

Oh oh oh oh, Charles, I'll gladly take on the role as the fool who points out he can forge weld without flux. Ok, let me prepare for this.... Hey all, let me you tell you something!!!! I can ................................................. (suspense, wait for it.......... here it comes)..... forge weld without flux! I can forge weld without flux, because I am such a cool hardcore smith, and y'all's skills are inferior to mine because I forge weld without flux!!!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok, now my serious response. Here are few tips of mine, whether you use flux or not. I actually don't use flux for most welds, exceptions given, but that shouldn't matter in this discussion. A few tips: -keep the forge clean; check for clinkers, dust, impure fuel, other metals that could accidently be pushed into the fire. You will notice this while welding. -keep the stock clean. -if you're welding small stock, weld on a preheated block so the anvil doesn't suck out the heat. -if it doesn't work, it's either an issue with the stock that can't be welded, in combination or without a poor maintained fire. Or and yes, it just works like this: you're doing it wrong. Wrong being: being too slow, hitting too hard, wrong heat in the wrong place, not clean enough, too hot, etc. when I teach people forge welding, I will let and make them fail their forge welds in a few different ways; -too hot -too slow -striking to hard And more, so they can have an insight as to what NOT to look for. Because they already know what not to look for, they pick up forge welding quickly and quite well. The keys to doing anything right (=obtaining the desired result) is know what will not give you the desired results so you can already avoid that. And so work towards what is your desired result. It all takes time and dedication to develop. Just look at my YouTube videos of 7 years ago and where I am now. Cheers, Joe

(This is more pointed at the hobbyists and people who are just getting into it. A commercial smith is unlikely to do this because of cheapness of materials these days and expensive side of labor) I am sure many, if not all of you at least have a small pile of scraps which just don't have any uses for anything. Now, a use for this stuff is practising forge welding, and while at it, create bar stock. This way you get the last bits of $$$ out of the stock you bought or got. Here are a few picures of a bar I welded together half way to show what piece of scrap they were. I started with welding 2 bits at the end and continued welding bits to the end till I thought "enough for now". Then I heat it up and weld it. These welds were done with no flux, in a coal forge. After I make a new bar, I can turn it into something new again! - You get the last bit of $$$ out of your stock. - You practise a basic and fundamental technique without wasting nice actually new stock. - You (should) end up with new usuable stock.

Tongs, you can never have too many. Often with new commissions you'll be like: "ooh.. I need to make another". It's part of the trade, hardly any escaping from it. Your tools have an impact on your body, some hardly, some severe. Tongs are quite noticable. Do you ever feel like your hands are "raw" or as if the top layer of skin has been peeled off? This either comes from dry hands or wear, or maybe both. if you take the time to observe when your hands start to hurt, it became clear to me that I got sore hands from my tong reins. The roughed out forgings and texture will rub in your hands, as if it were a file. This obviously starts to hurt soon. If you take the time to make your tongs and reins nicely and smooth them out. You will become faster at making them and nicer as well. If nicely finished well proportioned, you will get less tired and sore hands will hardly ever occur again. At least, that it did for me. Here are a few pictures, old tongs and more recent tongs. Working with them on a daily basis will certainly make you notice this. My old tongs. The first one from the left was the second pair of tongs I have made in my life. I gladly still have it to this day! Here are my newer tongs which are better proportioned and with smooth reins.

Rock for the anvil and hammer? I'm not seeing the connection here....

My source for the hardness is having visited the factory in Germany myself. I can't find any correct display of it online, But they should be 58HRc. Ask anyone with a Peddinghaus anvil, they're hard and good anvils.

Here's a suggestion. Forge a hanging basket bracket out of 3 railroad spikes. Here's a video of me doing one.

Here's a video of me welding chain without flux. The material is just plain mild steel. I can do the same thing to 1045 steel, maybe a little higher carbon content. But above that it just starts to fall apart (melting point getting lower and too close to the temperature you can weld without flux). This is when I would use a flux to protect the steel from losing (much) carbon and preventing awful structures that have to be dealt with with certain heat treatments. Any type of fire weld can be done without flux, given it's anything like wrought iron, mild steel, or not too high plain carbon steel, with no weird or "exotic" alloying elements.

Thank you for the compliments! Since Sean doesn't have an IFI account yet, I'll post his video so you can see how he does it. Enjoy watching.

A friend of mine I met in England, Sean Cockburn uploaded a video. He then nudged me, you make a video too! Ok, job done. A not too long of a video, showing how I forged 3 chain links, with my humble set up. Enjoy!

Here as promised the pictures of the hardy holes of my anvils. Peddinghaus 277lbs. The hardy hole is a few degrees off, how many I don't know. I do know this doesn't affect its perfomance or use. if this would be the a/only reason for anyone to not buy the anvil (thus just based on "it's not perfectly square and parallel with the face"), I wonder how consistent you are. Do you check your hammer handles to be exactly 90 degrees shafted? Do you check your hammer eye is exactly in the center and not slightly turned? Does your anvil stand, correctly on it's stand or stump, perfectly at 90 degrees on the ground? And so I could make the list miles longer. A few degrees won't affect your work. And I'd certainly like to see any smith's work who makes everything perfectly. Everything square, perfectly curved etc. If you can show a bulk load of pictures; alright. Then you're really a person to call it out as "not good enough". But we know, as smiths, we don't. How much we may aspire it though, it's all within tolerance. And ours is completely different than NASA's. 303lbs Peddinghaus. Same deal, about the same amount of degrees off. The Refflinghaus. It's got less of a turn to it than the 2 old Peddinghauses I have. These were drifted hot, not broached. Still, it's not perfectly parallel or square. Does it matter? I wouldn't say so. Otherwise read what I just wrote at the start of this post, above the pictures.

Very good, thank you for posting and taking your time to take the pictures! I very much appreciate it. Ok, this hardy hole is off by 2,5 degrees and will vary with every anvil. They are broached square after drilling, but not in an automized set up. It's still a person who has to place the broach. I can imagine that they are lined out parallel, but could turn a few degrees as pressure is applied on the broach. Give drifing a round hole in some flat bar a go with a drift that is square. Fair to see, it's still off by 2,5 degrees. Have you meassured this on your other anvils too? I wil take pictures of mine too and they're guaranteed not parallel exactly. Probably the same amount off as yours. My Refflinghaus isn't parallel in the hardy hole exactly either. I don't think I have ever had an anvil with a hardy hole parallel to the face edges. I'd love to see anvil with hardy holes which are neatly lined out. But realistically, how does a lined out hardy hole make the anvil more valube or perform better? French anvils have the hardy hole off to the side. And so there are more countries with different lay outs. A hardy hole is to accept hardy tools, punch holes, drift holes and any other uses you can think for it. Having the hardy hole slightly turned, doesn't limit any of these functions. Ok, fair enough. This pattern is designed with a hardy hole parallel to the face edges. But wouldn't you say this is an allowable tolerance? As a smith, this is tolerable. How many things that we forge are exactly parallel or in the geometry as designed? I guarantee, a lot will be off within a tolerance. A few times we will get it spot on, but that's not a norm which goes out. Of course, any smith, such as myself, aspire to get it right and spot on. But we musn't forget it all costs time = money. The anvil has been produced in an efficient as possible process to keep it affordable. Ok the hardy hole is slightly off. That's one thing, read it clearly, slightly not as one may desire. Then the chamfered edges, that's something they do for edge chip prevention. Any experienced smith knows to work with radii, sharp edges will cause cold shuts and more. This may not be the desireable radius, because it could be bigger than wanted. That sadly is then as it is. Those are 2 pointers, a smith may not be satisfied with, which are minuses. but realistically, only small ones. Don't lose sight of what you have at hand. You have a genuine forged steel anvil at hand. As a smith we know the benefits of forging, we forge our tongs, hammers, etc. We live for forging, we create artifacts by plastically deforming steel and iron and sometimes other metals. If this all doesn't make a difference, why don't we smiths work with cast tongs, hammers, punches, drifts? Why aren't connection rods, axles, and other parts in big structures cast, or the crankshaft in your car? Because forging is stronger, it will last longer. I do see that sadly some people feel like I stepped on their toes. I am sorry and appologize if you feel this way. I own a (and I have to say high quality as well) cast steel Refflinghaus anvil. There's nothing wrong with them. It's a superbe anvil too. You can use one of those Czech cast anvils too or a piece of railroad track or harbor freight ASO. Though, when I put the anvils next to each other and forge on them, I can easily do that. Watch some of my videos, I have experimented countless times trying to find a difference in performance on different brands, shapes and sizes. And the result becomes clear. Forging yields a higher performance because of its structure. Why else are any parts that demand higher strength and durabillity forged!? But don't deify this product. You can still break it, abuse, and all other cruel things. Just like all other anvils ever produced. But less likely than a cast reproduction or other type of anvil. Though a smith, who clearily is fond of forging, should know this. You don't need a forged steel anvil to forge, no not at all. You can use an ASO, railroad track, concrete, rock, granite and still be able to do the same thing. Though there is a huge but. Most smiths desire an anvil that works nicer and better than this, because obviously it has features the ASO, Railroad track etc. lack. If rock and granite would work exactly the same as ASOs and railroad track. And these in their place work exactly the same as cheaper quality produced anvils. Which in turn work as good as the mid-range quality anvils, which work exactly as good as the high quality range anvils. Then no other, ground, dug, cut, cast or forged anvils would have been produced. They all wouldn't have existed. Sometimes I see smiths state a railroad track anvil works as good as all other anvils etc. Or any other wording of this sentence, more or less implying this: granite = railroad track = all other types of anvils. While most of them have a decent anvil or more in their own shop. Really... now? Why don't they have granite or railroad track anvils in their shop and saved their money on the anvils they have? Because obviously again, the performance is different. No one in their right mind would buy an anvil if it didn't make a difference. But it does! another statement I have been given: For 1 Peddinghaus anvil (for example) I can buy 3 other anvils of roughly the same weight. Yes, you can. And you could buy hundreds of railroad track anvils. But for some reason (obvious) this in turn isn't done (by the vast majority). If money is such a big deal for this smith, why bother buying those anvils then? Especially when hinted or implying it all doesn't make a difference. Go to a scrapper or railyard and buy the hundreds of railtrack anvils which are equal to other anvils. But that's not the case, the performance is different. No one forces anyone to buy anything. Amongst Peddinghaus there are other great brands. But if it is broken down to silly comparisons such as; for the money that anvil X costs, I can buy 100 times anvil Y. Certainly, if it all didn't make a difference, this all would be correct. But it isn't the case. Would you trade your railroad track anvil for a Peter Wright in reasonable condintion; always. Would you trade your reasonable condition Peter Wright for a block of mild steel with clean edges: never. Would you trade your block of mild steel for a railroad track for an anvil: most likely not. Would you trade your Czech cast anvil for a block of mild steel; never. Would you trade your Refflinghaus anvil for a Czech cast anvil: never And so on...............

Here's a video of the other Peddinghaus anvil I have, weighing in at 277 pounds. Pretty much the old version of the new one today. Made the same way, forge welded at the waist, which can be easily spotted in the video. Picture of the stamp on the 277 pounder. Its bicks are finer than the 303 pounder, thus allows me to forge more delicate work. While the 303lbs because of its thicker posture allows me to draw out bigger stuff easier on the horn as there is more support. Very handy for welding different sized chain as well! You can skip the first 2 min. and 50 seconds as that's solely showing what the steel does in the fire. After 2:52 I will be at the 277lbs anvil.

Here are a few pictures of the anvil I have, this is a 303lbs Orginial P.F.P. Peddinghaus anvil. This is one of the older models, fire welded at the waist, instead of electrically welded like today. This one came out of a school and has withstood use and probably abuse over time. Now I happily use it to my heart's content. I don't know why these anvils vary in weight quite a bit. Probably because of the forge welding. Today though, if you order a 35kg, 75kg, or 125kg model, they're all equal. And they should weigh that weight (within a margin of course, say 124,5 or 126kg). And if you're unsatisfied you can always call them. From the opposite side of the upsetting block. Notice the hammer marks at the waist, from working the weld. The old stamp they used on this one. A closer look at the forge welded line. It certainly is not as clean as the ones that are produced today under Ridgid Peddinghaus. But then again, they don't forge weld them together anymore. Nor can I find the pricelists for how much these went for when they were sold new.

I am concerned about people being mislead. It's people's money we're talking about after all. I don't think my definitions posted work against me. If I quote from the site itself; " 1. One that is not authentic or genuine; a sham." Then it's very easy to ask the questions; has it been drop forged, produced under name and by.... quality control and on and on. The answer is all no. Thus do you have an authentic/genuine Peddinghaus anvil? No you don't, thus not authentic/genuine. And according to that dictionary I can replace those words with "fake". But as you can read in the post I posted just after you did, I stepped down from that definition because not everyone agrees on the semantics, that's ok. So I redefined it as the facts are: "It's a cast reproduction of a Peddinghaus anvil pattern. Because they're cast, they are cheaper. But they certainly are not the same in quality standards and performance as Peddinghaus. This is fact, not opinion." With the logic I showed, you are close, but not spot on. What we have at hand here are 2 anvils that close to being completely identical in shape In the car and other industries this problem occured, probably still occurs and somewhere will always be present. The Czech cast version aren't sold under Peddinghaus, but there sure isn't any reasurence for the people who can't tell the difference. With cars you you don't have all this because they don't look like each other. I am sure you can look up examles of cars that look the same. But they're different make in the end with different quality standards and thus performance. Unless you want to go as vague as motorized vehicle with....... That would fit many more objects as a description. In China they probably do and other countries how don't support things like trademarks. I find it a bit weird. You don't own an anvil produced by (Ridgid) Peddinghaus. But you do call the hardy hole crooked without having seen it in person (I assume) and used it. Kubiak didn't call it crooked, that's something you came with, even though you don't have one. Please quote me on this and I will clearify if needed : "You argued that Kubiak's observations weren't important to a real smith" I'd like you to present these anvils as well: "I countered that at that price, there are lots of options without flaws." Show me anvil anvil with a hardy hole which is square to a few thousands of an inch. Or that the hardy hole is parallel to a few thousands of a degree. And so there could be more pointers I could address. LOL please quote me on this: "I was not impressed with the perspective that the Peddinghaus anvil is perfect and the world is to blame." I compared Peddinghaus with Rolce Royce for both setting high standards. But you can't quote me on saying they're "perfect" and that I blame the world. I agree, reviews are there to provide meaningful observations, for the people who don't own this product and are potentially interested.

Kubiak, Thank you! That is a nice evaluation of someone who bought it and uses with the plus and minus side. Thank you! This is what people can use well. You can call me Joe, Kubiak, I'm fine with that. Fake doesn't seem to fall in the right place, I can work around it. I think we can all agree on this definition of the Czech cast anvil: It's a cast reproduction of a Peddinghaus anvil pattern. Because they're cast, they are cheaper. But they certainly are not the same in quality standards and performance as Peddinghaus. This is fact, not opinion. With the chamfering, could you take a picture of how the proportion is off for you? At what stock size does the smallest radius produced by the chamfering become too big for you? That would be an interesting sight for people to see. Thank you for adding the pictures, you have a beatiful set up. If you can get a clear photo of the stamp that's on the anvils today, I'd appreciate that very much.

Charles, you're right. This should be about people owning and using a Peddinghaus anvil and giving a review about them. (And preferably not by people who don't own, nor use one.) My excuses to everyone.

It is a fake. You see an anvil that repesentates a Peddinghaus anvil patthern. Peddinghaus has been around for a long time before the cast fakes. Whether you think they can/should/ get away with not saying it is one doesn't change that. I don't see any mentioning of claims it is a not-Peddinghaus anvil, Even though they clearly are the same shape. You don't see any clearifying information for the people who might take it for a real Peddinghaus anvil. What you see is an anvil in the shape of a pattern designed by Peddinghaus, but not produced by Peddinghaus, neither checked, nor sold. You don't see them calling it a Peddinghaus anvil. But the effort to clearly say it certainly is not Peddinghaus anvil lacks big time. How is my "guide" not useful (I wouldn't even call it a guide because it's so simple)? Peddinghaus has always marked their anvils with their stamps. With the exeption of a few I have seen without. But they are still day and night easy to recognize. You have to be visually impaired to be able not to see it. The ones without a stamp are a rare exception I doubt many would ever encounter. There is indeed no reason for a well made anvil to have a crooked hardy hole. Don't lose sight of the fact it is (drop) forged and not cast, which seriously changes costs, but improves performance certainly. Though the way you write it implies all of them have a crooked hardy hole. But that's complete nonesense. By your words I doubt you have a Peddinghaus anvil. Though, say you do have one. Why don't you take pictures of how "crooked" the hole is. Show us by how many miles it is off. I doubt though you have one. And I'd like you to then show your anvil with its straight (you imply parallel) hardy hole. Show us it's perfectly square and not off by a few (10ths of) degeree(s). Overly chamfered edges? Do you represent all Peddinghaus anvil owners? Kubiuk chimes in and gives a few pointers he isn't completely satisfied with. But he does say this and I quote: "I do love my Peddinghaus anvil and use it regularly. I think it is one of the best anvils you can buy and that they are an excellent value for what they cost. I was not intending to make a complaint against the anvil however this the spot for a review and so I thought I would post what I have scene with mine so other would not be surprised when their new anvil arrives at the shipping depot." I can't see whether you own a genuine Peddinghaus anvil, let alone have ever even used one. Clearly though, you seem unimpressed by the German tool maker. Which is completely fine. But it's sad if you say all that, without owning or having used one (for a longer period time)(because of whatever excuse/argument you have)

It isn't hard to call the company and ask them, right? And there are loads of Peddinghaus anvil owners, including me. It's not like they are reading in the dark and can't find it. If you read what Charles R. S. just wrote, I think you can be supplied with enough info. If not, you will keep searching right? At least, that's what I would do. Can you list any other anvil producers of today; Kohlswa, Rathole forge, Rhino, Nimba, imported Czech anvil who do have a shop and let you use them in their showroom, if showing live at all? Peddinghaus, Refflinghaus, Kohlswa (older models did, haven't seen the new ones yet). You can see in the video of my Refflinghaus being newly delivered to my shop. It has the same chamfering. The same chamfering can be found on some wrought iron with steel face German anvils. For the hardies, if it really bothers you so much, make the hardies you want for that anvil specifically. Get it done, you're a smith. Cheers for the compliments. Concerning the Czech cast anvils. Yea, they work like an anvil, so will a piece of railroad track, an aso from harbor freight, and even a piece of granite, even concrete. Though, if you forge daily like me, and you get a chance to try brands, their performance becomes obivous. In my videos you can find a 50kg/110lbs version of the Czech anvil. I have had one and I sold it after having a thorough amount of play with it. This will only be noticable for smiths who do use their anvils a lot. If you just go tippy-tappy 5 times a day, you might as well use a block of cast iron or mild steel, because there is then no way you'd notice the difference. They're not on the cheap side of pricing, but they still are considering how efficient they are produced. There wouldn't be any forged anvils, probably, left if they didn't make the dies to forge these anvils. Sadly a lot of dies for different models wore out and are no longer produced. But their signature design certainly survived. If no one recognized the quality in the anvils Peddinghaus produces and created a demand, they would have stopped that production completely. But they're still around, (drop) forging steel anvils, since 1903.

Though if you take a dictonary, fake an is appropriate thing to call the "fake" anvils. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fake

Cheers, for the compliment. And sadly, you didn't get me right. Please read again, because otherwise I am just writing the same things again. The fakes are WITHOUT a stamp, not the other way around. Peddinghaus has produced more patterns than just this one. Ok, fair enough let's go with poorly made copy, but it certainly isn't the real thing.

Ok, I'm sorry I took it a bit towards the negative. Any how, Eermm, I think it's the responsibility of the buyer to thoroughly check what their anvil or anything they buy, is like. No one just randomly buys a car, or anything else that cost a fair bit of money. You should check it, buyer's responsibility. I do wonder.. All those other anvils you mention. All of them are London patterns, I assume. Thus all of them have the hardy hole in the heel. That is A LOT shorter than the depth length of the Peddinghaus anvil. Those can be more easily made square because of the short length, relative to the Peddinghaus anvil. If you're off 1/10 of a degree, at a length of 1 inch you won't notice that much. Take it to a mile, and you'll be off long ways. Why don't you adjust your shanks? You're a blacksmith, aren't you? Just adjust your hardy tools till they fit right.

I don't know exactly how they have it registered. But it's a pattern that has been produced by Peddinghaus, under P.F.P between 1903 and the 1930s.Branco is decades after that. Why wouldn't you call it a fake? If another company produces sells a "Rolex" (Bolex) other than Rolex, which sort of looks the same, but cleary isn't the real deal made by Rolex, you wouldn't call that fake? If another company roughly copied a Rolce Royce, clearly less quality, thus not Rolce Royce themselves, you wouldn't call that fake either? It's always a fake if it's not produced by or under the name of the company who genuinely makes it. They're not checked by the real company, thus it's not their work. The same is for these anvils, not produced by Peddinghaus, thus it's a fake. If another company would copy Refflinghaus, it would be a fake Refflinghaus anvil. Here's an example of a North German pattern, produced by many different companies in Germany (of which many have stopped around 1900 or earlier). Here's a Peddinghaus anvil, produced and designed by Peddinghaus. I have both patterns, because the Southern German pattern anvil blends the face in with the round horn. This is very handy for drawing out because of all the different radii you get. I have the Peddinghaus, because of the quality it's made in and the nice conical horn with a transition at the face, which allows me to forge different shape and curves than with the Southern German Pattern.

That's great. They indeed chamfer their edges to prevent chipping, 90 dergees is too sharp. A small chamfer wouldn't make a difference, so they do it in the extend so the edge will remain strong. If that isn't too your liking, I'm sure they're sorry. But that's the way they make them. I can't imagine they "just do it" like that because they think it's right. They must have had feed back that demanded a chamfered edge. I don't see why you'd need such a sharp edge. And if I do need it, I will make a hardy tool, I am a blacksmith after all. The hardy hole is broached square so it is more than likely they will be slightly conical. Which in my rergards is preferable as it will help aid the hardy tool. Take a look at a Refflinghaus, Kohlswa, KL, Brooks anvil (cast) none of them are perfectly square or parallel either. For a bit of research I'd suggest drifting the hole square of bar with the same thickness as the length of the hardy hole on your Peddinghaus anvil. Have a look of you can get get perfectly parallel. If you can do that; how cost effective is it? And how much would it really make difference in performance. The faces are slightly crowned, not perfectly flat. The horns aren't prefectly stright and in line with the face (hold a long ruler over it). But that's a bit unrealistic to demand for the price they are made. Don't forget, they are forged in dies. And by all means, if you can produce a better forged anvil than they do, for the same price or cheaper, please do so.