harborfreight anvil?

[MattBower]

Well, it's certainly not a Peddinghaus anvil, but with a little work, it's a good start.

First of all, like the others have said before me: by all means, if you can find a real anvil, buy it! But, if you can't find one or you are strapped for cash, this cast-iron A.S.O. will work for now with some modifications.

As soon as you buy it, take an angle grinder and take that xxxx paint off of the face and horn. Then, round off the horn a little bit - it should look like a horn, not a duck's bill. Next, get at least a 1/4 inch mild steel plate from your local hardware store or welding supply shop and use JB Weld to affix it to the anvil. This set-up isn't the greatest, but I only use it for knife-making so it works for me.

Good luck.

I'm glad it works for you, but in my view you wasted good time and money putting lipstick on a pig. For the same or less money and effort you could've had a chunk of scrap steel that'd be far more efficient as an anvil, and would require little or no modification.

[Francis Trez Cole]

a few years back Hf slod a 110 lb one if you can find one of them they are good

[Earthbound Engineer]

JB Weld?

JB Weld is a high-strength epoxy used for bonding metal. I use it for "welding" metal that can otherwise not be welded in the traditional sense (i.e. cast iron and steel).

[Mainely,Bob]

JB Weld is a high-strength epoxy used for bonding metal. I use it for "welding" metal that can otherwise not be welded in the traditional sense (i.e. cast iron and steel).

Cast iron can be welded and brazed to steel successfully using conventional welding processes.
Tricky bonds like steel to aluminum take a little more work and controlled application of high explosives,something only the very brave(or very stupid) try at home.

The biggest problems with adhesives like epoxy is they don`t withstand impact or heat very well.Rather big hurdles to jump over if you`re talking about bonding to something you want to use as an anvil.

[clinton]

Well, it's certainly not a Peddinghaus anvil, but with a little work, it's a good start.

First of all, like the others have said before me: by all means, if you can find a real anvil, buy it! But, if you can't find one or you are strapped for cash, this cast-iron A.S.O. will work for now with some modifications.

As soon as you buy it, take an angle grinder and take that xxxx paint off of the face and horn. Then, round off the horn a little bit - it should look like a horn, not a duck's bill. Next, get at least a 1/4 inch mild steel plate from your local hardware store or welding supply shop and use JB Weld to affix it to the anvil. This set-up isn't the greatest, but I only use it for knife-making so it works for me.

Good luck.

You used JB Weld tho attach a face to your ASO? I have not found any use for a product like that myself, the only type of metal that I have found impossible to weld is pot metal, and shoe goo works good on that

[Dragons lair]

You used JB Weld tho attach a face to your ASO? I have not found any use for a product like that myself, the only type of metal that I have found impossible to weld is pot metal, and shoe goo works good on that

Clinton, Try Tig with smallest rod ya can find. Works better than the old Alladen rod.
Ken.

[Earthbound Engineer]

Cast iron can be welded and brazed to steel successfully using conventional welding processes.

Yes, I realize that it can be done, but I have never had much success with it.

The biggest problems with adhesives like epoxy is they don`t withstand impact or heat very well.Rather big hurdles to jump over if you`re talking about bonding to something you want to use as an anvil.

Yes, but keep in mind that JB Weld is no ordinary epoxy; it's made to withstand heat and impact....to a certain extent anyway. Nonetheless, I have been using this set-up for three years now and the steel plate has remained firmly attached to the anvil.

[Steeltoe762]

I bought the same "anvil" a while back. It will work (mostly your arm) the horn is useless, the edges chip if you look at them wrong, the face dents unless you're around welding heat, about the only usefull thing on it is the hardie hole. A big block of mild steel would serve you much better.

[Bentiron1946]

One of the women my wife works with, her son bought an anvil at a yard sale for around $100, he wanted to make knives and swords. Yeah, it was a HF, cast iron anvil, the seller told him it was an antique, we got a lot of suckers out here, He was banging away on it and broke the horn off. My wife suggested to his mother that he give me a call, may be my husband can fix it, lucky me. I told him there was no way to fix it, it's broke, not a happy lad, so he took to a "real" welder and they welded it up for another $100. Mind you it's still a HF CI anvil, but it's his and he still wants to make a knife on it. No matter how hard I tried to explain things to him and his mother they were hell bent on getting that thing "fixed". Folks there are some things that can't and shouldn't be fixed, a HF CI anvil is one of those things. You can ghetto rig you boat, your car, your gun but you just shouldn't bother with a HF CI anvil. Now don't start off telling me what wonderful work you have done on yours until you have seen the wonderful work done on a rock by primitive man with an almost worthless hammer. We are not some savage living in the middle of no where without the resources for a better anvil. For the amount of money that one puts into a piece of junk you can go to the salvage yard and get respectable piece of junk to bang on to make your knife that will be much better than that HF CI anvil. Enough said. :blink:

[pkrankow]

Thank you Bentiron. Add up the $$ in making a piece of cast iron into a good anvil, and compare to the price of a good used anvil.

On JBweld, that stuff is almost fantastical in what I have done with it, and the stuff that I have read others have done is even more impressive. It is an epoxy, and somewhere above 200F and below 500F it breaks down. I GLUED a bolt together that I snapped and the next day removed it with a wrench because I had JBweld but no bolt extractors at the time. I will admit that snapping probably removed the load from the threads so it was much easier to remove than a tensioned bolt. I was still a teenager at the time.

I honestly don't use JBweld much anymore because a proper repair is usually quicker and often easier.

Phil

[nthe10ring]

About 3 years ago HF used to sell the cast Steel Russian made anvils , not the best but for less than a hundred bucks they were a pretty good deal. I purchased one and still have it, the rebound is not all that bad and I still used it some. I make mostly knives and eventually got a bladesmith anvil like the one that Don Fogg uses- Searobbin.

Jerry