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I Forge Iron

New Chinese Cast Steel Anvil in my Shop


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In another post I had mentioned that I had ordered a new Chinese cast steel anvil from the foundry in northern China. I have been living in south China, Guangdong Province, for over five years. Feeling the urge to get back into knife making and blacksmithing I began to search for a real anvil in China. My contact with the factory resulted in this 100KG/220LB hunk-o-steel that showed up today. It is cast from C45 steel and is an Italian pattern. In fact the "Acciaio" cast into the side means "steel" in Italian, according to google translate. I did not have much time to spend with it today but here is my first impression.
 
The overall casting is ok. There are only a few deep pits in the sides. The face is hardened to HRC50 plus or minus. There is considerable rebound and ringing from light hammer blows. The face is flat and well-polished with no obvious pits. The edges are sharp with some slight irregularities from casting which can be addressed easily in dressing the edges. The horn is unpolished and needs a little attention with a grinder. In addition, the horn is not flat on top like the cast iron Chinese anvils but it does have an oval shape with the top having less radius than the sides. I did not measure it today but during the up-coming Chinese New Year holiday I will get some measurements. The hardie hole seems to be slightly off square and the edges are quite well finished. The pritchel hole is not as smooth as the hardie hole but I think when the horn is dressed the hole edges will be much better. Both are 1 inch holes.
 
If my photos show up, you can see my daughter posing on the anvil. She has lived here since she was 5 months old and can switch from English to Chinese with ease. And, yes, she thinks she is the boss!
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That is a pretty interesting 'bridge' design with the feet being so well defined. Not a bad looking anvil at all. Coming to a Harbor Freight near you soon? They would probably sell well here at the right price point. Good job of showing off both of your prizes. Ed.

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That's gorgeous... I would use the heck out of it for a months and report back all the areas of concern...

 

 

I'd add more mass and incorporate the feet more into the mass. It just looks like its tiptoeing...lol ....

 

 

Save my input on aesthetics, it looks like quite the work horse...   

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Is there an anvil or company in Italy named Acciaio? I know these are made for the European market by the Chinese company. There is a common practice of Chinese unfinished goods being imported into some countries and then resold as "made in ______." For some countries this is 100% lawful. China is the world's largest producer of violins. Many are sold "in the white" or unfinished to European nations and labeled and sold as products of that country. 

 

China can produce high quality products but two factors come into play. One, buyers often order poor quality. Second, finding a manufacturer who will respect the specs of the buyer and work hard to build and keep long term customers. Quality control is very important to assure you get what you pay for. I pity the person who orders a container of goods from China and never has any kind of QC in place to protect themselves. 

 

I doubt HF would pay the price for this product. See number one above.  As to the cost, when I met with the factory manager around Christmas, he offered this as a sample for evaluation.  If I choose to keep it the price in China will be less than $500. I think this anvil is being sold in Europe for about 750 euros or about $1000. 

 

Actually, the manager is quite interested in getting feedback from blacksmiths on his products. He seems to want to improve what he is making. 

 

And one really big surprise, after sitting on my butt for several years, I was actually able to pick it up and set it on the dolly you see in the photo. For an old fat man, I was happier with that than the anvil itself! 

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DanielC, this would be a typical, traditional anvil shape in parts of France and Italy. Before large scale transportation of goods became easy, every geographic region used to make its own tools in its own style. Coastal Mediterranean anvils would be different than those from the Alps area. You could tell where a man came from by the shape of the pocketknife he carried, or his ax, or his anvil. This dates back to the city-state era, which America mostly missed after the Colonial period.

 

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