Why not a cast anvil

[TJ Smith]

"I bought a 150# jet anvil brand new paid around $250.
It is supposed to be cast steel?? Dropped a 1 inch ball bearing from 1 foot it bounced back about 8 inches.
When you hit it with a hammer the hammer does recoil.
It will be a long time before I realize it doesn't work as good as it should. Watch out for used anvils: a lot of them have been through a fire and won't bounce a bearing at all"
Take Care
TJ

I posted this back in o2 wondering why a cast iron anvil isn't any good. People say good for a boat anchor or a door stop.

Does anybody know why? or are we just like sheep and follow the flock? BAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Tj

[jcornell]

Cast iron or cast steel?  The ASOs at Harbor Freight are cast iron - although it's better than nothing, I think most smiths agree that they aren't worth the trouble.  A cast steel anvil, however, is nothing to sneeze at.  Anyone who wants to give me a Rhino or Nimba anvil (both cast steel), drop me a line.

[jmccustomknives]

They work, but when you get on a good hard anvil the differance is night and day.  I worked on a RR track anvil for years, it had about a 50% rebound at best.  Working on a 200lb Fisher now with a 90% rebound.  Wow, it really moves more metal.

[jmccustomknives]

They work, but when you get on a good hard anvil the differance is night and day.  I worked on a RR track anvil for years, it had about a 50% rebound at best.  Working on a 200lb Fisher now with a 90% rebound.  Wow, it really moves more metal.

[macbruce]

Take a ball peen hammer and do a light/medium hit on the face of the anvil with the ball.....If it leaves a dent you'll know why.......;-)

[ThomasPowers]

Cast iron is fragile---it breaks fairly easily  Cast iron is generally *soft* it will dent under red hot steel being worked on it.  Do these properties sound like an Anvil to you?

[philip in china]

Cast iron or cast steel?  The ASOs at Harbor Freight are cast iron - although it's better than nothing, I think most smiths agree that they aren't worth the trouble.  A cast steel anvil, however, is nothing to sneeze at.  Anyone who wants to give me a Rhino or Nimba anvil (both cast steel), drop me a line.

 

Hear hear. A couple of good brands mentioned there.

 

Virtually all modern anvils are cast- but they are cast steel and the difference is chalk and cheese. I have a couple of Chinese made cast iron anvils here which I use for some purposes but not for forging on. Cast iron deforms so much as you are hammering it absorbs a lot of the energy of the hammer. You will wear yourself out working on one.

 

You would do much better just with a big piece of scrap steel.

[Timothy Miller]

Vintage forged anvils are just way cooler B)

[SReynolds]

I have a known cast steel anvil and it dents when/if you hit it with a ball peen. It has this real nice/loud ring to it too when you simply tap it.

 

It is in great shape as it obviously wasn't used for anything.....untill I bought it used from an anvil collector. 

[tomhw]

You are more important than your anvil.

[ThomasPowers]

Note I mentioned that I had a cast iron anvil dent *under* the workpiece not hitting the anvil with a hardened hammer!

 

Even very soft real wrought iron worked when forging extremely soft wrought iron at proper forging temps without a similar issue.