Hi all, 

A question about what a good HRC hardness is for an anvil?

Anvils are hard to find in New Zealand and I've come across a brand of anvil from Australia called Grinter.  They are made for farrier's but the Grinter people say that it should be fine for blacksmithing.  The anvils are cast from SG Iron and the HRC is 65.  

Any thoughts?

Thanks

That depends....do you have a boat and need an anchor?  It's cast iron, so no. 

The interweb says sg iron is a ductile iron with high impact and fatigue resistance making it less brittle than regular cast and with a harness of 65 shouldn't that rebound like crazy? Or is 65 to hard? I know other good cast anvils are in the low 50's .

Sounds quite high; probably has a chilled face.  Many new farrier's anvils are ductile and are considered working tools.  Their use life will probably be shorter than a cast steel or "traditionally" made anvil but they are a lot easier to source and replace.  If the price reflects this; get it and use it to pay for the "good" one you find on down the road...

O'dwyer is another company that make farriers anvils from ductile iron - they work just fine. If that hardness is 65 I'd be tempted to radius the edges a little bit as it might be prone to chipping. 

All the best 

Andy

Not to mention that *having* an anvil seems to work as a decoy to lure others in so you can grab them too!

Thanks for the responses, I'm going to go and look at the anvils today and see what they're like.

Nate