I was just sitting here thinking about anvils and in particular, hardy holes. Is the a standardized size in the industry or is it completely random? Perhaps each manufacture had their own standard?

Just curious...:)

There are LOTS of different sizes. I THINK MAYBE 1" might be the more common. Most of my bottom tools fit a 1" hardy hole but not all of them. Might I suggest the ever popular and most versatile of all hardy holes the. . . . Portable Hole! It's your length of heavy wall or reinforced square tubing mounted on end to match your anvil's face.

Frosty The Lucky.

Zero standardization across the industry, or thru time. Most manufacturers had a size that they used for a weight range of anvils, but that is about it.

Many of the older wrought anvils had a team of strikers push a tapered square(ish) punch to set the hardy hole shape in the body after forging the face plate on, so the hole is rarely square to the finished face in any axis. Seldom will a shank fit the same in all four rotations.

You have to make or alter tooling to fit your anvil, or each anvil you own. The alternative is to make them fit the smallest hardy hole, and use sleeves to adapt to the rest. Which is a great idea if you do demos at other shops, or take classes at a school. You can usually take the tools when you travel, but not your anvil.

I'd say on most contemporary anvils of 200# or less it's much more often than not 7/8". If not, is usually 1".

Although there is no standardization it is I believe moving in that direction.

George

2 hours ago, John McPherson said:

Zero standardization across the industry, or thru time. Most manufacturers had a size that they used for a weight range of anvils, but that is about it.

Many of the older wrought anvils had a team of strikers push a tapered square(ish) punch to set the hardy hole shape in the body after forging the face plate on, so the hole is rarely square to the finished face in any axis. Seldom will a shank fit the same in all four rotations.

My favorites are the slightly curved holes.  Probably pretty easy to overheat/overhit your drift in a piece of iron the size of an anvil!

I've owned or flipped around 100 anvils over the last few decades and perhaps 55% of them were 100# +/- 30# and had 1" holes +/-1/8".  So a razor thin majority had 1" holes, but really they can be all over the place.  Many manufacturers would do custom features on special orders too... My very first anvil was a 125# Peter Wright with a 1.25" hardy hole.  

 

2 hours ago, John McPherson said:

Zero standardization across the industry, or thru time. Most manufacturers had a size that they used for a weight range of anvils, but that is about it.

Many of the older wrought anvils had a team of strikers push a tapered square(ish) punch to set the hardy hole shape in the body after forging the face plate on, so the hole is rarely square to the finished face in any axis. Seldom will a shank fit the same in all four rotations.

My 1830-5 Mousehole has its hardy at about 7/8" in one direction and 15/16" the other way. 

At last weeks New England Blacksmith's meet I won a cast block with 2 different Hardy hole sizes in it with a chain "Harness" to hold it on an anvil. they set nicely on  top of my anvil but I didn't think to take a picture of it. I had just time enough to  drop it off at my shop before having to leave on a trip so I  didn't measure the holes, but my PW has a 1" hole and one of these is smaller and one is larger.  I know they have them in their stable of cast items they  sell but they are not on the web site yet.  They are heavy.

Judson you know the particulars on this? 

All very interesting info. Part of my reasoning for asking is that I am currently putting together a RR Rail post anvil and I've already drilled in a 3/4" hole in the web at the flange end. I was thinking about welding a piece of very heavy gauge square tube 1" ID to the bottom of the flange at the point of the web. This would run down the base to my block mount that is topped with a piece of one inch plate. At some point in time I will more than likely purchase another anvil with would surely have a hardy hole and I would be happy to be able to use my tooling on both. It seems that I may have to make more then one set of tools.

Thanks for all your knowledgeable responses. 

Also consider this. You really need not worry too much about hardies fitting your anvil. Whatever doesn't fit in your anvil will certainly fit in your vise

George

Good Morning,

Save some different thickness pieces of scrap/off-cuts angle bar. You can easily make a two sided shim to fit any Hardy Hole.

Neil