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NC Tool Cavalry 112lb


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I read a post on IFI that described this anvil as a "Swiss Army Knife" of the anvil world. It has all sorts of features not normally associated with a Blacksmiths anvil. Turning lugs, square clip horn, the large turning hole in the heel. For reasons I can't fully explain I have always been drawn to this little anvil. I have several English anvils, Mouse Hole and Wilkinson, and a couple of post anvils made of 4140. But I still wanted to give the Cavalry model a try.

The Cavalry, like most of the modern farrier anvils I've looked at it is made of cast, ductile iron. It is not the soft cast iron the import ASOs are made of. My first impressions were good but I admit to being biased in that I really like the look of this anvil. I had no expectations about performance having never forged on ductile iron but I was happy to find the Cavalry is a lively little soldier. It does not rebound as much as my mouse hole and doesn't come close to the rebound of a forged steel anvil but pound for pound its about one fifth the price.

Size is ample for my needs. One of my Mouse Holes is 130lbs and at 112lbs the face of the Cavalry is larger. That's just a difference in configuration. For my use, 112lbs is plenty big for a shop anvil. I seldom forge anything over 3/4" square with a hand hammer. I have a striking anvil for heavy hitting with the sledge.

I had to radius the shoulders but I left the square shoulders on the clip horn till I can think of a use for them. The anvil has a 1" hardy in the horn. I will be forging 1" shank tools but sleeves could be used to reduce the 1" hole to  accept 3/4" shank tooling. The heel is quite thin, too thin for heavy forging but as stated above the sweet spot of the face is plenty big. The hole in the heel is interesting though. I plan to use it for drifting with drifts too large to drift into the hardy.

I've been forging on the anvil daily for two weeks and I'm very happy with the investment. In my case this anvil is an addition to my tool set. Its not my only anvil and it won't be my last. The reason I wanted to write a review is the flood of calls I've been getting from folks wanting to get started who are shopping for an anvil. There are still plenty of gems out there hiding in barns and weeds but for a beginner with little to no knowledge about how to tell a delaminated face plate from a forged steel Sweed from a cast iron ASO from a fire damaged, poorly welded.....it can be a crap shoot. And the prices are getting to be a bit out of hand on some real duds in my area.

So, in my opinion, the NC Cavalry is a safe bet for someone on a budget who may be wanting to test the waters without taking out a second mortgage. In the continental US the Cavalry is less than $450.00 dollars delivered. I won't say by who, I'm not advertising or advocating for anyone but a quick online search will reveal who offers free shipping on this anvil in the US. Lots of dealers sell NC  anvils so there is wiggle room on price but it was under $450.00 everywhere I looked.

I'm happy with the Cavalry and will continue to forge on it for the next year. I will update this post if I encounter any quality/condition issues. I hope this helps someone who may be about to spend way too much money on something missing two thirds of a face plate. It is quite possible that one third of a face plate could have marginally better rebound than the Cavalry but in my opinion the Cavalry is more bang for your buck. Happy Hunting...-M-

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