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Anvil Hype


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I've been running across more and more sites with bogus info on anvils; just today on a "Best anvils for Blacksmithing" site I see

an Olympia 9 pound anvil described with: a very solid cast iron body, is constructed of rugged cast ironThis forged steel anvil 

Guess they can't read what they listed a couple of sentences above!

Also another 3.5# anvil described as: "The soft surface that is found on this product ensures that good quality items are produced majority of the time, With benefits like a soft working surface, "

Because nothing benefits blacksmithing like a SOFT working surface!

Finally: "The 24 pound Grizzly G7065 Anvil is a top perform piece of equipment that each and every blacksmith should want in their work shop, Grizzly anvils are top quality products which are made from cast iron anvils. There is some debate on whether cast iron is a very god quality material for an anvil that is idea for knife markets but it is effective. The rule of thumb when it comes to buying worn old anvils is at roughly a dollar a pound, you can get yourself a new, good quality anvil with a very smooth surface. Cast iron does not have those little important things that many black smiths desire but it is gentle on hammers and does not cause any dents which brings us to the 24 pound Grizzly G7065 Anvil. This blacksmith anvil is one of a kind and weighs around 24 Ibs. It is reasonably sized"

This site is dedicated to selling worthless anvils for blacksmithing to folks who don't know any better.  I see a lot of disappointing Christmas gifts from such sites!

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Those descriptions and perls of wisdom, come from the chinese manufacturer and are cut and paste on the seller site. 

You can buy anvils in that style on Alibaba for $7 if you buy 25 units, and you can choose among a string of foundries that offer this and different deals. It is a sign of the times. A trade has gone trendy and developed in only one direction, knife making, that requires limited light forging,

The question is ... can you actually forge a knife on this cheap ASO? We had such debate many times before. If I had to choose to forge small light object on a rail or other minuscule surface, or on a normal size surface that happens to be soft ... I would chose the ASO every day. $50 vs $500 would convince most beginners for good reason. 

Is it ideal? No. Is it the right choice? Depends from the buyer. I have seen people buy tools at the $2 dollar shops. Does not faze me one bit ... :)  

I like the rugged cast forged iron steel anvil. That must be the best :ph34r:

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17 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Because nothing benefits blacksmithing like a SOFT working surface!

Isn't this true if you sit while working at the anvil? 

Good quality items produced a majority of the time! Now THERE'S salesmanshipness! I wonder if they want to deposit large sum of American dollar currency amounts in my bank account too?

Frosty The Lucky.

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Frosty---Am Sonn of great Loss Leader?

"The Happybuy Single Horn Anvil 66Lbs Steel Anvil’s Rockwell hardness is 2 inches long"

"There is some debate on whether cast iron is a very god quality material for an anvil"

Their proofreading surly helps sell the product!  Who wouldn't want a god quality anvil!

And Marc I have forged a knife on a 220 pound cast iron anvil.  It would have been much easier and faster on a chunk of rail.  The anvil face was denting under the red hot 5160 stock and so a lot of the hammer work went into deforming the anvil rather than deforming the workpiece.  I'll admit a big chunk of steel would have worked better than either and been cheaper than the cast iron ASO!

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No I sold it back in the later 1980's at a 50% loss to a person who swore on a stack of Bibles NEVER to try smithing with it and to NEVER sell it to a person who wanted to use it for smithing.

It was a 100 kilo Buffalo anvil sold to me new at a hardware store on the south side of OKC around 1982.      Selling it back then is really helping me not to succumb to temptation nowadays!

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People will believe a salesperson using buzzwords and excitement to separate them from their money has to be right.  Facts tend to skew things toward reality a bit. 

Research on NEW anvils in the 100 to 200 pound range puts the 2019 price at $6.00 to $9.00 a pound.  

One seller says:  "Striking the face with a hammer or doing the ball bearing test will wreck any anvil (clip) and will ultimately void its warranty." This is for the new name brand anvils they sell.  

 

 

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Mr. Glenn,

Your post reminds me of a Herman cartoon that I read many years ago.

The cartoon shows Herman at the return counter at a department store. He is holding an umbrella and the clerk says.

"I'm sorry there is no refund because you got it wet."

I suppose that hammering on the anvil will void that seller's warranty.

SLAG.

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Well I sent the "blacksmithing Blog" guy an email mentioning that espousing trash for blacksmithing pretty much puts his credibility at ZERO; but as his entire site is just trying to get folks to buy stuff so he gets a payment I don't hope for much.  As a "blogger" he isn't blogging about blacksmithing; just linking to anything on Amazon with the term blacksmith in it to get a payment.  Like US$3 a pound coal sent in USPS boxes...I wish there was a way to get such sites blacklisted.

 

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It's not a matter of blacklisting. There is a market and there is supply and demand. This is how it works and has always worked.

Intervention only adds another layer of cost, but will not smarten up the demand. That has to happen all by itself. 

Meantime it is happy hunting for the amazon sellers who import and sell with a 1000% to 2000% markup.

2 hours ago, Anachronist58 said:

I routinely cold work spring steel on my two Söderfors.

I guess the springs are soft and I am too daft to know it.

No dents.

Do not forget, the Expert points out that the Happybuy anvil has both a round hole AND a HANDY hole.

Robert Taylor

I also cold work steel with a texturing mallet, and use only one anvil for such vile purpose. A cheap unhardened cast steel anvil made for the mines by Doug Slack Foundry. No ill effect after 10 years of this 'abuse'.

Eventually the supply of garden decorations will drag down the price of Chinese anvils, or the Chinese may even learn to make decent anvils. They are not stupid.  

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One of the problem is that the anvil market tends to be full of "first time buyers" who know little about it.  I wish Consumer Reports would do an article on anvils so people might get more exposure... 

So if you know nothing about anvils and you search on the net and run across a "Best Anvils for Blacksmiths to Buy" site---how are you going to tell that it's as bogus as a three sided quarter? Look for reviews---they may be bogus too!  It's such a niche market I don't think it will become an "efficient market" anytime soon if at all.

I've been involved in the supply chain that involved products from China; you tend to get all the quality you test 100% for!  China is doing aerospace stuff so they can do very high quality components; however quality specs seem to be more "suggestions" rather than contractual mandates and of course counterfeiting is rife. 

May I commend "The Hardware Hacker: Adventures in Making and Breaking Hardware", Andrew Huang to your attention for an interesting view on such things in China.  After I read it I handed it off to coworkers that were involved in our supply chain as a possible explanation for some of the stuff we had been seeing and it was still making the rounds when I moved back home.

Remember when Japan was known for putting out low quality trash? (late 1950's early 1960's)  Japan totally turned that around and is now a leading high quality item supplier. I hope China can go the same path; but I don't expect it to happen in my rather limited lifetime left.

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I sure remember as a kid to frown upon made in Japan, just like we do today at made in China. 

There are different levels of quality in China allegedly 3, but "China" is not a monolithic entity. There are millions of factories big and small and they all have different goals and strategies. 

Edited by Mod34
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Citizens of I.F.I.,

Chinese people and most of their manufacturers, can make items of high quality.

Some will also make sleazy junk especially when the opportunity presents itself.

Western importers and buyers often specify the components and their quality of the goods they want to foist on the American consumer.

Some associate friends, resident in China, have said that the quality of goods in China available there are much better made than the exported equivalents.

We are victims of the great "North American consumer goods race to the bottom".

SLAG.

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