I picked up an old American Star Anvil (112 lbs.) yesterday. The tempered steel top plate is mostly gone. Can what is left be removed and refinished with a new plate?? I have pictures.

1 minute ago, Flamemaker80 said:

I picked up an old American Star Anvil (112 lbs.) yesterday. The tempered steel top plate is mostly gone. Can what is left be removed and refinished with a new plate?? I have pictures.

The quick answer is no. The face plate and the body of the anvil MUST be joined at every point, and there’s really no way to do that.

Furthermore, the body of an American Star is cast iron, which is notoriously difficult to weld. The original face would have been placed in the bottom of the upside-down mold, preheated, and then had molten iron poured on top. If everything was at the right temperature, the cast iron would fuse to the steel. I suspect that yours didn’t fuse completely and later failed in use.

There is a method sometimes used to restore broken face plates on wrought iron anvils. This involves building the surface back up by laying down multiple beads with an arc welder, finishing off with a layer of hardfacing rod, and then grinding it smooth. However, I don’t know how well it works on cast iron, and once you’ve finished, you’ve put a lot of time and money into a fairly ordinary (some might say second-class) anvil. You’re probably much better off saving your money and buying an anvil that’s already ready to go.

That said, the tail half of your anvil looks perfectly serviceable, as does the horn. So long as you steer clear of the broken section, you should still be able to get a fair amount of work out of this, in the absence of anything better.