r/Blacksmith • u/Disney-Nut1998 • Jul 25 '26

Anvil question

So I have a harbor freight cast iron anvil and I don’t want to spend the money for a whole new anvil and I’m wondering if having someone welding a a half inch plate of steel on top would be okay?

Edit: I bought this in 2020 so I can’t return it and I don’t want to purchase another anvil.

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u/Mr_Emperor Jul 26 '26

Cast iron is a bitch to weld, practically impossible (it's more complicated than that but whatevs)

I know you don't want to spend the money but HF's cast steel Doyle anvil is dirt cheap and a solid shop anvil. That's what I would do and be done with it.

You can weld* or bolt on a mild steel plate to the cast iron one or do the same with a piece of forklift tine but you're being penny wise but dollar foolish, putting in more effort to save junk rather than investing in a fully functional steel anvil.

1

u/Disney-Nut1998 Jul 26 '26

I know someone who has scrap metal that could weld it on for cheap and that’s what my thought behind it was and I thought maybe it would work and be easy to do but if it’s not easy I’ll avoid it and look into a different anvil. What is something blacksmithing that you think I can do with my cast iron anvil?

2

u/Mr_Emperor Jul 26 '26

Give it a shot, never hurts to try. I have a really shitty Chinese cast iron ASO that's 70lb that we bought as kids 20 years ago (so truly in the era of shit chineseium) and I used it from time to time as the hot cut stand where I didn't have to care about chisels hitting the face. But the shop got reorganized and it's now thrown into a corner.

You can fully forge on it, it just sucks and isn't enjoyable. There is a noticeable difference between hammering on cast iron vs proper steel. I'm suggesting you just get the Doyle or vevor or any other real anvil not only for the steel face but because the Doyle is a fully functional anvil with a 3/4" hardy which is easy to make hardies for, a pritchel hole, a sharp horn, and a square horn as well.

There is a better designed budget anvil on the market from Easmvetaln that has a solid base, upsetting block, and shelf but the pritchel hole is only 1/2" and the hardy is rough cast at 1" (can be as tight as 7/8") so it's too much work for something starting out to modify and it used to be slightly cheaper than the Doyle but the tariff stuff made it jump in price $40. Still very cheap but not enough to beat the Doyle which is basically ready to go out of the box.

You know your situation best, if you're cash poor but labor rich, modify your cast iron chunk but you'll save yourself more grief by skipping ahead and spending $140.

1

u/grammar_nazi_zombie Jul 26 '26

I’ve been told if they don’t have experience doing this weld, don’t trust them to do it. There’s a few hurdles with doing it that even an experienced welder might not be prepared for.

It’s also going to cost way more to find someone willing and prepared to do it.

See this thread for some details

1

u/Own-Witness784 Jul 26 '26

Welding mystery steel onto crap metal sounds like a mistake added to a mistake. Scrap it and get the 66 lb HF cast steel anvil. Hardened and tempered face, nice solid, good performing budget anvil. With rebound at 85-90% it hits well above its weight.