That $150 anvil I bought off Craigslist was a total disaster

I thought I was getting a steal on a 100 pound anvil from some guy out in the sticks. Got it home and the face was so chipped up you could barely strike a piece of hot steel without it bouncing weird. I put maybe 20 hours into trying to grind it flat but the hard face was too thin and I just ruined it more. Wasted my whole summer project fund on that thing. Anybody else get burned buying used anvils sight unseen?

3 comments

3 Comments

grace_white4d ago

That "chipped up" face sounds like someone already tried to surface it and blew through the hard plate.

the_kevin3d ago

My buddy Steve did that to a whole pallet of marble once, man was he pissed.

kai_park4d ago

Someone definitely got to that slab before and tried to work it. That "chipped up" look is a dead giveaway for a bad surface job where they hit the hard crust. Once you blow through that outer layer, you expose the softer stuff underneath and it just crumbles apart. That face is never going to hold a good edge now without some serious grinding and maybe even a full recut. Whole thing is probably ruined for anything nice like a bookmatched set. Should have just left it alone if they didn't know what they were doing.