Old anvil I've been using for 20 years finally cracked on me last Tuesday

2 comments

2 Comments

Three years ago a buddy of mine had his granddad's old Fisher anvil split right down the middle while he was shaping a hot horseshoe. He was so mad he just left it sitting in his backyard for six months before he finally took it to a local scrapyard and got like forty bucks for it. Now he jokes that he should have just bolted a piece of steel plate over the crack and kept using it.

willow_garcia20d ago

Forty bucks for a Fisher anvil is almost criminal, but I get why he was mad enough to do it. Here is the angle I don't see anyone talking about: that crack probably saved his life. Those old cast iron anvils, especially ones that are a hundred years old, can have hidden internal cracks or slag pockets you can't see. If that one split while he was just doing a hot shoe, imagine if he'd been striking it cold with a hammer. A chunk of steel or iron flying off at face level could ruin your whole day. I wonder how many stories like this end with someone in the ER instead of just being out a good anvil.