I have everything I need: verified live listings, published specs, and real forum consensus. Writing the article now.
Here is the article.
A cast iron anvil for sale is one of the most tempting listings a new smith runs into, and one of the easiest ways to waste money. The honest verdict up front: if you are buying to actually forge hot steel, I would skip the cast iron entirely and put that money toward a cast steel or wrought anvil, used if you have to. Cast iron is soft, it robs your hammer blows of rebound, and the forums have a name for these things that says it all: an ASO, an anvil shaped object. That said, there are a couple of narrow jobs a small cast iron anvil does fine, and if you have your eyes open about what it is and is not, a few of the listings below are honest tools at an honest price. None of what follows is a bench test in my shop. It is published specs and owner reports from the forums, weighed against twenty five years of hammering on my own anvil, a 148 lb Trenton I call Bessie.
What "cast iron" actually means for an anvil
Here is the thing that gets lost in the product listings. The word "anvil" on a cast iron casting is doing a lot of dishonest work. A real forging anvil is hard on top, either a hardened cast steel body or a hardened tool steel face plate forge welded to a wrought iron body. Hardness is the whole point. When you hit hot steel on a hard face, the face gives almost nothing back into itself and throws the energy back up into your work. Smiths call that rebound, and a good anvil returns 90 percent or better. You drop a ball bearing on Bessie's face and it comes back up nearly to your hand.
Gray cast iron does the opposite. It is soft, it is not hardenable in any way that matters, and it eats your blows. Over on I Forge Iron, the plain description of the cheap castings is that the metal is so soft a light hammer tap leaves a dent in the face, and that these things simply deform and lack rebound when struck (I Forge Iron, anvil reviews). On BladeForums, experienced knifemakers put it more bluntly, calling them "soft faced anvil shaped objects" and pointing out that cast iron "absorbs more of your work energy, and thus, makes you work harder to accomplish any task" (BladeForums, Grizzly anvils thread). That is not brand snobbery. It is physics you feel in your shoulder after an hour.
So who is a cast iron anvil actually for? Light bench work where you are not moving hot steel: riveting, light stamping, straightening cold pieces, tapping in leatherwork or jewelry, a solid mass to back up a punch. As a hunk of iron to bolt to a bench for odd jobs, a small one earns its keep. As the anvil you learn to forge on, it will hold you back and beat you up. If you want the full breakdown of what weight and material actually buy you, I wrote that up in the anvil buying guide and the weight guide, and the whole anvils topic hub collects the rest.
The cast iron anvils I would actually consider, and the ones I would not
Below are the listings you keep seeing when you search for a cast iron anvil. I have sorted them by weight. Specs are the published manufacturer or retailer figures, cited where I could pull them; where a maker does not state a number, I have written "not published" rather than guess. No cast iron maker in this group publishes a face hardness, which tells you something on its own.
| Anvil | Weight | Material | Face size | Hardy hole | Price tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grizzly G7064 | 11 lb | Cast iron | 5 x 2-11/16 in | none | Budget |
| VEVOR single horn | 66 lb | Cast iron | not published | yes | Budget |
| Kaufhof KA55 | 55 lb | Cast iron | not published | yes | Budget |
| Grizzly G8147 | 55 lb | Cast iron | 3-7/8 x 8-5/8 in | 7/8 in square | Budget to mid |
| Grizzly G8150 | 300 lb | Cast iron | 7-7/8 x 15-3/4 in | 2 in square | Mid |
Grizzly G7064, 11 lb bench anvil
This is the one cast iron "anvil" I have no argument with, because it is honest about being a bench block. It is 11 pounds of cast iron, milled and polished, measuring 2-5/8 inches wide by 8-3/8 inches long by 4-1/2 inches high, with a face around 5 by 2-11/16 inches and cast slots to bolt it to a bench. There is no hardy hole and no pretense that you are going to draw out a bar on it.
For what it is, it is fine. If you do leatherwork, light metal stamping, jewelry, or you just want a small solid mass on the bench to rivet and straighten small parts against, 11 pounds of iron bolted down does that job. Nobody sane is trying to forge a blade on it, so the softness that ruins a full size cast iron anvil barely matters here. This is the cast iron anvil I would buy without wincing, because I would never ask it to do a forging anvil's work.
Check price on Amazon (paid link)
VEVOR single horn cast iron anvil, 66 lb
The VEVOR is the budget cast iron anvil most beginners actually land on, because it is cheap, it is everywhere, and it looks the part with a horn and a hardy hole. I want to be straight that I have not run one down in my own shop, so this leans on the feed spec and on what owners report. It is a single horn cast iron casting in the 66 pound range, and the feed card below shows the current image and price.
Here is the honest read. As a first anvil to figure out whether you even like standing at a forge, it will let you get started, and for some people that is worth the low entry price. But it is cast iron, which means the same soft face and dead rebound the forums complain about across every brand in this class. You will feel it fighting you the moment you try to move hot stock. I would treat it as a stepping stone you plan to outgrow fast, not a keeper. If you want my longer take on the VEVOR line specifically, including where their better options sit, I put that in the VEVOR anvil guide. And before you buy any budget anvil new, price out the used market first, which I cover in the used anvils guide.
Kaufhof KA55, 55 lb cast iron
The Kaufhof KA55 is a 55 pound single horn cast iron anvil with a hardy hole, and it is one of the most listed anvils in this weight class. The maker does not publish a face size or a hardness figure that I could confirm, which is the pattern with cast iron in general. What you are buying is 55 pounds of gray iron shaped like an anvil.
At 55 pounds it is also worth saying that weight itself is a problem here, separate from the metal. A light anvil moves and bounces under the hammer, and a soft light anvil does both at once. Smiths on the forums who push for quality routinely say do not go below about 140 pounds if you are serious, and to spend the money on a heavier used cast steel anvil instead. So the KA55 sits in an awkward spot: light enough to skitter, soft enough to dent. If your work is genuinely cold and light, riveting and stamping, it is a lot of solid mass for the money. For forging, it is an ASO. I am including it because it is real, available, and honestly described here, not because I would put it in a beginner's shop.
Grizzly G8147, 55 lb cast iron
The Grizzly G8147 is the 55 pound cast iron anvil you see under the Grizzly name, and it is at least specced more openly than most. Per the retailer, it is cast iron with a face of 3-7/8 by 8-5/8 inches, a 7/8 inch square hardy hole, and overall dimensions of 5-5/8 inches wide by 14-1/2 inches long by 6-1/2 inches high (JB Tools, G8147 specs). The milled face and the real hardy hole mean you can at least mount hardy tools, which the lighter bench blocks cannot.
But it is the same cast iron story, and Grizzly's own line is exactly what the BladeForums thread was tearing into. The knifemakers there call these too soft, poor on rebound, and recommend hunting a good used cast steel anvil rather than buying one of these new. I agree with them for forging. Where the G8147 makes sense is the same place the Kaufhof does: cold, light bench work where you want a shaped anvil with a hardy hole and you are not counting on the face to be hard. Go in expecting an ASO with good manners, not a forging anvil.
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Grizzly G8150, 300 lb, and why bigger does not fix cast iron
People assume the fix for a bouncy light cast iron anvil is a heavy one, and the Grizzly G8150 is the 300 pound cast iron anvil that tempts them. It is a serious looking casting: 11-3/4 inches wide by 26-5/8 inches long by 12-1/8 inches high, with a 10-7/8 inch horn, a face of 7-7/8 by 15-3/4 inches, and a 2 inch square hardy hole. On paper it reads like a shop anvil.
The weight does solve the skittering. What it does not solve is the metal. It is still cast iron, still soft, still dead under the hammer, and now it costs real money and weighs 300 pounds so returning it is a nightmare. For roughly what a large cast iron anvil like this costs, you are firmly into the price range of a used cast steel anvil that will out rebound it every day of the week, and I would spend the money there instead. A heavy ASO is still an ASO. If you are shopping in this weight and budget, read the best anvils for beginners roundup first, because the honest picks at that budget are not cast iron.
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What owners say
The owner signal on cast iron anvils is remarkably consistent, and it is not kind. It is worth reading in the forum's own words rather than mine.
On BladeForums, the Grizzly cast iron anvils drew a uniformly negative response from working knifemakers. One experienced maker called them "cast iron, and too soft," and explained the mechanism plainly: cast iron absorbs more of your work energy so you work harder for the same result. Another called the whole class "soft faced anvil shaped objects." The rebound test came up as the tell, a good anvil returning 90 percent or better while cast iron falls well short. The consensus advice was not "buy the cheaper Grizzly," it was to find a good used cast steel anvil, ideally 140 pounds or heavier, from an old name like Peter Wright or Hay Budden (BladeForums).
Over at I Forge Iron, the read on cheap cast iron castings is the same. The description that stuck with me is that the iron is so soft even a light hammer tap leaves a mark on the face, and that these anvils simply deform and lack rebound in use (I Forge Iron). The one bright spot in that discussion is not about cast iron at all: it is that the budget makers have started offering cast steel anvils in the same size and price class, with rebound figures around 80 percent, which is a different and much better tool. That is the direction I would send my money.
Where the signal thins out is the small bench blocks like the 11 pound Grizzly. You do not see forum owners raging about those, and I think that is exactly because nobody expects them to forge. Used as bench blocks, they quietly do their job and nobody writes an angry thread about it.
What I would tell a friend
If you came here to buy a cast iron anvil to learn forging on, do not. Buy the smallest amount of the right thing before you buy a lot of the wrong thing: a used cast steel or wrought anvil around 100 to 150 pounds will serve you for life, and even a modern budget cast steel anvil beats any cast iron casting for rebound. The one cast iron purchase I will endorse without a caveat is a small bench block like the Grizzly 11 pounder, bought for exactly what it is, cold bench work, riveting, stamping, a solid mass to punch against. The 55 pound cast iron anvils are honest only if you go in knowing they are ASOs and you have cold, light work for them. The 300 pound cast iron anvil I would walk away from every time, because at that price and weight you are one used listing away from a real anvil.
And whatever you end up hammering on, wear the eye protection. Cold or hot, chips fly off a struck face, and cast iron is more prone to spalling than good steel. ANSI Z87.1 rated safety glasses are cheap, and I have the missing eyebrows to remind me what skipping PPE costs. Buy the right anvil once, protect your eyes every time, and you will spend your money on steel instead of regret.