Old anvil rings due to highcarbon forged steel. Newer anvil is made from low carbon cast steel. Differences between the 2. Old forged steel anvil will still cost around $5,000 to $7000. The newer ish cast steel anvil depending on size $250 to $1,500. If your just getting into forging. I'd take the cast anvil. Point of video: people to watch it so they make money.
Hay Budden is wrought-iron body with a steel face, NC Is most likely cast iron w steel face also the NC is a farriers anvil. The hay budded is far superior
I'll bet you, to speed up production of the dead anvil brand, they water cool them or drop them in water, causing uneven cooling rates, which often times in cast iron, will cause internal stresses, resulting in cracks on the inside of the structure, hence the dead sound or no "ping"... Yes, the alloy of cast iron plays a major role in this as well, high ductile, to ductile, to grey to pig iron, and either way, too much of one alloy or additive to the molten mix, can cause dead iron, that is not suitable for structural supporting systems.. now, heat treating and tempering is a totally different methodology as the molten casting has already formed it's final shape, and locked in the shape, as heat treating isn't being the structure to the deformation state of being molten.. I wonder, you you can contact any of your major manufactures that make large welds, on construction equipment, like John Deere, or Case, Catipillar, etc, and see if you can burrow their sonar/ultra-sonic X&ray machine tech, and have him bring his specialized equipment to scan these two anvils, and let's learn some interesting stuff of these two amazing pieces of history.. maybe, cut off a gram sized corner of each, to send the two samples off to find out its metallurgy, I know nobody wants to cut off a gram sized pieces of their prized anvils, but sure would make for some historic documentation of our worlds anvil manufacturing to find out the percentages of chromium, carbon, coke, tin, copper, antimony, graphite, etc... with those two tests, anybody in the world, could then formulate high end anvils, if they do choose to. Beings, I'll bet, neither of those two companies are still around, so, I doubt there is any infringement on copyright/trademark stuff. Please note I could be wrong if these two companies are out of business, I don't know.. would be neat to learn about it though .
A colleague of mine suggests bouncing a ball bearing on them and seeing if there is a height difference. Says it may be due to a casting or hardening difference and that "good" anvils have their faces heat treated for hardness.
Drop a ball bearing on it and watch it bounce. The old one will bounce for a long time . The new one will not. So, as you are forging, the old one will save you energy, and the new one will cost you energy
If you look carefully at the top half inch or so you should see a cap over the top of your anvil it's probably a cast steel anvil with a hardened face where is the older one is probably a forged steel anvil
