Harbor Freight Anvil: Can It Be Hardened?

Will a harbor freight anvil survive the quench? We find out the answer to can you harden a harbor freight anvil.

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[Halloween]

Harbor freight does have some good tools and other items, but they have some real klinkers in there too. The anvils are klinkers. But there is something you can do to them. Get a sturdy rope and tie it through the Hardy hole. Row out into the nearest body of salt water until it is far enough to begin getting less polluted. 3/4 mile should do. Next, hang the anvil over the side with the rope. Then, cut the rope, row back to shore, and feel the burn from the workout. Finally, go invest in a decent anvil.

[TehButterflyEffect]

I watch a lot of these types of videos on Youtube, and I'm very happy to see you guys working as safely as possible. Full leathers, gloves, safety glasses at all times, face shield for extra protection... you're the real deal. Thank you for being a good example.

[jadedelite]

Really surprised you didn't take a quick pass with a flap wheel to get that scale off before any testing.

[buttartoast]

Considering Harbor Fright's track record with quality control, it's probably going to either crack or shatter on quenching, but if you luck and grab the golden ticket one, you'll have a pretty decent entry level anvil that isn't just an ASO.

I've bought a screw driver where the point chipped turning a stuck screw, took it back and swapped it out and now i use that thing for prying staples and such. Harbor Freight is just a Blue Collar Casino.

[georgeschnakenberg]

I have to say. My first anvil was a harbor freight. And honestly it lasted longer than my knowledge surpassed it. The first smiths bashed against a rock or mild steel anvil. Buy what you can, heat it up with what you can an whack it

[brysonalden]

Trying to turn an HF ASO into a useful anvil by any means reminds me of the famous Robert Heinlein line: "Never attempt to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig."

[TheBorus]

It looked to me like the failure originated at the hardy hole. The sharp 90 degree corners are stress risers and cause brittle fracture during heat treatment. You may have had some grain growth, but I would be willing to bet that it would have survived if you had radiused or chamfered those square edges before taking it up to temp. Neat video, thanks.

[Gkitchens]

I was under the impression most anvils only had the tops hardened or work hardened, not the whole top half. You learn something new every day.

[Vikingwerk]

Something I have found hardening home made tools is that those surface oxides can be a fair bit softer than the hard metal underneath.

[kireduhai]

I honestly wondered about this.

Since they use "ductile iron, " (not cast iron, which is actually VERY high carbon) which actually has a decent graphite content, it actually stood to reason that it would be hardenable on some level.

[GWIRailroad]

Wow that was interesting Roy, however I think I will keep mine as is for my grandson he still love it!! Thanks for the Great Video Wayne

[jackofalltradesprepping]

Haven't watched your content yet, but I love Christ, so I'm now subscribed!

[danielthompson]

That was interesting for sure. I have a theory about the improved rebound; could it be that having it upside down in the forge melted the Bondo inside the anvil and caused it to settle against the face, thereby increasing the rebound without actually improving the anvil itself?

[Pollygator]

Fantastic work man! My harbor freight anvil is still a good part of my shop, use it when I don’t want to damage my good one haha. Keep doing an amazing job! Happy holidays!

[wolfaja]

I think when the anvil gets quenched another 100k people will “vote” at 2am in the morning in Wisconsin.

[iodsgjp]

I am building my own anvil out of I beam and a 1" thick block of 4140 for the striking face.

The 4140 should harden up to about 52 Rockwell.

I was wondering how to heat the thing up, but had not considered using a coal forge to heat just the 4140 part. I was planning on building a furnace around the thing!

Very helpful.

[lowellhouser]

So, a 12-18 inch piece of 4140 3in round heat treat from Speedy Metals or whatever tilted up vertically would be a better bet for a newbie I'm thinking.

[supersupernova]

Almost didn’t recognize you with the beard!! Good video! God bless!

[askquestionstrythings]

I'm not surprised grey cast iron doesn't water Quench well as the cooling rate is too fast. air, oil, molten salt seem more apt. of those Air is safer and considering the limits you mentioned in your shop air is probibly best. Which gives me the thought that plate quenching with a large/thick aluminum "plate" would be better.
As brittle as it was it makes me think it needed tempering which would have likely brought the hardness back to those stock conditions... as such even plate quenching maynot wouldn't help it.
maybe something like surface hardened by the induction method or Flame hardening method. (of course those would need to be tempered or "Stress Relieving" at 150-200C [302-392F] too)

[thejackofalldans]

i wasn't surprised by this at all, especially the hardy hole popping off like that, its cast so any amount of hardening will absolutely destroy the entegrity of the crystal structure, forged steel has a much tighter and consolidated structure and so when you harden it, it essentially interlaces the crystals almost like a rope interlaces threads to make a stronger item. Cast iron is like taking those threads and hanging something from them untwisted.