Harbor Freight Doyle Anvil: Will It Survive?

Can we destroy the new harbor freight anvil, the Doyle anvil, with sledgehammers?

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[fordxlt]

This is a very impressive little anvil for the money. It's possibly the best new small budget starter anvil on the market.

[grandadz_forge]

Back in the day, I had to walk through the snow, with no shoes, to Harbor Freight to get the old cast iron and Bondo anvil just to get started on my blacksmith journey. Now they have a decent one with a Pretchel and real horn.

[MoabYoda]

Looks like it is a pretty good little anvil. If I did not already own a few I would get one of these. Nice to see some more decent offerings in the anvil market at prices the average hobby smith can afford. This and the Vevor are both good reasonably priced options. I own the 132 lbs Vevor and find I now use it more than my 140 lbs Hay Budden. I don't need to worry about damaging a cherished antique with it and I like the utility of the flat horn on the back. Now Harbor freight needs to make a 150 lbs version of that thing for around the $200 - $250 range and the new Smith's of the world would be beating down their door.

[FallenAnvilForge]

I'm impressed, this is looking like a decent anvil for the money. From what I just saw, it should hold up to the small projects that I do in my shop. Thanks guys.

[johnshultz]

Harbor freight products aren't as bad as they used to be

[xrtgx]

In the next video, I’d like to see how well it can flatten a cartoon coyote when fallen on it’s head

[PaulsGarage]

Well If you can't break the thing I certainly can't! Good test

[fourbears]

I've actually been impressed with their Doyle brand. Got a set of their channel lock pliers after watching project farms testing vs the gold standard of knipex. Came in a close second

[jamesgarland]

I've used mine for a year now (11 months to be exact). I've missed the work a few times. I dressed it properly. No dents or cracks with a 3 1/2# cross peen. I'm not saying it's the best you can buy, but you can buy worse. I've very happy with the sale price of $99. Even at the current price of $149 It is a fair bargin. Old antique anvils in my area are 7 to 15 dollars a pound. Averaging the sale price multiplied by 65 pounds equals $715 dollars for a 65# anvil. You an keep your antiques! An anvil that will take the abuse shown in the video above is a winner in my book at any reasonable cost.

[robertjones]

If Alec Steele caught you hitting one of his brand of anvils like that he'd freak.
You never hit an anvil full force as it will damage ANY anvil.

[censusgary]

Anvil’s looking tough, so far. Tougher than you guys, anyway. 😏

[davidbolduc]

I bought one of these anvils and I found that the hardness and rebound varied a bit along the top, but at its low price point it was more than adequate for my purpose. I bounced a 1" ball bearing on the top and I could see where the rebound was best and where the ball left dents. This is by no means a scientific method and I'm no expert but it did give me an idea about the consistency of the work surface.

[blackbirdironworks]

...and ya'll wonder why we love you. I just picked up one of these for my son on the way home from church

[vmoutsop]

I don’t know anything about anvils but that looked like it faired pretty well.

[zachdamron]

I just bought one and it had plug welds right in the sweet spot and I am upset but I am thinking on getting a JHM 120# and was hoping you could do a review on it?

[billwoehl]

For future reference, I'd wrap one chain around from one side, and another wrapped around from the other instead of just throwing one over each leg, to keep it from moving side to side like it did.

[jessiegarza]

Been looking guard to this video. It held up surprisingly well

[Pseudo-Geek]

Just wondering if those safety glasses on top of your heads might do more good if they were down closer to where your eyes are located.

[jgj]

Buyer beware….. I bought a Doyle anvil earlier this year and tried to return it due to a casting defect in the horn that had been filled with weld and crudely ground down with a coarse disc. Since the nearest store seems to have only one in stock at a time, I tried to return it to another store. That store was gracious enough to let me open up and examine the one they had…. but I found an odd defect beneath the tail that was poorly hidden with filler and I didn’t swap. I did eventually exchange it at the original store for the only one they had in stock. Unfortunately, it - too - had a filled defect in the horn and a golfball-sized void along the middle of the Pritchel hole. This one also seemed very soft with poor rebound and little - to no - ring. It dented nearly as easily as the cast iron anvil I have. I suspect it was not properly tempered.

So, 3 out of 3 were not acceptable to me. It is interesting that the half dozen display models I have seen are nearly PERFECT… but, of course, it is corporate policy that displays can’t be sold or purchased. In my opinion, it is quite possible that the displays were from early production when HF was trying to generate interest in them. I also suspect that as demand increased, quality control decreased to meet demand. I eventually returned mine for a refund and ended up buying a Vevor 66# London-style from Amazon. The casting was noticeably better than the Doyle - as were the rebound and ring. I would definitely not recommend the Doyle anvil at this time…..

[gingebrien]

Seriously I was expecting a total demolition of the Doyle. From my perspective it handle those sledge hammers extremely well. Now I’m dam happy I purchased one 😁