Took 6 months to admit my anvil face was crowned too much

I thought my anvil was fine for 6 months. Every project had this slight bend in the middle and I kept blaming my hammer technique. Friend came over and put a straightedge on it, showed me a big gap under the center. Grinding it flat took one afternoon. The amount of work I wasted before that test annoys me still. Anyone else skip the straightedge test when they started?

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laura_wright19d ago

...and honestly the straightedge test is like the first thing you should do with any anvil, new or used. I get it though, people get excited and just start hitting stuff. Tbh I did the same thing with my first one, only I noticed it after a week because I was trying to flatten a piece of sheet metal and it just wouldn't cooperate. The real kicker is that grinding it flat is a one day job, but redoing all those projects takes way longer. I always tell folks now, before you even mount it, put a straightedge on the face and check both ways, front to back and side to side. You can save yourself months of frustration and a lot of wasted steel, cause it's never the hammer, it's almost always the anvil.