Turns out my

I ran into the same thing a couple years back with a 75 pounder I picked up at a farm auction. Seller swore it was steel, but the first time I hit it with a hammer the face left a bright scar and the bounce was dead. Ended up doing the ball bearing test with a marble from my kid's toy bucket. Dropped it from a few inches and it just thunked and sat there. A real steel face sends that marble right back up close to where you dropped it from. Mine barely hopped. That told me everythign before I wasted more time on it.

Mine turned out to be cast iron with maybe a thin steel plate on top that had worn through. Yours might be the same if the edges are chipping clean instead of denting.

I kept mine anyway and use it as a bench block for straightening fence wire and hammering out dents on sheet metal. It handles that fine. For actual forging I saved up and found an old Peter Wright through a local blacksmith group on Facebook. The difference in rebound is night and day.

If the price was low enough, don't feel too bad about it. I've seen a lot of those advertised as steel when they're just pot metal castings with paint on them.

I had a similar disappointment with a 100 lb one I ordered online a few years back. Listing said cast steel, but the price should have tipped me off. What worked for me was the file test. I ran a bastard file across the face and it bit in deep and cut clean shavings, which told me right away it was soft iron or cast iron under there. On a proper hardened face the file just skates and barely leaves a mark. Cost me nothing since I already had the file in the drawer. One thing I'd add is that some of those cheaper anvils are cast bodies with a thin steel plate welded on top, so you can get a decent ring and rebound on part of the face and a dead spot where the plate is thin or missing. Mine had that exact problem. Sounded okay near the horn and thudded like a brick near the heel.

That said, mine still lives in my shop as a squat block for straightening and light dolly work. I just stopped trying to forge on it and picked up a used Peter Wright later for real work. It was frustrating at the time but the fake anvil still earns its spot, just not the one I bought it for.

That file test is the way to go, it saved me from buying a similar dud at a flea market last spring. Guy wanted decent money for it, said it was forged. I keep a spare file in the truck just for this and dragged it across the horn. Bit in like butter on the horn but skated on a small patch of the face, which told me the plate was mostly gone in the middle. Walked away and he knocked the price down for some other buyer later, so I hear. Check the horn too if you go look at another one, that's where the thin plating shows first.