What hardface rods do I need?

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I'm going to weld up the face of my anvil. It has chips and dings in the face and I want to fix it up... I figure it's been beat on with a hammer for a hundred and something years - I reckon it deserves attention. Plus, the edges REALLY need to be dressed so I can get the full potential out of it. I got some hardface rods from a buddy of mine and welded up most of the problem areas... OOPS. Wrong rods. They DID work, but after some years of beating on it with big hammers they're cracking and one repair in particular is not looking good. If I hit it one good time I think it'll start to come off. It adhered fine, but got brittle. Edit: area maybe 1/8" by 1/2" on the front edgeI'm working with a cast iron body anvil with a tool steel surface forge welded to it. I'm very comfortable welding cast iron. I'm going to gouge all of the bad hardfacing out. After I get all of the bad weld out, I'm going to cover any cast iron in a high nickel electrode. After that, I want to build up with hardface to be level with the tool steel surface, THEN add another few passes of hardface and grind it flat and dress the edges. I plan on preheating the entire anvil to around 450 degrees and probably apply post heat for a while, then bury it in sand or dry bentonite clay, then let it cool for a day or so. I've heard a lot of different suggestions on different rods. Stuff like "start with a layer of X, then so many layers of Y, then cap with Z".The rod needs to stick to carbon steel plate and nickel filler metal and hold up to a lot of impact. The original steel face is very hard. Whatcha think would be a good choice?