[TheForge] chinese ASOs

[Larry and Pat Brown]

Why not try to braze the face on and after it cools try to heat the top and 
edges of the plate with a rosebud torch just enough to harden them and 
quench with water, see if the residual heat will draw the temper then 
requench to stop. If there isn't enough use a propane torch to heat it to 
color. For the purpose the face doesn't need to be hard all to way through.
L Brown



> > That Frosty is a pretty smart dude, but I never heard of brazing a
>hardface
> > to an anvil.
> > The wrought ones were forge welded on. I have heard of using electric
>"plug
> > welds"
> > through the hard face plate then an "edge weld" around the whole hard face
> > to attach
> > it to an anvil body. That might work well with a cast iron anvil body and
>a
> > hard face plate.
> > dave m
> >
>
>
>You're making me blush Dave.
>
>I've heard of different methods of welding a face to an anvil too but
>usually they were better quality to start with, not these cruddy chinese
>castings.
>
>I've also never heard of anybody brazing a face to an anvil. Still it should
>work. At least I think so.
>
>A properly prepared brazed butt join has a tensile strength of 35,000-40,000
>psi. with oxy acet. if memory serves and about 30% stronger with oxy prop.
>if All States is correct and they haven't BSed me so far.
>
>There are a few conditions when talking about an anvil face though. The big
>thing is maintaining the join during forging so the face must be rigid
>enough not to flex the braze. This means the face needs to be pretty thick
>and hard enough not to flex under the hammer.
>
>Thick is easy and hard means heat treating. Neither of these seems like a
>problem a little experimentation can't perfect.
>
>The big question I have though is how well a large piece of cheap cruddy
>chinese cast iron will stand up to the shock of quenching.
>
>I never thought of using an air hardening steel till now. What I wonder is.
>Air hardening means air quenching. It comes to full hardness cooling at the
>rate air chills it. As an anvil face, it'll cool much more slowly as it has
>the large thermal mass of the cast iron body. I think it'll take a more
>agressive quench than air in this case. Still not having to worry about
>tempering is pretty attractive and worth thinking about.
>
>Frosty
>------------------------
>If it ain't forged
>it ain't real.
>Wrought iron is.
>The FrostWorks
>
>Meadow Lakes, AK.