[TheForge] Re: Anvils

[Chuck Robinson]

Pete,
Did you make the TH faces removable like Clay Spencer shows in his Plans?
I would suggest that you do so ,
Spark test the Grader Blade then use a proper heat treatment for the alloy.
With an unknown steel, test quench in slow to fast quenches until the proper
hardness is achieved.
first air quench, next oil quench,next interrupted water quench, next water
quench, finally GSQ quench.
The die movement in TH dies isn't too detrimental in blow force as long as
you have at least a 10 to 1 ratio of anvil to hammer weight.
If you need to use the hammer for multiple blows, add rebound springs like
Otto Schmirler shows on PP 99-100 in his book "WERK UND WERKZEUG DES
KUNDERSCHMIEDS"; and shame on you  folks if you don't own a copy of it.

Ralph,
I've found that the vibrational harmonics (hammer rebound) of an anvil are
far more dependent on the anvil mass and homogeneity of that mass  than the
face hardness (as long as the face isn't dinged by the hammer blow). After
testing a lot of anvils with the ball bearing drop test and Rockwell files,
I wasn't able to conclude that the hardfaced anvils were routinely better in
rebound.
Incidentally hammer ring didn't tend to correlate to liveliness either.
Some excellent cast steel anvils, like my Kohlswa, have excellent rebound, a
relatively soft face  and minimal. hammer ring.
Laurel Machine and foundry also sells excellent cast anvils, but they went
thru several casting foundries before they found one with enough expertise
and quality control to insure consistent reliable quality in the castings.

Frosty,
My top alloy choices for a cast anvil are: 1 spent Uranium, 2 Titanium and
3 tungsten. I'd like one of each.
Chuck
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer" <artgawk@thegrid.net>
To: <theforge@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2003 11:29 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Chasing and engraving


> Phlip;
> Pure iron if you can get it, if not try for a low carbon or deep draw
> type steel.
> If you make your chasing tools from something like  S7, then you can use
> them for hot work too.
> A set of curved line( ends in various arcs) tools are good, make them
> both sharp ( for cutting) and blunt  for creasers.
> The cutting edges last longer if ground with convex curves ( the
> opposite of hollow ground.) Also radius the edges of  lining or cutting
> tools so you can rock them along a line and not leave jags.
> Rounds, elipsys(sp), diamods and squares...both radius edged and sharp
> edged.
> Keep your eye out for "found " chasing tools..like small rivet sets,
> nail sets. old time push rods and so on.
> Making the silly little things is kinda addictive..if you lean that way.
> George Dixon  has written about this subject well.
> Norm Larson has a pretty good new book on the subject ( forgot the title
> already, tisk).
> Use a soft hammer ..you will spend less time hunting for flying tools.
>
> Chuck;
> I used scraper blade for the anvil and hammer faces on my treadle
> hammer. The welding involved in making the faces solid enough to suit (
> lots) softened the scraper blade much more than I'd like.. except for a
> few areas that didn't get as hot. I hammer out the dings from time to
> time...similar to the areas adjacent to the welded repairs on my anvil.
> Work hardening  (I  started with a small air hammer) didn't achieve as
> much as I'd hoped.
> There are often times when I heat an area to work and leave the part
> that bears on the anvil, cold, so as to localize distortion. If it is
> tool steel, it is hard ( literally) on the anvil's soft spots.
>
>