[TheForge] To ring or not to ring[was anvil i d]

[Hochewa at aol.com]

To All,
Today, the metallurgist is in.
If you can file the face of the cast iron anvil from Harbor Freight it is  
not chilled or hardened.  
The hardening of cast iron is not much different than hardening  steel.  
First you need carbon, then you need elements that allow you to  harden and 
lastly, cooling rate.  It is a delicate balance in melt  chemistry to leave enough 
carbon in the iron matrix in cast iron to have it be  hardenable without having 
the carbon come out as carbide or flake.  The  cheapest gray iron is ferrite 
with graphite flakes.  Once the carbon goes  to the flakes it is no longer 
available for hardening.
 
Hochewa
 
In a message dated 4/27/2006 6:05:26 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
michael.a.porter at comcast.net writes:

Bruce,
Reheating a very small junk anvil and cooling the face won't  work?