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

[John Husvar]

On 4/28/06 8:28 AM, "Bruce Freeman" <FREEMAB at pt.fdah.com> wrote:

> Mikey,
> 
> First, a disclaimer.  I'm not a metalurgist and I've never cast iron.
> I have only read about cast iron and iron casting.
> 
> That said, no, reheating and cooling would in no way compare to using a
> chill in the mold.  The idea of a chill is that the crystallization from
> the molten iron is different at a chill than elsewhere.  And THAT's
> about the only positive statement I can make about it.
> 
> My suggestion is polish up the face of the Chinese ASO and give it a
> go.  If it's not hard enough to be useful, BRAZE a plate to the
> surface.

Hmmm. Now that's an idea. I wonder how hard it would be to heat an anvil and
plate enough to fully braze a plate onto the anvil, then continuously quench
the plate as the assembly cooled.

Maybe at that point it'd just be better to forge weld the plate on and
forget the brazing. Seems to be what the anvil workshops at NJBA used to do.

Of course, one could just save up his pennies and nickels and buy an anvil,
but that might take half the fun out of it. :)