[TheForge] anvil repair

[Chuck Robinson]

After Rockwell testing the face of many anvils I found that the optimal 
hardness for an anvil face is about RC 50. That's what I how I heat treat my 
anvils.
Harder faces tend to chip easier and softer faces tend to ding too easily.
If you try to rebuild the horn, it will be nearly impossible to get it  hot 
enough to work on, without destroying the face heat treatment.
 If you want to try it, get a tempil stick around 300 F and put test marks 
on the top and sides of the face.
When the marks start to melt, cease and desist immediately, or you will draw 
the face hardness, and the anvil will magically transform itself into a 
heavy door stop.

My recommendation is if the anvil still has a decent hammer rebound, work 
with it for a while to see how the defects inhibit your work.
I've seen some really beautiful work done on marginal anvils by talented 
smith's.
A good friend recently sent me some photo's of Vietnamese smiths cranking 
out loads of tools using an anvil that looked like a section of 3" shafting 
buried in the shop floor.
Chuck

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer" <artgawk at thegrid.net>
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 9:32 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] ranite hardfacing rods


> Howdy again Bob:
> I've seen several previously welded anvil edges where the whole 
> surrounding HAZ has cracked off in a chunk(s)leaving a coarse grained 
> crater. Ugly, and each successive repair is apt to get larger.
> It's nice to think that only hot iron will see the face of an anvil over 
> it's lifetime...but that's not the reality. I, for one, miss now and then, 
> unfortunately. And i work softer metals on the anvil cold sometimes as 
> well as doing some cold straightening. Further, higher alloy steels and 
> even common stainless can be pretty stiff at temperature and beat up an 
> anvil ( think about forging H13). And, inevitably, it'll have to survive 
> the attentions of some clown and a few wanna-bees between blacksmiths.
> Much as i like the stuff, 7018 won't do that. Anvil makers go to a lot of 
> trouble to get that "glass hard" face for a reason.
> Now JB weld..that's the ticket!....Pete F
>
> Dan Tull wrote:
>> Then why not mig it?
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: <schade at acegroup.cc>
>> To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>; 
>> <munlaw2 at hcsmail.com>
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 4:27 PM
>> Subject: Re: [TheForge] ranite hardfacing rods
>>
>>
>>>
>>> On May 24, 2006, at 9:05 AM, Ron Childers wrote:
>>>
>>>> I think of a gash as a small torch cut in the face- A friend has just 
>>>> such
>>>> an anvil for which I'm trying to work out a trade. It works just fine 
>>>> as is
>>>> and I've used it in demos, but the torch scar killed its value. He 
>>>> bought it
>>>> dirt cheap. The Lincoln dealer said 7018 would work fine and the weld 
>>>> would
>>>> be close to the same color as the steel face. What do you think would 
>>>> happen
>>>> to the bead if I hammer on metal at forging temp? Fall out like a 
>>>> broken
>>>> filling in a tooth?....
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I don't see any reason why 7018 would "fall out". The worst that might 
>>> happen is that the 7018 would not be as hard as the original anvil face. 
>>> That shouldn't be a problem if you are forging hot metal. If the repair 
>>> does mush out a little over 20 years the next guy can redo it.
>>>
>>> Bob
>>>
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>>
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