I see people who get a ding in the face of their anvil file of grind it smooth. WRONG! A little physics here. Steel is absolutely 100% incompressible, the material from that ding pushing down was only displaced upward as a "crater rim" around the ding. It cannot be otherwise unless it pushed all the way through your anvil and created a bump on the bottom! The important thing is to repair it IMMEDIATELY! If you continue to work, that crater rim will get worn off fast and then you can do nothing. All you have to do is “forge” it back (cold, of course). Take a nice round face hammer and chase the material back where it belongs. I've repaired many dings this way and you could never tell they were ever there.

THANK YOU!!!! I will need to do this when I return home next weekend. I had a student in my shop a few weeks ago and he put a 'nice one' in the face... I didn't do anything then, other than caustion him about the danger of a mis-strike. I will definitly do the 'repair' as you mentioned. Thank you for this tip. All the other "dings" were 'applied' years ago. And it's in my sweetie HB! I feel much better about it now...

thanks zappa - nice tip :)

Thanks Grant;
initially I did not understand. Then on the second read with the help of TD's post, I got it. A little thick today.
Actually, at first I thought it was another post about Frosty
-tks grant

always good stuff Grant naked zappa! Thanks :)

always good stuff Grant naked zappa! Thanks

FE, don't go there. For a yr i had to look at a Frank Zappa Crappa poster every time I used the head. As bad as that was I think a naked zappa grant could/would be worse. A
naked anvil I can deal with.
Ken

I know what you mean- After I wrote it, I felt a little soiled :P