7 holed anvil quandary from a newbie

[Jack-O-Lantern]

Well dudes and dudettes, here it is; my anvil. 40lbs. A railroad track piece with a grinder gut bick. 2 grinders actually. 1 burned out on me. In my newbie frustration I decided I wanted a bigger flatter face. So I eventually got someone to weld this 7 holed plate on top. The holes give me TONS of options but the draw back is that I've heard of a cushion effect with welded anvils. Though me and my 3 pound hammer seem to do just fine with it. My question is if I should bother hardening it. The plate gets marred easily but has held up pretty well. If I were to harden it; would one of those 25$ propane torch kits do the job? Would the weld beads be badly affected by this? And how exactly should I go about it? Also this thing used to walk around the block when I'd work on it. So I hammered the stump to a massive olde timey x-mas tree stand. It helped alot but it still scoots a bit. How can I still this little beast?

 

ANNNNDDD good ol'7 eye helped me out in a pinch when my old vise broke. This little trick allowed for handle twists.

[the iron dwarf]

if the plate is mild steel it will not harden very much, you would use a lot of propane heating it up enough and then you need to quench it fast to get it maybe 2% harder, your $25 torch in unlikely to do it.

the working part of an anvil at any time is not much bigger than the face of your hammer so how big a flat area do you need?

 

the rail was probably a better and harder steel than the plate is.

 

to stop it walking fix it down to a big stump or a large metal base

a 4 foot length of rail on end and concreted in the ground to the correct height is much better as an anvil

[Rashelle]

You could try staking the whole thing down to the ground. The stakes can be forged then used to stake everything down. Once it's secured to the ground then it's a little more stable. Use this as it is until you get something more along the lines of what you're looking for.

[Jack-O-Lantern]

Thanks guys. I might give sandbags a try.