Omnislug

right, martensite won't work harden...ferite or pearlite will but not nearly to the degree martensite is hard, martensite is far too small and tightly aranged already, I guess if you hiy it with something far harder it might still though but not by much

yes it is

Ha! MY first ASO was a Vasco wear plate! I like your project idea! Ambitions!, you HAVE to make a video if you do it! FROSTY:Centaur might not want to let me keep it but KANKA Rep Ali TOLD me to keep it so I'm keeping it. New anvil should be here Friday AS soon as He said that I went out and lit the forge and making some things to list on Etsy for the first time, Santa Fe it was a lot easier to just find someone who wanted something for their old adobe house, last one I made a bunch of heavy curtian roda and hangers that would hold in the 'Mud' as well as a lock spring for the original lock in her house. I plan on making some things for the Master Gardener class here too, hopefully spark some interest. wish me luck! By the way, I keep hearing something I'd never heard in the past and that is that anvils "Work Harden" I might be a idiot but I do know my Metallurgy pretty well...if anything HARDENED-steel -doesn't harden more striking it but it becomes more likely to chip over time. Maybe this is something the internet and all the new Ductile Anvils made but I don't remember ever reading that your anvil gets harder with use in the old books either.

which ones does he have?

that much steam/splashing boiling water is nerve wracking as well, we had to drop the track we quenched because there was so much, better a hole in my tank than a trip to the burn unit

I have to agree with FoundryGuy, After seeing the actual size of industrial heat treat furnaces at Nitrex the process is vastly more controllable and precise than what I could do here . We had a furnace that would do my anvil perfectly, we could feed cracked propane gas as a carburizing medium and the scaling was far less because of it, it had an automatic chain lift that dunked parts in circulating quench oil, and a vacucum furnace that did the same without the gas and would scale very little.. I miss that job sometimes, it was literal he double hockey sticks in the summertime 120 degress on a hot day I imagine, maybe more but I had more fun than most other jobs I've had and learned a great deal about metallurgy ...fascinating stuff. Not sure what they would charge but if they were still open I'd definitely consider sending it to them, there is one in Portland I might find out in the future though if it's hundreds I might just put that towards a German Refflinghaus anvil and be done with buying anvils. Got to work on two of them and they are REAAAALLLYYY hard, cutting on the face edge would damage a hammer really easily if struck, 58 Rockwell Guaranteed.

yeah I might, Or might keep it for heavier use set on a different stump/stand. I actually quenched a track-anvil in the past in a 55 gallon drum, that used a whole lot of charcoal! this is probably twice the mass or more...It would be interesting. Have to wait till next month for Kanka to send a new shipment of anvils but looking forward to it!

no return shipping, kanka said the logistics of shipping it back to turkey and re-heat treating it weren't worth it

Centaur Said they are sending a replacement anvil, Crossing my fingers that this one is hardened properly...testing them might not be a bad idea. I rebuilt/welded my forge together this weekend and got the chimney pipe up so I'm definitely ready to get back at it.

yeah that's tooo bad man! The HT is for sure as important, likely more so since properly hardened steel behaves very differently than normalized/annealed. I was wondering if the question of forging temperatures was hinting at that, but if that's the case every anvil ever used would have lost it's temper and that has been easily proven untrue by all the old very hard anvils.....but I won't make an assumption on that question. I don't have a loose ball bearing so I'm not sure of that test on mine, it doesn't rebound the hammer as much while forging as some I have worked on. Hope we both get the issue addressed.

I called Kanka directly to get the help I got so far, Centaur started helping after that., I made this known as soon as my anvil was delivered and tried, not sure how their warranty works if you've used it for a while. but good luck! Still waiting to hear back, Kanaka Rep asked Friday what temperatures I forge stock on the anvil....Weekend for him too I guess, sent the video to the Kanaka rep and Centaur Friday Afternoon (western time) and haven't got a reply yet. and I agree there is a subtle shift in reflection from the hardness shifts...might look interesting but on this tool it doesn't it no justice. Crossing my Fingers for the response tomorrow.

from my experience, and looking at countless useed old anvils the edges always chip out before actually denting, the whole face will sag on the wrought/steel ones but I've seen very little denting

yes I agree completely, only two manufacturers still making drop forged anvils so that's a big selling point right off the bat.....the files are expensive but not horribly, you can pick up a set for around &70 on amazon. I';ve seen two tested now and both were pretty good hardness, 56-60 those hardness levels will NOT dent, but WILL chip if struck hard enough. ZIP I really don't think l a ball bearing should ding the face that easily, a 5" drop is pretty small, I know they sell some with good hardness since there are a few who have chimed in on this and spoke with a guy on Facebook who's had one for years, still perfectly flat and dent free. I've doe induction hardening MANY times at Nitrex and the hardness didn't travel to the center of the parts occasionally so I understand this can happen, I've done it! BUT none of those parts were sent to the customer in that condition, I re did the job till it met spec. We heat treated many different parts for race cars can't be putting a cam shaft in one of those that has a hardness 10 points below spec, Mr. Race car driver might die in a fire! No Buerno

hese's the video, using the 40 HRC file you can see that center mass didn't harden at all, the edges are good but we all know that the whole face is used, and typically more so than the edges. 20190412_135927_548202443001758 (1).mp4

woooops, well maybe Kanka will improve their hardening technique after this, Working at Nitrex I did induction hardening a LOT and sometimes the hardening didn't travel to the center of the part I was working, have to let it sit at the desired temperature for an anvil I'd guess several minutes to make sure the heat has traveled to all areas of the face. I believe there is a good bit of interest in purchasing their anvils, if their face hardness levels were consistently the numbers advertised they would probably sell better. I'd be really glad to post a good review of one that didn't dent. sending a video in a few hours, just got back

have to wait on the test, I have to drive out of state for family ...I'll re-post as soon as i'm back

got the test files, the edges are hard (in the 50's which is on the low end of what is advertised) about a half inch in towards the center of the face on both sides and there is NO denting there at all, past that and to the other half inch hardness band on the other edge it is pretty soft...I'll share a video when my wife gets home and it will list the numbers. Center mass didn't harden, it happens with large mass parts but maybe a little more testing of them is in order so this doesn't happen...The center of the anvil is used the most, you see lots of old ones with considerable sag because of this. Tested my hammer also, it's in the mid to low 40's which seems about right and not as hard as I expected from the denting.

[commercial content removed] example of a seller testing his anvil for those interested, notice he isn't exactly gentle with the hammer striking the face. THIS is not abuse to any good anvil, there are many more videos like this. [commercial content removed] this one he's striking the anvil quite hard, I leave these as example that this is a test that is pretty common and doesn't damage the face.

man that's no good! people will steal anything! Imagine what that would look like, someone trying to run off carrying an anvil...and likely only getting $5 worth as scrap...what a waste...keep er' safe!

mine is machined flat as well, how is the hardness of yours endlessbox? You mount on a log yet? or are you gonna keep it in the cupboard with the peanut butter? You know I had considered that modern anvils in general will be softer " don't make things like they used to" but then the others with this brand say they don't have the same issue so ...My files are at the post office but they don't deliver on sunday, as soon as I have my wifes phone (much better camera than mine) I'll send a video of the test.

yeah I was just trying to delete it actually, thank you i'll read this,

I tend to agree and we can all see that the anvil dents deeply so the hardness is kinda obvious on it, In the mean time I'm doing no work on my brand new anvil and this is likely to continue for a while...rather inconvenient since I don't have another. I ordered some testing files to make it scientific and not 'opinion' , they get here tomorrow, if the postal service puts them in my box I'll do a video tomorrow. I'd like them to test one with my files before they send another so this setback doesn't happen again. Kanka Has also been very curtious and helpful

thought I'd mention that I scarcely consider myself much more than an apprentice still after all these years, the craft is so varied and smiths of a few hundred years ago had skills to put much of us modern folk to shame, I 'll likely never be or consider myself a "master" though I do try always to have impeccable work.