In almost all the threads on this site pertaining to ANVILS, I hear people stating "it should be OK as long as it hasnt been in a fire". I understand what fire does to steel, but is there realy alot of ANVIL'S out there that has seen the angry side of a flashover?

These comments are related to the heat treatment of the anvil. All of the steel ones have been treated to give the worktop a certain level of hardness so they don't wear out too quickly. If they are heated above the tempering temperature by a the forge building burning down, etc then they will be softer than intended. If they have been heated to critical they will have been annealed and be as soft as they can be in the extreme.

Hope this helps.

Before the advent of steel-framing, fireproofing etc it was quite common for smithys to burn down; this was an accepted fact of life and they were often built partly out of wood because this was easily replaceable. The tools, being mostly iron/ were considered not to be damaged by the heat.
Another way of damaging the face was to heat treat blades using a heated iron block placed on the anvil; this draws the temper and is not uncommon on old anvils from rural areas.

Fires were a fact of life when you heated and cooked and forged and lighted with open flames. Of course back 120 years ago if your anvil lost it's temper in a fire you could ship it to a anvil factory that would reheat treat it or would even reface it! (Some adds for these services are reproduced in Anvils in America)

Now days most heat treaters charge more than the anvil cost to re-heat treat it and they are not set up to do it properly it requiring a strong large jet of water to get through the steam jacket. In "Country Blacksmithing" McRaven mentions doing one using the local fire department to provide a high pressure hosing for it.

Many years ago I picked up a 200# Trenton that had been through a barn fire. The fire had been left to just burn out. The anvil face was soft, and had little dings in it from a little use after it survived the fire. I was not set up to heat treat it again, so I let a guy talk me out of it.

It still had the ... mass ... beneath the surface for working, but that soft top steel plate was just too prone to little dings from the hammer or when the iron I was working on got too cool.

Mikey

Many years ago I picked up a 200# Trenton that had been through a barn fire. The fire had been left to just burn out. The anvil face was soft, and had little dings in it from a little use after it survived the fire. I was not set up to heat treat it again, so I let a guy talk me out of it.

It still had the ... mass ... beneath the surface for working, but that soft top steel plate was just too prone to little dings from the hammer or when the iron I was working on got too cool.

Mikey

I wonder if an annealed anvil is worse then A36 steel?

Depends on if the A36 is annealed or work hardened or...