Temperature...

[Wolf's Den Armoury]

Just wondering. Smithing outside (well, not right not. Tuyere *FELL OFF* my forge, so I'm done until I can repair the firepan), and occasionally the temps in the Fall can get a bit chilly.

My wife seems to think that the cold weather, specifically how it relates to my anvil's temperature will adversely affect my forging successes and failures.

Is this true? Or are we both just showing a bit of ignorance of blacksmithing?

Thanks,

David

[mike-hr]

Even though my anvil is in the shop, we're in the middle of an arctic blast this week, and the anvil is real cold to the touch in the morning. My morning ritual is to build a fire in the forge, and start heating up scrap blocks, like 3/4 x 3 x 6 ish, and lay on the anvil, one clamped in the vise, a couple more on the anvil, until the tools are warm to the touch. I feel it's worth the effort, a cold anvil means more heats to get the job done.

[dablacksmith]

ya cold can affect your ability to forge things . heating the anvil can help ! in extreme weather your anvil could be brittle if it gets cold enuf ! have fun (from arizona where it never gets that cold)

[ThomasPowers]

We used to hang paint cans on the horn and heel of the 400# anvil and build scrap wood fires in it.

A warm anvil lets you do a whole lot more in a heat, helps protect the anvil from damage and is a great place to sit while waiting for a piece to heat up to working temp.

Note that it is possible to quench high carbon steels using a cold anvil or post vise---usually when you don't want to and the brittleness is a nasty surprise!

[Blacksmith Jim]

Ya just gotta heat the anvil up so it doesn't suck the heat out of the piece your working.

[CurlyGeorge]

I just did some forging this AM and it wa 20F in the shop, when I got there. I fired the woodburner and then the forge. As soon as the forge was up and burning, I put in a piece of 1" plate, 6X6. When it got hot, I laid it on the anvil for a few minutes and it warmed enough that I was able to do some forge welds. Can't do that very easily on a cold anvil. :D

[Doug C]

Last winter I forged outdoors. Same as other folks a heated up a piece of scrap steel and laid on the anvil. Not sure it made a big difference because as soon as it was off the anvil the heat got sucked out anyways. Does anyone have any historical reference for what was done in the past. Folk must have been dealing with this for centuries.

[jimmy seale]

if it is cast iron it might....i have a cast hoss shoe forge that cracked across and had a coal fire going for an hour of so

[AKFrosty57]

When it's more than just cool I'll warm my anvil to help preserve heat in the work. I do most of my work over the waist so I'm not concerned much with breaking heal or horn off.

Sometimes I'll warm a decent sized piece in the forge and lay it on the face but recently I started taking my propane Turbo Torch to it and I must say it brings either the 125 Soderfors or the 202 Trenton to comfortably warm much faster.

Frosty