Steeler Posted June 19, 2010 Posted June 19, 2010 I built this little anvil as a gift for a good friend. I started with a 2" thick drop of mild? steel that had a convenient curve for the underside of the tail and a flat surface for the face. A one inch thick drop with a nice big hole in it was cut and welded to form the base. I turned the horn on my ancient lathe out of a two inch diameter drop of mystery steel shaft. All the welds are as close to 100% as I could make them with one-eighth E6011 rod. The anvil weighs 58 lb. and has a 2" X 10" face with a 3/4" round hole, a 10" X 5.5" base and a 6" horn. Accesories are a hot cut made from the tip of a wood splitting maul, a 2" built up and remachined trailer ball, a 1.25" ball bearing welded to a shank, and a 1" thick hole punch saddle plate with an assortment of hole sizes. I decided to try hardening the face, figuring that there is at least a little carbon to work with. Heating took about three hours in my jury rigged fire brick oven with tiger torch burner to achieve a dull red color. I boosted the heat on the face with oxy-aceteline and then quickly quenched with buckets of water and the garden hose full on. The face did harden somewhat. A ball bearing dropped from 5" gives a consistant rebound to 3". Quote
pkrankow Posted June 19, 2010 Posted June 19, 2010 Nice looking, gonna be a great starter or travel anvil. Phil Quote
DennisG Posted June 19, 2010 Posted June 19, 2010 so after "face hardening" what is the bounce like? nice looking anvil btw Quote
Steeler Posted June 19, 2010 Author Posted June 19, 2010 so after "face hardening" what is the bounce like? nice looking anvil btw Thanks DennisG. It was so late and we had such a long day, that we didn't think to try a hammer bounce test. After the bearing drop test, it was high fives, big grins and good night. The anvil is on its way to its owner's home and I look forward to hearing about how it works for my friend and what he forges with it. Quote
Tim McCoy Posted June 19, 2010 Posted June 19, 2010 Steeler That is a wonderful piece you made - look forward to hearing how it is to work with. Tim Quote
Mark Wargo New2bs Posted June 23, 2010 Posted June 23, 2010 Nice indeed! Thanks for sharing. Mark Quote
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