Mass vs Rebound

[Timothy Miller]

You want the energy to go into moving the steel not rebounding the hammer. If %100 of the force goes into the forging you are working less hard, Than if some portion is rebounding the hammer and assisting you in lifting it up.

As for what I know about Chinese anvils I read in the book "China at Work" by Rudolf P. Hommel He did he his research in the 1920's and the book was published in the 1937. He states on page 15

" There are founders that engage in only making of anvils. They produce a high grade casting perhaps more akin to cast steel than iron or else they have a method of surface harding a kin to the cementation process. Many of these anvils stand up very well under the heavy blows they receive, much better than ordinary cast iron would."

[pkrankow]

You want the energy to go into moving the steel not rebounding the hammer. If %100 of the force goes into the forging you are working less hard, Than if some portion is rebounding the hammer and assisting you in lifting it up.

Yes! Forging is a 2 (or more) object collision, where all the energy should be absorbed by the part!

The normal minimum objects are the hammer, the anvil and the heated part. You can have a heated part rammed into the anvil as in upsetting an end which is only 2 objects. Use of top and/or bottom tools increase the collision up to 5 objects, possibly more!

However no system is perfect, and there is some good argument for a hand hammer being lifted by otherwise unused energy. There is no valid argument for the anvil absorbing energy through movement or deformation, it is not desired or helpful.

Phil

[Timothy Miller]

Yes but the hammer being returned is a result of the anvil moving. Something is being compressed it is then springing back and pushing the hammer back up.