Anvil Repair Question

[justwondering01]

If this has already been asked, sorry to ask the question again. Can you repair an Anvil by bolting a new face onto it? I was wondering if you could buy a nice piece of say 1/2" to 1" thick tool steel that is already hardened and bolt it on to an existing anvil or even say one of those cheap cast iron anvils. I ask about bolting because the little I've read suggests that welding the tool steel on would ruin its hardness. Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm very new to this hobby and trying to learn.

[Timothy Miller]

Its possible but you would need a carbide bit to drill the hole in the tool steel. Also you would need a very rigid set up to hold the bit and the steel being drilled AKA large drill press with a vise bolted to the table. You would need to drill and tap the cast iron anvil to match the holes in the steel. If you could countersink (You will need a carbide countersink) the holes you drilled in the tool steel face you could use flat head heat treated allen drive screws "The black ones" It could be done but it would require a fair amount of careful work. Use thread lock on the screws You would then have to work around the bolt heads as forging on them may damage the heads or work them loose. Also it is possible to weld hardened tool steel but it needs to be preheated properly and kept hot during the duration of welding process. Typically its about 450 to 500 degrees F If you get it hotter you will ruin the hardness of the steel. All of this can be done but it requires expensive tools and hard to master skills to do it properly.

[ThomasPowers]

You will probably need to mill both pieces as flat as possible first---which may cost more than buying an anvil in decent shape.

IIRC Patrick tried that method on one of his first anvils; but was not real happy with the results and went on to another anvil fairly quickly.

Patrick you following this?

If you have a big slab of tool steel---just use that as an anvil and forget the fuss and bother of trying to bolt it to a base. Remember big hunks of metal has been used as anvils about 10 times longer than the London Pattern anvil has been around and things like the pattern welded swords of Medieval Europe and the Japanese Katana were forged on basic big hunks of metal.

[Patrick Nowak]

Thomas is correct. I did try this on two anvils about 14 years ago and it was not successful. I've also tried welding a plate around the edges of an anvil with a damaged face and was not pleased with those results either. This method can work for fabricated anvils, but trying to reface and anvil this way presents some problems because you have the challenges of welding two high carbon, possibly high alloy and likely pre-hardended pieces of steel together and then you have to do that in such a way that the plate added on will not act as a spring but will sit tight against the anvil face beneath it. The best way to repair and anvil that can't be used as it is probably to hard face it. This is not cheap, but may be less costly than finding a replacement anvil. I did meet a smith onece who said he had refaced several anvils by silver soldering a slab of pre-hardened D2 tool steel to the face, but that requires both surfaces to be extremely flat and then you have to heat the entire assembly evenely to the temperature to get the solder to melt and wet all the surface. I've no doubt that it can work if done correctly but again that is going to be a fairly expensive repair unless you have access to the material at low cost.