Preserve your temper!

[JimsShip]

"By keeping anvil cool" is the inscription on a shirt I saw online. Being a newbie, I have to ask, is this really a concern?
I've never thought about it....

[dkunkler]

Just don't burn your shop down around your anvil and you should be ok. :)

[Marksnagel]

In the winter I have to heat up my anvil or it will wick the heat right out of my work.

Mark <><

[knots]

Could "Anvil" in this context be some sort of reference to the blacksmith games ? A game code word ?

[JimsShip]

I'm having the same problem mark, it's so xxxxxxx cold here I get about 3 strikes before I need to take another heat!
I can't post a pic here (some error message) but it's on ebay.
It shows a guy next to an anvil, and it looks like he's holding a bowl with a wet rag and he's cooling the anvil off.
I can't imagine how much work it would take to overheat an anvil!

[jeremy k]

You'd be surprised at how quick they can warm up - making mini horse shoes from 1/4"x1/2" stock at the county fair while forging/talking/selling/etc, I have had to use gloves to load anvil up at the end of the day.

[Old N Rusty]

You the MAN ! JK doing all that talking/selling AND enough forging to heat up an anvil, AND then have enough strength to load it UP!!! Did you ever notice when you pull in with a portable blacksmith shop there is plenty curious folks that will help un- load and set it up.. then when the event is over there isn't a soul to HIRE anywhere around to load it up?

[Timothy Miller]

It is more of a concern when forging heavy stock for long periods of time. Not something that is likely to happen in a hobby situation. But if your anvil is too hot to touch and starts turning brown its time to cool it off.

[ThomasPowers]

Note that "warm enough to wear gloves to load it" is probably several hundred degrees below "warm enough to mess up the temper". You should be able to boil water on the face of your anvil and not mess up the temper of it!

Now as mentioned it starts showing the tempering colours I would cool it down fast; but in 30+ years of hobby forging I have NEVER even got up to boiling water on it.

As most of us don't use strikers and work heavy stock by hand on an anvil I don't think this will be a concern. (Personally when I had a job working 2.5" stock it just had to wait until I visited a smith with a whopping big powerhammer---Chambersburg FTW!)

Also as mentioned in the winter the problem is usually the opposite with the anvil needing a preheat to help extend working times of your stock. I generally heat a slab of 1/2" plate as a face warmer. A friend uses an old electric iron set on high and placed on the face. The fellow I was apprenticed to used to hang paint buckets of burning kindling on the horn and heel of his 400# anvil, I had a 93# anvil I would store inside and bring out when I was ready to forge, etc.

[Timothy Miller]

I have gotten my anvil hot enough to boil water. I made 165 snub end scrolls in a day once. I also drank 4 liters of water that day
.

[Tagg]

That's amazing Timothy. In the summer too right? Wow...



Zachary

[JimsShip]

The way it's printed does make it look like an old WW2 campaign ad, so maybe it was originated in the large factories. ("Hitler loves when you lose your temper" kind of thing)

[Jason @ MacTalis Ironworks]

I've gotten the area around my hardy hole up into the tempering range once and again making hardy tools, but never the face, and I do work big stock with my strikers on my anvil. But the size of stock it would take to get the whole thing that hot is probably to dang big to fit onto the surface of the anvil. I'd worry if I were forging 4x4x12 blocks, back to back, but that is just way beyond anything we do in our shop.

[Timothy Miller]

That's amazing Timothy. In the summer too right? Wow...



Zachary

Yep in the summer. But the next day I did something like 40 It wore me out so bad.