Anvil Repair Questions

[IronPuppet]

I am so happy to have my anvil! I only had it about a week now and i almost have my forge together to try it out. I haven't smith-ed for at least 15 years now.

So I have this old anvil that use to belong to a farm. It has had it's fair share of bangs and dings. I have a mig welder and am running Argon gas (I think) in it as well as what I was told to be real strong steel wire. Supposed to be "Stronger than the metal surrounding the welds!", or so I was told.

I want to use this wire to fix the few small dings and dips in the anvil. I have the machine, so why not use it? Why not fix up the edges now and start forging with as nice an anvil as possible. Those dings and missing edges just bother me and I could fix them and replace the missing horn tip.

I love to fix tools, especially old tools. My band saw is 40 years old and I rescued it from the garbage pile. If I can fix it, I like to. Makes me feel good.

So would someone who knows better than I take a look at my wire and tell me if it would be all right for fixing the chips and dings in my anvil. What would happen if I did use this stuff? What are the consequences of using wrong welding rod to fix anvils anyway?

Eager to fix it!

Christopher

[Glenn]

What is the hurry to fix things. Figure out how to use the blemishes to your advantage.

[clark-kentski]

I agree with glen thats a nice looking PW i wouldnt fool with it.:D

[Neal L]

I wouldn't do any more than a little work on the face and maybe the horn with a belt sander. It is definitly useable as it is.

[bruce wilcock]

its not to good to see but it looks as if the edge has at one time been got at and welded up , if thats the case ,if you will feel better weld it up , but if its not been welded before i would leave it ,and get using it ,we do weld anvils up, but we give them a hard time ,i have some anvils that are unused ,like new ,but in my line of work they are too small and we would only knock lumps out of them so they hang about the smithy under benches so not to get under the feet.

[Shane Stegmeier]

It is common to want nice sharp crisp edges on your anvil... BUT it isn't necessary, and actualy can cause problems. With sharp edges it is very easy to get a coldshut. If you ground the major dings out and smooth the minor ones you will get a variety of radius's to work with, then when you need to draw material out you can slide the steel over the edge of the anvil and use a half faced blow to squeeze the metal out (half faced blow is half on the anvil/half off the anvil, and all the energy being focused into a smaller area you do more work... :-) Clifton Ralph likes to teach about VARP Volume, Resistance, Area, and Power The larger the volume you try to effect the more Power you need... The smaller the Area you try to effect the more work you do for the same amount of Power. The higher the Resistance you have the more Power you need... So tool steel is harder to move at the same temp than mild steel, and dull red steel is harder to move the bright yellow steel... Most all tools that a blacksmith uses except for cutters should be radiused so that they don't create coldshuts or stress points in the forgings...

ALL that to say leave it be, it will work very nicely the way it is;-)

[irnsrgn]

In my opinion wire is not an option when repairing the edges of an anvil, you need a high manganese anticrushing hard surfacing underlay rod, not hard surfacing rod to repair an anvil, I have repaired many successfully and the rod I use blends in with the steel of the anvil face and works hardens some. The little nicks in the horn and cutting block will hurt nothing and most of the little dings in the face can be lightly ground or sanded out successfully. I have two blueprints on anvils I have repaired in the blueprint section on the main page. Look at those first.

respectfully
irnsrgn

[ThomasPowers]

I agree with Finn; the first thing I thought of when I saw the pics was "He's going to weld up the edges and then grind off the welds to make them properly radiused"

One of my most used anvils has edges worst than that and I don't find them a problem at all. If you need a sharp edge make a hardy tool that has one!

If things need to be "perfect" for you; drop smithing and take up machining!

[IronPuppet]

Thanks for setting me straight on this. Now I understand. I will do a little more work to smooth things out a bit more and then leave it un-welded.

I do not want to ruin it. I thought by repairing the edges it would be more useful, but now I see this was wrong.

All good suggestions. Thank you all for taking the time to respond.

Christopher

[easilyconfused]

One way I've gotten around chipped edges when a smooth corner is neeed, is by radiusing the bend on a piece of heavy angle iron and using the vice. Or you could weld up a piece of channel iron to sit over the anvil snugly when you need to bend it and then take it off after. Once you get used to that anvil, you'll love the characteristic marks it makes and blend them into your work for character.


Have you been to the courses put on by the Western development museum in Saskatoon? If you can but haven't. They are worth it.

[Pault17]

Bruce,
If I am ever in isles, and you have nothing better to do, would you mind If I swept up the "debris" taking up space under your benches? You know, "a home without clutter is someone else's home", or something like that.