I was at the scrap yard yesterday......

[eseemann]

I went to the scrap yard and saw an anvil that looked a good bit like this one (link removed due to owners request) This thing looked like it had been thought the Nam. The guy that owns the place told me it was "dead". The owner calls a hunk of steel dead when it has little or no rebound and a poor ring. He said that it looked like someone had tried to fix the it by welding on the top plate and killed it. I took a sledge (maybe 6-8lb) dropped it from 5" and the rebound was less than my RR Rail that I use now. 
This yard is in Tennessee and one thing I learned from my Grandpa  not to argue with small town scrap yard owners. 
 
Bet you are wondering if there is a question here, well here it is. 
 
What do you (all) think about an anvil that is mistreated and is now "dead"? Anyone run in to that before? No amount of old busted anvil is worth messing up my relationship with this guy since I got 4 disc furrow blades, about 110+ lbs of bush hog blades and 4 old  15" files (Heller, Simonds and Lenox) for less than $50.00 I do not want to kill the goose the lays the high carbon steel eggs.
 
Just wondered if anyone had re-habed an anvil that had lost it's ring and rebound and how?
 
thanks all

[marcusb]

Sounds like a job for hard face rod

[ThomasPowers]

If the previous repair was to simply weld on a new face plate by just welding it on the sides then no amount of hard face rod will get it back to what it was.  If it was a simple botch you might be able to grind through the welds and then re hardface the old face. HOWEVER many repair attempts like that start by grinding off tons of the old face to get a flat surface to lay the new plate on ans so the original face may be pretty much gone.

 

In general the amount of hard face rod, electricity and grinding media can tip even an almost free anvil into the more expensive than aaone in much better shape to start with.