With a machinist in your pocket, you could have different profiles cut in the sides, Jock over at anvil fire in his home made anvil pages showes some ideas. But as Glenn has often told me that I payed good money for that anvil, use every inch of it. don't think so much about carving a London pattern anvil out of it, as a bick can be fabricated easy enugh. 

Glenn dosn't hold any grudge against Jock, but Jock dosnt like links to his site. 

 

But as far as sharing a good Idea, jump on in. Worst that can happen is a curmudgeon will jump in and educate ya.

I believe it's already hardened steel. A file will just glide off of it. I called him and talked to Him this morning. He said if it's been hardened it would be hard to machine.

A hardened die block and you are probably restricted to just some grinding on it....still a lovely anvil!

I am gonna just try to do some grinding on it. 

Blanchard grinder.

I looked up Blanchard grinding. I really don't want to pay somebody to do it. I took my grinder to to one side of it. It is doable with a grinder but it's gonna take some time.

Unless you know somebody, having it ground at a shop will be expensive. Especially if they have to take a lot off. A Blanchard grinding operation will take more material off than standard surface grinding with the narrow part of the wheel. One thing to keep in mind is that the grinding process usually employs a magnet to hold the stock. They will need a solid way to hold it before they will even attempt to try and grind it. If the narrow sides are tapered, they may need to use additional clamping methods to hold it securely. That could cost more money and take more time. Crash a wheel on one of those machines and it's BIG money. They won't chance it if they don't think they can hold it good enough. I've seen a 96" travel Mattison grinder with a 18" wheel spit stainless steel slugs friction blocked on the table across the shop. Wake you up in a big hurry.

Just sayin if you were to go that route. Usually, the part is machined to within a thousandth before traditional precision grinding, but if it's already been hardened, good luck with that. Back in the late 90s I worked at Dart Container for about three years in the tool room as a mold polisher. I did a good amount of precision grinding when I was there, but mostly with manual machines.

If you wanna flatten it out on the narrow striking edge, layout a line on the high side parallel with the low side, get a good square and have at it with an angle grinder and abrasive wheel. Use the biggest, most powerful one you have available for the hogging. When you start getting close, switch to a smaller grinder you can easily control. I own a few 6" Metabo grinders and would never be without one. Make sure the layout line is all the way around the high parts so you have a visual gauge. Start taking off the high side and keep checking with your square against the low side to keep track of how much you take off. Don't go nuts, it'll take a little while. Once you get it down to as flat as you can get, then use a sanding disc to finish it out. 60 grit will likely be just fine. It's not the space shuttle. A smaller cupped style abrasive wheel (NOT a stone wheel) will clean up flat surfaces nicely, you just have to pay attention to what your doing. This would be the last step.

You can get it very close using this method, but it's time consuming. You can even use straight scrap metal clamped to the opposite side and ends so you can clearly see your edges too. Just depends how much time you wanna spend on it. Checking against the parallel and perpendicular axis at regular intervals will insure you're not taking too much off. I would probably use a dykem die when I started to get close so you don't end up grinding the low end by mistake. A framing square would be ideal for this, a smaller one anyways. I've finished a little metal in my time and it's definitely doable. 

Sorry for adding to this. I usually need a few times around to get it all out of my head on to the page lol.

Good luck with it.

IMHO of course

2 minutes ago, 7A749 said:

Unless you know somebody, having it ground at a shop will be expensive. Especially if they have to take a lot off. A Blanchard grinding operation will take more material off than standard surface grinding with the narrow part of the wheel. Usually, the part is machined to within a thousandth before traditional precision grinding, but if it's already been hardened, good luck with that.

If you wanna flatten it out on the narrow striking edge, layout a line on the high side parallel with the low side, get a good square and have at it with an angle grinder and abrasive wheel. Make sure the layout line is all the way around the high parts so you have a visual gauge. Start taking off the high side and keep checking with your square against the low side to keep track of how much you take off. Don't go nuts, it'll take a little while. Once you get it down to as flat as you can get, then use a sanding disc to finish it out. 60 grit will likely be just fine. It's not the space shuttle.

You can get it very close using this method, but it's time consuming. Checking against the parallel and perpendicular axis at regular intervals will insure you're not taking too much off. I would probably use a dykem die when I started to get close so you don't end up grinding the low end by mistake. A framing square would be ideal for this, a smaller one anyways. I've finished a little metal in my time and it's definitely doable. 

Good luck with it.

IMHO of course

This is what I'm gonna do.

It'll turn out good if you take your time. I kinda got on a tear, I kept thinking of stuff to add to the original post. 

This is after 5hrs of grinding. I've still got a ways to go. This stuff is rock hard. And it never got hot enough to where I couldn't grab it.

Don't know why that bottom pic is upside down.

I've worked on anvils with that much tilt on the face!  Have to control the hammer a bit differently but doable.

Im gonna go ahead and grind it. I'm half way there now. I think it will be a good anvil when I'm done with it. I'm gonna attach a hardy hole to the side of it. I saw that idea on anvil fire. That way I'm in no rush to go out and over pay for an anvil. The money I would of spent on 1 overpriced anvil. I will have used in totally getting started and set up. And I will have enough material left over to build myself a good welding table. 

I've also go a piece of rr track. I will modify a horn on one side of it.

Might I suggest, as its hard, and took steel has to be pre heated to weld on (making it less hard) you might want a "portable hole" instead...

did you see the plate anvil idea? With a long face ( you will do 99.9# of your forging cross ways, and in one spot) grinding a crown on one end will be very useful. 

I'll have to check into that. 

How much of a crown?

29 minutes ago, crappiew said:

How much of a crown?

Somewhere between a tooth bridge and a ducal coronet.

1 hour ago, JHCC said:

Somewhere between a tooth bridge and a ducal coronet.

Yeah. Ok.

JHCC, I think you have lost the young lordling...

crappiew, I would go 1/2 round or start 1/2 round and flatten out as you move back. It'd a lot of grinding tho. It will just help you draw stock and start curves, but in reality radiusing the edges will do much thesaurus for less grinding, think 1" radi taperd to 1/4 in effect giving you a 1" fuller at one end and a 1/4" at the other end. 

On May 22, 2016 at 0:02 AM, Charles R. Stevens said:

JHCC, I think you have lost the young lordling...

crappiew, I would go 1/2 round or start 1/2 round and flatten out as you move back. It'd a lot of grinding tho. It will just help you draw stock and start curves, but in reality radiusing the edges will do much thesaurus for less grinding, think 1" radi taperd to 1/4 in effect giving you a 1" fuller at one end and a 1/4" at the other end. 

Sounds good sir. I appreciate the info.