What's up everyone new guy to the forum but anyway I got this anvil for 50 bucks it has great rebound but needs alot of work.Can anybody tell me who made it by chance and I caint determine what it's made of it really doesn't ting more like a ding I need to know if it's cast iron or cast steel 

looks like possibly a mouse hole, but I may be wrong. I aint no "anvil expert".

                                                                                                                                      Littleblacksmith

It sure resembles my Wilkinson.  Does it say anything on its sides?

also, don't take any more of that face! lots of anvils for the face, only have a very thin piece of high carbon steel that was forge welded to the main wrought iron body. the more steel you take of the face, the thinner the piece of high carbon steel is, the less rebound the anvil has, and also, you shorten the life time of the tool!

                                                                                                                                     Littleblacksmith

It dosent have any markings

I'd bought it at $50.  It could be any number of English makers, there were tons of them.  Mousehole was mentioned, they were bad about developing a "saddle".  That's about as bad as they get.  Still there's life in it and a saddle can be  useful.  You can always make a hardy tool that's a flat plat for flattening your work.  Nice find.

 

5 minutes ago, jmccustomknives said:

I'd bought it at $50.  It could be any number of English makers, there were tons of them.  Mousehole was mentioned, they were bad about developing a "saddle".  That's about as bad as they get.  Still there's life in it and a saddle can be  useful.  You can always make a hardy tool that's a flat plat for flattening your work.  Nice find.

 

I was going to reface it im a pipewelder by trade that's why I was trying to figure out what the base was made of so I know what rode to start with it moved it off the wood table and on to a center block has a nice ring so it must be steel but I hadn't thought about making a Hardy tool that'll save me some doe welding rods for this sort of thing aren't cheap 

You would be better off making your own anvil then trying to reface that one. Unless you have 20+ years experience hardening anvils. There is plenty of workable face on your anvil

38 minutes ago, Thief_Of_Navarre said:

You would be better off making your own anvil then trying to reface that one. Unless you have 20+ years experience hardening anvils. There is plenty of workable face on your anvil

Well I've got 15 years experience welding I weld precision x-ray pipe and I don't know of much I haven't welded I don't think it will be a problem building it back up pre heat to 450 then use a stoody 2110 finish with 1105 

 

8 minutes ago, MarvinB said:

Well I've got 15 years experience welding I weld precision x-ray pipe and I don't know of much I haven't welded I don't think it will be a problem building it back up pre heat to 450 then use a stoody 2110 finish with 1105 

Then how are you going to heat treat the anvil? Have you a way to heat it sufficiently and a way to quench it fast enough etc?

That's what I was getting at really, perhaps I wasn't very tactfully. 

*edit* If it is a mousehole you'll have to take it to meeting of the rivellin and the loxley circa 1920 to have the water flow to quench it sufficiently. 

Looks to be wrought iron with a steel face. Reminds me a lot of an episode I saw of the old Russian Series World at War back in the '70s (all can be found on you tube now) In one scene Russian smiths were making tools and weapons to fight the Germans. The anvil looked a lot like that one with about 3 guys whacking away with sledge hammers team striking. Was a real good show.

Good score on the anvil

George

Well I figured I'd build a hellva fire got a oak down in the back and already cut up should be plenty to get a large coal bed I'll have to build a rack to hold the anvil and so we can move it when it's time a friend of mine has a pump to put in the pond that has a fire hose I figure that should do it oh and I'll have to barrow 1 or 2  leaf blowers to help get it to temp 

16 minutes ago, Thief_Of_Navarre said:

That's what I was getting at really, perhaps I wasn't very tactfully. 

*edit* If it is a mousehole you'll have to take it to meeting of the rivellin and the loxley circa 1920 to have the water flow to quench it sufficiently. 

I figure that pump and fire hose should do it that things a beast but it may not 

4 minutes ago, MarvinB said:

Well I figured I'd build a hellva fire got a oak down in the back and already cut up should be plenty to get a large coal bed I'll have to build a rack to hold the anvil and so we can move it when it's time a friend of mine has a pump to put in the pond that has a fire hose I figure that should do it oh and I'll have to barrow 1 or 2  leaf blowers to help get it to temp 

Do you have a Rockwell Hardness Tester?

It can fluctuate a little but since a hammer is around 50 you don't want an anvil to be harder than that so you shoot for between 45 and 48 R Also, hardening can be a pretty big challenge. Hot anvils under waterfalls was how things were done in the past but it wasn't a good way to do things as evidenced by all the chipped up broken corners we see on older anvils that were hardened that way.

George

1 minute ago, George Geist said:

Do you have a Rockwell Hardness Tester?

It can fluctuate a little but since a hammer is around 50 you don't want an anvil to be harder than that so you shoot for between 45 and 48 R

I have a set of the rockwell files for testing not sure if that will be sufficient 

If it is a mousehole they have a flow rate of 7 cu ft per second for hardening at the time of that style acccording to the moushole bible. Good luck

Guys, the proper hard surfacing rod self hardens.  There isn't a need to do a heat treat.  I'm fond of the Nicromang which is a rod for building up RR track frogs that work hardens.

1 hour ago, jmccustomknives said:

Guys, the proper hard surfacing rod self hardens.  There isn't a need to do a heat treat.  I'm fond of the Nicromang which is a rod for building up RR track frogs that work hardens.

Thanks for the info I looked at Scoody 2110 rods it finishes at a 45 rockwell C and the 1105 finishes at 50 to 52 that makes everything much easier I wasn't sure about having to heat treat had a plan if needed to be 

1 hour ago, jmccustomknives said:

Guys, the proper hard surfacing rod self hardens.  There isn't a need to do a heat treat.  I'm fond of the Nicromang which is a rod for building up RR track frogs that work hardens.

The Nicromang is for manganese is it safe to assume the base has manganese in it ? 

I don't think there's an issue, but you might give it a layer or two of a build up anyway.  That saddle is going to take quite a bit to build up.

21 minutes ago, jmccustomknives said:

I don't think there's an issue, but you might give it a layer or two of a build up anyway.  That saddle is going to take quite a bit to build up.

Yeah its pretty rough I'm a little worried about how all the weld will effect the rebound 

Only do the broken part of the heel. Is no need to be worrying about the rest of the face. This isn't machine shop work. We don't worry about tolerances to the nearest thousanth. It'll be ok.

George

1 hour ago, jmccustomknives said:

49 minutes ago, George Geist said:

Only do the broken part of the heel. Is no need to be worrying about the rest of the face. This isn't machine shop work. We don't worry about tolerances to the nearest thousanth. It'll be ok.

Yeah but I'd like to get the belly out of it think I might use it then decide what to do might just make a hardy tool out of this little rail I cut into a little anvil 

Welcome aboard Marvin, glad to have you. That's a heck of a score for $50, I would've jumped on it and let Deb yell. I certainly wouldn't try refacing it. There has bee some serious delamination on the heal, two sizable pieces are missing. There's a high probability it's either delaminated or close in other places. Facing over a delaminated layer will cause the delamination to extend as a HAZ effect. Do you REALLY want to grind what face it has left off to be sure?

A lot of still usable anvils have been ruined permanently by experienced welders working in well equipped shops. There is just a LOT more to hard facing thick sections than laying down some rod. It's certainly doable but it's a LOT of work to do right, about as much as just making an anvil. Even a small repair takes a full day to preheat, weld, grind and post heat. Yeah, I hot grind with a cup stone to profile then finish with fine grit wheel and finally sandpaper after it's cooled. the NEXT day.

You ARE aware of the number of passes build up and hard facing rods are limited to yes? A guy can fudge it some but not a lot, especially with the hard face.

Yeah, I've burned maybe a couple thousand lbs of hard face rod and wire. There's A right way to do it and then all the ways some guys have been doing it for years.

Frosty The Lucky.

The sway in the top is only from front to back, most smithing is done side to side where it is still flat. Sway can be used to straighten bent parts as it allows the piece to go past the yield point instead of just springing back. Personally I wouldn't do anything to it except mount it and get using it. Then keep an eye out for another anvil in better shape.

 

No, don't reface it.  You scored a smokin deal and refacing it won't really make using it much better.  I'd keep feelers out for a better anvil and use this one until better shows up.  Then this one can be sold on to the next person and you won't lose a penny for all it teaches you...and you'll probably make a few bucks.