I don't think he intends to make hammers out of it, but rather to use hammers to hit hot steel on it.   It's probably still not the ideal alloy for that purpose, but it beats the heck out of a HF ASO and on end he'll have 30.75 inches of solid steel under his hammers.

Ahh for hammering on; I misconstrued "Well this piece will be used for hammers"

Nope you construed it correctly based on the analogy used. Poorly worded on my part.

Used by hammers?  Not a problem; Gibberish is my primary language according to my co workers...

So after thinking about this for a couple of weeks I think I want to cut this thing in half to make it easier to handle. I had an idea to use one half as a die anvil and regular anvil on a rotational stand. Thoughts? 

 

Interesting idea, but you're cluttering up the space on either side, reducing the clearance for moving your workpiece around. 

In either orientation how are you going to deal with the unsupported leg that sticks out over your stand?   Any moderate to hard hammering at the end of the unsupported leg is going to result in some rotating at the pivot point I think.

You are over thinking this. Stand it up on end and get forging. Don't worry about curved sections, etc. Horns are kind of over rated, I rarely use the horns on my anvils. You have a large fairly dense mass that will work fine as is. Weld a square tube  in the round hole so bottom tools can be used, and you are good to go.

5 hours ago, JHCC said:

Interesting idea, but you're cluttering up the space on either side, reducing the clearance for moving your workpiece around. 

Never thought about it being cluttered but yeah you are right. 

5 hours ago, Buzzkill said:

In either orientation how are you going to deal with the unsupported leg that sticks out over your stand?   Any moderate to hard hammering at the end of the unsupported leg is going to result in some rotating at the pivot point I think.

My thought was to make a leg to fit between the anvil and stand to keep it from rotating. 

2 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

You are over thinking this. Stand it up on end and get forging. Don't worry about curved sections, etc. Horns are kind of over rated, I rarely use the horns on my anvils. You have a large fairly dense mass that will work fine as is. Weld a square tube  in the round hole so bottom tools can be used, and you are good to go.

You’re absolutely right. I am expecting way too much from this. Welding a square tube was the plan as soon as I get that tap out of the hole. 

17 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

Horns are kind of over rated, I rarely use the horns on my anvils.

100%. I'm 15 years in business and never owned  a real anvil ;-). If I really need something like an anvil horn I make my own hardy tools.

I have a lead on some forklift tines. Would welding a section of tine to the top benefit me at all? Would I compromise the mass

I have with a tiny welded gap? I know I would gain harness, but would this be a waste of time? Am I over thinking this again? 

Why not just support it on end and start using it as an anvil?

If it is too tall, dig a hole or build a platform for you to stand on. Too short then build a platform for it to stand on.

I can do that no problem. It’s actually the perfect height when stood on end. I was just wondering if there was anything to be gained or lost by welding a harder steel to the top (when stood on end). 

 

I guess the reason I’m questioning it I because Of all the posts I have read regarding mass below the hammer and stacked welded steel vs efficiency. Will gaining a harder face be more beneficial over a (possible) loss of efficiency over welding to the existing plate? 

That gets down into the fiddly bits with: yes, no or maybe----depending on exactly how it's done and what it's made from.  However to do it right will be time and $$$ and it will work just as it stands.

Cold mild steel is far harder than yellow hot steel.  Just get to work, if it needs something down the line, fix it then.

You might take a look at this, thanks to ThomasPowers.

http://www.marco-borromei.com/fork.html

If I remember right forklift tines are usually some form or other of tool or hardened steel.

Medium C to be tough rather than brittle.