What finish to put on an anvil?

[Glenn]

Decades of use produces a patina that, once removed, lowers the antique value of an anvil. But this is not the basis of my question.

I am talking about the *new* (used) anvil covered with rust. After the heavy rust is removed, what product will protect the anvil (body and face) during periods on not being used or long term storage, and from rusting again?

[larrynjr]

WD40, axle grease, keep using it so it doesn't have time to get rusty!

[Jmercier]

spray it down with wd40 and put a shop towel ontop of it when not in use

[keykeeper]

Marvel Mystery Oil or Liquid wrench.

[Frosty]

Apply LPS-3 when the anvil's good and warm, it penetrates very well and leaves a very durable rust inhibiting wax.

Frosty

[Johannes]

bees wax :-)

line seed oil

vaseline

[Finnr]

Marvel Mystery Oil. it seems to work real well on my stored anvil.
Finnr

[Dave M]

Living right by the ocean rust is a huge problem with any thing that is metal. In my shop and on the ocean I have had great luck with CRC SP-400 Rust inhibitor. It can be found on line and around here everyone stocks it even home depot.

[Ten Hammers]

Marvel works well. LPS products ( # 1 for many, # 3 chain lube also) are hard to find locally but I prefer them over most anything else. LPS 1 leaves a nice film that is fairly clean. Marvel on an anvil is great but long term ( over the winter in trailer ) will allow some rust ( my experience ). LPS 3 will be nasty to get on your clothes but is really superior stuff.

[Glenn]

Thanks for your suggestions.

[Frosty]

If you apply LPS-2 to a fairly (cup of coffee) warm anvil it doesn't leave that sticky finish. It'll cover in a thinner coat and "set" quickly.

Marvel smells the best, I like to add a little to my cutting oil for shop incense.

Frosty

[wolfy9005]

light film of oil for long storage periods, but if you use it every day it shouldnt get rusty. a stiff wire brush will fix it otherwise.

wd40 also seems to be the standard method

[Frosty]

I don't usually do anything to the face, any film of rust that develops during periods of non-use goes right away when I do use it.

I've coated the body though as it looks better black.

Paint was pretty common too.

Frosty

[Ferrous Beuler]

I have four of them. All of them are old and I can't say how old or how many smiths have had them, made their livings on them, for how long each was used since made and how many years between smiths they have slept, forgotten in some dark corner before again being brought from obscurity and again to the center of activity.
These girls are old. They have certainly been around. They scars they bare and the patina they sport didn't happen yesterday.
I wish they could talk, to tell me the stories they have been witness to. To tell me the techniques spoken of over them by smiths who faced another challenge, another workday, another problem and how to work it through.
These girls were there for it all and no doubt have had a lot deliberated over them, and an awful lot of hot iron worked upon them, and could certainly bend your ear if they could speak for they surely have been the proverbial "fly on the wall".
So now they're mine.
It is 2008.
The newest of them may date from about WW1, the oldest possibly from before the revolution.
This raises the question of "should I rework them".
Yes. I feel I should, save for the oldest of them which is an early pattern, and by far the most abused.
They are after all, still just workaday tools, so why not dress them?
The one solution I have heard to the question of "anvil finish" which I have not seen here on IFI was told to me by a freind, concerning stoves I think. An old-time recipe which may work for an anvil, and who knows, perhaps this has been done somewhere to an anvil already.
Get a large (LARGE) cast iron pot, the type used for scalding a hog.
Make a thick brew from black walnut husks. Boil your iron in it. This is said to impart a flat black finish, like stoveblack.
Dan.

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

Marvel Mystery oil or, if I know that I'm not gonna be using it for a while, Beeswax before I shut down the forge (while the anvil is still warm).

I like Frosty's Idea of Marvel as "shop incense".... Hm.... I wonder what would happen if I slipped a little into one of the wife's "super-dee-duper stinky candle melter fragrance" things... :rolleyes:

-Aaron @ the SCF (If I don't post in the next few weeks, someone PLEASE send law enforcement and possibly a cadaver dog. Check the back yard first... )

[nc_cooter]

Dan, we used black walnut hulls to blacken steel traps back in the day. The crushed hulls were simmered for about two hours in a cast iron wash pot, stirred with a wooden paddle. The traps were placed in the pot and soaked for about 30 min. About a pound of bee's wax was placed in the pot and allowed to melt with no agitation. A piece of wire was used to lift each trap slowly so they got a light coat wax and then hung up to dry. They could be used for the trapping season with no rust even though some were used in water sets.