S. Louque Posted December 2, 2019 Share Posted December 2, 2019 I am new to black smithing and I would like to make a striking anvil. I work with several machine shops in the oil and gas industry and have access to steel plate in a variety of alloys and thickness. What characteristics make an ideal striking surface? Grade/yield and hardness, etc. Recently did a project with 110ksi T-1 plate. Not sure if that is going to be prone to chipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Williams Posted December 2, 2019 Share Posted December 2, 2019 You want something hard (resists deformation) AND tough (resists cracking); you definitely don't want something very brittle. I don't have strong familiarity with oil field steels. If you can post those that you have available to you that you know to be at least hard OR tough, then we can help you down-select. Are you planning / able to / willing to heat treat, or do you need to use them in the HT condition you get them? This may sway the choice considerably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenskpr Posted December 2, 2019 Share Posted December 2, 2019 The thick end of fork lift fork seems perfect Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les L Posted December 2, 2019 Share Posted December 2, 2019 Most striking anvils are made from mild steel to prevent chips flying off from missed strikes or the hammer rebounding and hitting the striker. Brian Brazeal uses 10 L X 4WX3Thick with 3 legs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 2, 2019 Share Posted December 2, 2019 HEAVY and TOUGH! (And cheap!) whatever you got that meets those criteria. Perhaps a chunk of drill sub if you have access to machining? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les L Posted December 2, 2019 Share Posted December 2, 2019 Scott, I’ve worked a lot with T1 it is very tough and never had any trouble with chipping It’s what I always used to rebuild dozer KG blades and backhoe buckets to prevent them from breaking again. If I could get a piece 2-3 inch thick I would use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Williams Posted December 3, 2019 Share Posted December 3, 2019 On 12/2/2019 at 6:54 AM, Chris Williams said: You want something hard (resists deformation) AND tough (resists cracking); you definitely don't want something very brittle. A correction: my wording earlier wasn't just unclear, but wrong. Toughness is mandatory, whereas hardness is nice to have only after the toughness requirement is met. You don't want something at all brittle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judson Yaggy Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 On 12/2/2019 at 12:12 AM, S. Louque said: What characteristics make an ideal striking surface? Once you have an alloy that won't chip, then the best characteristics are mass, mass, and mass. A 5" thick cast iron swage block is a better striking anvil than a 2" thick slab of steel be it mild or exotic alloy because of MASS! Watch the videos carefully and you will see that the modern generic striking anvil jumps around no matter who built it or who is hitting it. Anvil movement is serious inefficiency. I suspect that us professional smiths could tell if we had a heavy well fastened anvil or a light loose one under the hammer with our eyes closed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasent Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 Mine is 1.5” mild steel I believe. It’s set on a stump since you don’t need to get in close on a striking anvil. It’s not as efficient as my anvil but I sure wouldn’t want to swing the 12lb’er at my anvil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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