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Can annealed A2 steel be dented by a 3/4"-1" ball bearing? Also, does anyone know the rockwell hardness when it is annealed? The reason for the questions, I bought some pieces online, they are 3/8" technically 7/16" thick by 4" by 8" and they didnt have any markings on them to show they were A2. Just have to take the guys word for it. Dropped a ball bearing probably about 10" high, maybe not even that and they both put a small ping in the metal. Will be using this steel for a face on an anvil.

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First, A2 is a air cooled steel and therefore it contains Iron,  so placing it in nonferrous sections is a bit off, also this is more about heat treating than alloy content I will relocate it.  I have no idea what you expected dropping the ball bearing to do for you

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Most tools steels are sold in the annealed state. This allows for the machining operations needed to make the parts. After the basic machining operations are completed, the part would be hardened, possibly have EDM operations done. Then, the final sharpening/polishing. There could be many other steps, but almost always starts out soft(er).

If I remember correctly, A2 may not be a very good home forge steel...

David

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16 hours ago, Justwood&iron said:

Dropped a ball bearing probably about 10" high, maybe not even that and they both put a small ping in the metal. Will be using this steel for a face on an anvil.

Are you still planning on welding up your own anvil or putting a face plate on an existing one?  Have you any experience working  with deep penetrations welds to metal masses like that?  Between preheating before welding, the welding rods required and final heat treatment I'm not sure you are going to save all that much.  In my area I've started to see anvil prices dropping.  Perhaps you should rethink this...

Here is some heat treating info, if you still plan on going through with it: https://www.speedymetals.com/information/Material10.html

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I've spent $160 in all for the anvil. All thats left, is to weld the A2 steel top plate on. May have enough welding rods left to finish that. If not I'll have to spend another $15 bucks to get more and finish it. Once its welded I'm going to follow the heat treating hardening instructions to harden it. Will build a fire brick pit, then use a couple weed burning torches and propane cooking burner to set the anvil on, add a forced air inlet to it and get it up to temp. Then air cool with some help of water to get it down in temp. fast.

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29 minutes ago, Justwood&iron said:

use a couple weed burning torches and propane cooking burner to set the anvil on, add a forced air inlet to it and get it up to temp

Cross post with Thomas

Better make a video of this.  Remember you need to get the entire face up to 1800 deg. F before hardening.  If you actually get the rest of the anvil attached it means you will likely have to get the entire thing up to close to that temperature or the rest of the mass will suck the heat out of the face.  I don't see a couple of weedburners, even with forced air added doing the job.  If you are actually going to put the anvil on a "cooking" propane burner, how are you going to keep it from getting hot, collapsing (if sheet steel), preigniting or breaking joints and spraying propane everywhere (they aren't made for that kind of temperature).

Then you have to deal with the rapid cooling of the entire mass so it doesn't autotemper down to a hardness below what you want (but not too fast at the surface or it will crack...).  I haven't seen a TTT graph for A2, but this sounds like a daunting task.

I mean you can get a decent, brand new JHM 70# anvil for $550.  I even saw a rough, but still usable, used anvil in your local Craigslist for $400 OBO.

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