Ragged forging on a drawknife tang set down

[Smeden gegen]

What would you call this and how to prevent? 

[JHCC]

The metal pushing out on the sides is starting to form a cold shut, and your inside corner is a bit sharp. I would suggest (1) alternating hammer blows on the set-down and on the sides, and (2) forging the set-down over something with a slightly rounder edge. This piece can be rescued before you do any more work by filing or grinding the sides flat and that inside corner round.

[Smeden gegen]

Alrighty, i ground the corners on my anvil rounder afterwards, but might enlarge the radius

[Frosty]

Looks like you set the step on a sharp edge of the anvil. A sharp inside corner which is a stress riser and the likely initiation point of catastrophic failure. 

Prevent it by setting a step over a rounded edge, 1/8" - 1/4" radius are good though it's also good to give an edge a tapering radius.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Hot rasping can help remove it if it occurs.

[anvil]

I radius both edges of my anvil from the step to where the heel begins from 3/8" to 0". This gives me a sharp edge when needed and a 3/8" radius for most of my shoulders.

Like Thomas said,, a hot rasp is your friend.

[arkie]

If you have an anvil where the side edges have all been radiused or chipped and you need a sharp edge, just use the heel.   Most of them are still original, sharp edges.

[ThomasPowers]

Or make some tooling for the hardy hole:  a block that can have each edge a different radius.  Put in place with the one you want facing you.

[anvil]

I made one of those as well. It was my first experiment with super quench and the 1-1/2" block was mild steel. I made it for my treadle hammer. It's used a lot and the super quench works well. 

I use it a lot for the finials on my cabinet pulls.