JHCC Posted May 23, 2021 Share Posted May 23, 2021 Having just been given a 55lb. Chinese cast iron anvil by a friend, I find myself wondering about converting it into a swage block, with various sizes and shapes of grooves across the top and with depressions on the sides and bottom for dishing various spoons, dippers, and bowls. Since the cast iron is fairly soft, I imagine it wouldn’t be too difficult to shape with cutting discs in an angle grinder and carbide burrs in a die grinder. Anyone here ever tried anything like this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted May 23, 2021 Share Posted May 23, 2021 Ask yourself how much you need and will use any modification to the Chinese cast iron anvil before you make the modification. Then project ahead to see if the cuts will weaken or cause the start a fracture or lines of failure when it is used and or hit with a hammer. Cutting a V into the surface and then hammering metal into the V to change the shape of the metal will induce stress at the bottom of the V and may / could cause a fracture. Look at photos of several swage blocks and then look more closely at which shapes are now smooth and polished from use. Just because you can does not mean you should make various sizes and shapes of grooves across the top and with depressions on the sides and bottom for dishing various spoons, dippers, and bowls. Did you need or use several V shapes enough to already make a top tools having that shape? Is it a shape that you use often or just once or twice and then move to a box somewhere? It is after all your Chinese cast iron anvil so you may do anything you wish with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted May 23, 2021 Share Posted May 23, 2021 Just a safety note for anyone that might not know better that finds this. Don't use a cutting disc to grind out metal. Use a thicker grinding wheel for that. The cutting disc is fine for straight cuts as I'm sure John means for in his post, but for grinding depressions or grinding metal away it would be dangerous. Sorry john, just the way I read it I could picture someone grinding with a cutoff disc. It's your aso, if you have some shapes you could really use in it, I say go for it. Just be sure you need the shapes you put in it. Probably be good for a dedicated hardy holder in production work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 23, 2021 Share Posted May 23, 2021 While it's certainly possible I don't know if it's worth the time and tool wear. It'd be one of those spare time projects in my estimation. Glenn has some good points but most can be allowed for up front. The stress riser of a V groove with a sharp bottom is just a matter of drilling a hole before cutting the V. Making various shaped swage channels is doable but not a trivial task. I certainly wouldn't grind them and as Das just pointed out using cutting disks would be crazy dangerous. however if you have a table saw you can rough them in with fine tooth carbide blades and a good fence. Heck you might even be able to use stacked dado blades though that could get hairy fast. You'd have to take the cuts a few thousandths at a time, you'd find out how much as you worked the project. A V swage is as easy as tilting the blade. Keeping it aligned would be a major issue, lift the blade and move the fence to keep the blade in the kerf. Major PITA but doable. A person might be able to pull it off with a skill saw but kick back would put you in the hospital. I don't know which would be worse a saw cut or major blunt force trauma. I guess it's a matter of what where and how HARD / DEEP. Eh? Making cup and bowl depressions is as easy as getting out your hole saw set and making the holes deeper as they get smaller. Adjusting the radius of the dish is a matter of choosing hole saw diameter and depth. I'd just draw a graph paper chart, I'm no good at math or I could calculate the sequences. Use twist drills for spoons and such small depressions of course. It's doable but how much of a project are you up for? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted May 23, 2021 Author Share Posted May 23, 2021 Starting to think that it might be preferable to put some sinking hollows on the face and otherwise keeping it more or less intact. If the student group at the college does manage to get their blacksmithing club chartered (everything having been thrown off by the plague year), I can give it to them as a dedicated hardy hole and dishing swage, to go along with the RR track anvil I’ve got waiting for them. 43 minutes ago, Frosty said: getting out your hole saw set and making the holes deeper as they get smaller. You’re assuming I have a hole saw set! Actually, I’m thinking of using the drill press to rough out the depressions on the face, making concentric rings of equal-depth holes to define their topography. (Also, covering the face with depressions would reduce the temptation for them to use the anvil as, well, an anvil.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 23, 2021 Share Posted May 23, 2021 I'm assuming anybody serious about building from metal has a full index of bimetal hole saws. I mean seriously! By define the "topography" do you mean the radius of the sphere section? Assuming a sphere from drilling holes in a circle but it could be a straight sided cup or similar I suppose. I'm not saying it won't work or even a bad idea it's just going to be a real job. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted May 23, 2021 Author Share Posted May 23, 2021 Think of contour lines on a map. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 23, 2021 Share Posted May 23, 2021 Ah, I misread rings of equal depth, my bad. It's obvious the rings are at progressive depths, not holes within rings. Sometimes I don't understand how I CAN get some things wrong. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 24, 2021 Share Posted May 24, 2021 Note back when we in the MOB made a propane stove from one of the HF cast iron ASOs; we found that it seemed to be about 60% graphite as we did all the drilling and counter drilling. Horrible low grade cast iron. Probably not hold up as a swage block very well. Perhaps a better use would be trebuchet ammo? (Or counter weight for a small one.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caotropheus Posted May 25, 2021 Share Posted May 25, 2021 JHCC Romantic idea you had. Use the cast iron anvil as a boat anchor a candle holder or a door stop and if you want so much to built a swage block by your self, use a chunk of mild steel. The term "Chinese cast iron anvil" does not sound good for my smithy and certainly not good for other people's smithies... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 25, 2021 Share Posted May 25, 2021 It's why we coined the term ASO: "Anvil Shaped Object" Has the shape of one, sort of, but isn't one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted May 25, 2021 Author Share Posted May 25, 2021 On 5/23/2021 at 11:15 AM, Daswulf said: The cutting disc is fine for straight cuts as I'm sure John means for in his post, but for grinding depressions or grinding metal away it would be dangerous. Sorry john, just the way I read it I could picture someone grinding with a cutoff disc. No worries, Das. No offense taken, and thanks for posting the safety warning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted August 13, 2021 Author Share Posted August 13, 2021 UPDATE: I have found an actual honest-to-goodness good blacksmithing use for this ASO: as an upsetting block for long pieces of stock. It's sitting on the floor anyway, so I gave it a try when upsetting the end of a three-foot piece of 3/8" round, and it worked startlingly well. When I was letting the bar fall under its own weight, I was actually getting some decent rebound, with the bar jumping back up into the air by about a foot. Who knew?! (I'm still thinking of adding a spoon form somewhere on this, especially since one of my students is really into spoons right now, but it shouldn't be difficult to find somewhere to do this that wouldn't conflict with the upsetting function.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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