Using the anvil and the hand hammer in cold temperatures

[Glenn]

At what temperature do you risk damaging your anvil or hand hammer by using them in the cold?

 

 

[Frosty]

Never if you don't miss a blow. A missed blow can damage either or both on a hot day. Not all those chipped edges happened at below zero f.

Frosty The Lucky.

[swedefiddle]

At what temperment do you risk.......??    When you're Hot, You are Hot.    When you are not, are you being a nuisance? LOL

Merry (almost), Neil

 

[BillyBones]

I would guess that would depend on the material either was made with. Different alloys react differently at different temps whether it is hot or cold. 

I do know this however, it is supposed to be 1*F tomorrow and i do not plan on finding out if that is too cold.

[ThomasPowers]

Blue Brittle temps.

[Shainarue]

So, where I am we have windchill temps below freezing until Tuesday. My plan on Tuesday after work was to plug in a heating pad and lay it on the anvil for 4 hours to help get the freeze off the anvil. Then I figured I'd be good to forge as soon as I came home Wednesday. 

Any thoughts from y'all of that would be okay? An I risking damage to the anvil? Anyone else do outdoor forging when temps are before freezing? (not sub-zero, I don't have a death wish and I prefer to keep all my digits intact) 

[Glenn]

A thermometer measures temperature and does not change if the wind blows.

 

NWS:  Wind Chill is a term used to describe what the air temperature feels like to the human skin due to the combination of cold temperatures and winds blowing on exposed skin. In simple terms, the colder the air temperature and the higher the wind speeds the colder it will feel on your skin if you're outside. So even if it remains the same temperature, but the wind speed increases it will actually feel colder to your skin.

So why does it feel colder if the wind speed increases but the temperature remains the same? The reason is because as wind blows across our bodies it takes the heat we naturally emit and blows it away from our bodies. The faster the wind speed the faster our body heat is taken away and the colder it feels. It is a similar process for when you blow on a hot bowl of soup to cool it down. The temperature that it feels like outside due to the air temperature and wind speed is called the "Wind Chill."

 

[George N. M.]

If you can stand it yourself (my feet get cold first) I don't think you need to preheat your anvil at an ambient temperature of zero F or above.  One thing that will happen is that the hot steel in contact with the anvil will cool off faster than usual.

As Glen says, wind chill only measures how fast an object, human, anvil, carrot, etc., will cool off and lose heat.  Even in high winds an object will never get colder than the ambient air temperature.  It just cools faster than in still air.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[gewoon ik]

Amd getting out of the wind (a shed for example) and you can use the thermometer temps.

But the loss of heat can be a problem with small stuff. So a bit of heat to the anvil will help mitigate that.

[anvil]

If its cold enough to be uncomfortable in your shop due to cold, you should prolly be inside your house by the fire.  

[ThomasPowers]

With a cup of tea/coffee/hot cocoa.....very nice!  Anvil/tools don't see "wind chill"; just ambient.  An old electric iron can preheat the anvil nicely while you are setting up to work.

And remember trying to stay warm and CO production are often a BAD mix!

[Frosty]

On the rare occasions I needed to do something at the anvil in the cold I light a fire in the barrel stove put a piece of 2" plate on it and go back and watch the news and drink coffee. In an hour the plate is pretty hot and goes on the anvil face while the forge warms up. I also use the heavy fire brick door baffles on the forge to keep the propane from freezing by leaning the hot sides against the bottom of the tank. The top of the propane forge is a good place to keep a cup of hot beverage hot on THOSE days. The barrel stove has it's own teapot too. 

Happily, being a hobbyist I don't have to go to the shop if I don't want to and I've lived with cold weather long enough to stay by the wood stove on days like this. Except to walk the dogs and grab another piece of firewood off the porch.

Frosty The Lucky.

[BillyBones]

When i was a kid my dad had a job working the flight line at Wright Pat AFB. Mostly mowing the grass (you would be amazed at how many rattle snakes there are out there) and snow removal, etc. Mostly outside. One year i think my aunt got him a pair of electric socks, remember those, great idea, right? Except that each one was powered by 2 "C" batteries that were  held in little pouch at the top of the sock. The weight of the batteries would pull the sock down so you had to keep constantly pulling them up.