Feel free if to tell me if I'm thinking too hard:

This is my one and only anvil, a 1938 vintage 80 lb Vulcan.  My paternal grandfather owned it, dad held on to it for sentimental reasons, and when the smithing bug bit me, it became mine.  Tons of sentimental value to me as well, I'll never part with it.  Grandpa never did any smithing to our knowledge, so us descendants don't know why he bought it.  It was pitted/worn when I got it, and of course my use added more.

I know that Vulcans are cast iron bodies with a welded steel face plate, so there's not a lot that can be done in terms of machining a flat face to it.  I don't have access to a Bridgeport nor any milling machines either (nor would I do this).

My question-I have noticed the pitting transferring over into workpieces. If a clean flat finish is desired on the workpiece, I have belt sanders and angle grinders to clean up with, as well as an assortment of files.  With that said, and keeping in mind the anvil's construction-any suggestions for adjusting around this?  I bet there's someone using an anvil far rougher-but I only know this anvil, and am limited in my experience and knowledge.

A lot of that looks like hammer marks from here. No matter though, if you have a SLIGHTLY crowned face on a mid weight hammer, say under 30oz. you can literally hammer the face reasonably smooth. Some of those pits probably won't disappear though.

One easy solution is to make a bottom tool that fits the hardy hole with a flat smooth square top say 4" square and about 1" thick welded to a shank that fits the hardy hole. Holding it solid on the anvil is as simple as cutting a slot in the shank that extends into the hardy hole a little ways as well as in the clear under the tail. Drive a wedge and the bottom tool won't go anywhere so you'll get good energy return. Not great but it's just for finish forging and fine work. 

Nice old anvil, I'd keep it and hand it down to the grandkids with plenty of tall tales about your Grandfathers feats of near miraculous skill on it. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Thank you for your thoughts and tips Frosty!  For hammering the face-Would a little heat (not glowing hot) with an oxy acetylene torch be okay to do, or would I lose the heat treat to the faceplate (if it was treated?)  I guess I could take a file to an edge of the face and see if it skates or bites to assess that.

I will fab up a finish forging plate per your recommendation.  And embellishing a tale of grandpa...he was a great man, don't have to stretch at all to recant stories of his amazing life!

NO TORCHES !! You'll draw the temper to normalized long before red. Of course it was hardened and tempered when made or it would look like a cattle trail.

If a file skated it would have been heat treated improperly to begin with and believe me would NOT have hammer marks. Chipped edges? Oh Yes.

Vulcans were never top tier anvils but they were perfectly serviceable. The face plate is thinner than most, say Fisher. Both Fisher and Vulcan were made in a very similar way. The face plates and horns were placed in the mold and heated to near high temperature then the iron poured. The molten iron contacting the high carbon faceplate and horn welded together. After a specific length of time as per weight they were broken out of the mold and the face quenched. The face plate was cleaned up with a sandstone and the residual heat from the body tempered the face. When the face showed the desired temper colors the anvil was chilled in water to stop the tempering process.

From there it went to the grinders.

Never, NEVER, NEVER use a torch on an anvil unless you wish to ruin it.  

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty-noted and thank you for the insight.

Jason

You're welcome Jason, it's normal for beginners to want their gear "perfect". Unfortunately it's rarely necessary and all too often does more damage than good. I did forget to mention one other major no no, do NOT grind the top of the anvil! You will be removing decades of useable life before it's smooth and flat.

Hammering the dings out does two good things. Dings are literally impact craters, all the material in the depression was displaced in a raised rim around it, just like a meteor crater. If you grind the rim off AND to the bottom of the dent you remove all that steel from the entire face, permanently.

Hammering the rims down drives the displaced steel back into the depression and seeing as you're doing it to the entire face all that steel is returned to level if not it's exact starting point. 

The second benefit to hammering the dings out is it work hardens the face. It won't make it brittle unless you strike the edges but you rarely get this kind of ding on an edge. You CAN however drive mushroomed edges back into the face if you do it BEFORE they're truly mushroomed.

Don't use the step as a cutting plate, that isn't what they were for. They are excellent places to upset into. Address the anvil with the HOT steel along the horn and fetched up against the step then drive the stock into the step from the end. 

If the stock starts bending, (normal) just lift it onto the face and GENTLY bump it straight, reheat and return to upsetting. Holding the stock along the horn gives you an excellent visual line to let you know just as soon as the stock begins to bend so you can correct it immediately rather than AFTER it's so screwed up you have to draw it back to original dimensions and start over. The same visual line makes it much easier to swing the hammer in the same line which helps prevent bending in the first place.

Isolating the heat in the stock being upset really helps too. If all you want upset is the end 3/4" cool the rest of the bar so only the HOT section moves. Wrought iron or mild steel can be cooled with a water can or wet shop rag. Be warned using a wet rag invites SCALDING your hand. I use a pair of tiny tongs that aren't much good for anything else for rag chilling. If it is a short piece of stock you can use the slack tub leaving ONLY the section to be upset above the water. USE TONGS! You do NOT want wet hands/gloves or you WILL grab a piece of HOT steel and need a ride to the emergency room. 

Frosty The Lucky. 

My paternal granddaddy also had a big anvil and a hand-cranked blower.  He turned me onto woodworking at an early age, and I never saw him use the anvil.  So, when he died at 91 or 92, my aunt let me comb through his worldly possessions and keep what I wanted.  I snagged his old Montgomery-Wards wood lathe, a few Craftsman polished aluminum power tools, and a University of Alabama football program that has Joe Namath in it, but I didn't even think about that anvil until I got into blacksmithing  five years ago.  It now hurts my heart that I don't have it.  Maybe it was just too heavy for me to mess with.  I don't remember, really.  It was over 30 years ago. Still kicking my own rear end.

Frosty-I'm going to make a separate log with the tips you've shared.  Seriously.  Thank you.

MeltedSocks-awww man, that's tough to hear!!  Wish it would have been a different story for you.  Would be nice if there was a show/etc out there where people could be reunited with the things that "got away" like they have with car owners being reunited with the old car they had from 30 years ago.

For real!  I want my Datsun B210, my Ford Maverick, International Harvester Scout II, Triumph Spitfire, and my '81 Ford F-100 back!

It ain't quite the original, but I had something similar. My neighbor went into a home awhile back and after helping look after the place for a few years and helping clean it up/out, I ended up with one of their horded cars, an 85 Civic Hatchback. It's not the 83 Tercel I had for my first car, but it's darned close and gets 40 to the gallon in town. Hadn't realized how much I miss driving clutch. It was also weird to see how insanely popular it is at my kid's school. I still saw it as a baseline economy car but they think of it as a classic.

I seem to remember somewhere that the top half of the Vulcan horns were steel, not cast iron. I might cautiously think about cleaning that up, but probably not - the hardened layer won't be that thick, and besides, you're mostly either drawing on it or bending, so it doesn't matter as much. I usually only clean mine up to make them pointy again when somebody has blunted them because they got tired of being stabbed in the thigh every time they turned around.  Not that he needs my approval, but Frosty is right all around on the clean-up of the face.