Please let us know somethings that you don't want to do to your anvil..and things you might want to do, to prevent *anvil abuse*

Never let a cutting edge touch the anvil. Always use a cutting plate, never the step on the anvil.

Anything that would damage the tool / anvil is abuse. Any use for which the tool / anvil was not designed could be considered abuse, including using too heavy a hammer for the size of the anvil.

People hammering on a piece of metal and hitting the anvil at the same time they hit the piece they are working on! Or missing the piece entirely and hitting the anvil.

I make the beginners use the Old cracked anvil, till I See they have control before EVER hitting anything on my good ones. Normaly I use that for hardie tools.

spray i down with wd40 every now and then to prevent rust if the air is humid where your shop is (im near a river)

One thing I noticed over the two years that I could not forge was that not using and anvil can and will encourage additional corrosion and such that I had never seen when it was used regularly...

One of the things I learned not to do on an anvil was to use the horn as a way to spread chain links and rings (at least not until I improved my aim with a hammer considerably.)

When I first got my PW several years ago, the horn was already blunt, and I made it worse with poor hammer aim.

I now use bicks for that sort of work.

No chisels without a cutting plate and dont get wild with the hammer..Your moving metal, not killing a hog Ive always been very particular about my tools..Ive worked to hard to get them, just to abuse them..

When I got back to China after summer vacation 2006 somebody had used my anvil to arc weld on. Fortunately this was when all I could get were Chinese ASOs. I was mad but really it didn't matter too much. What I did, though, was when I got my 2 properanvils I made a locking steel cover for each so they can only be used by people who have the necessary keys.

Also I grease the face of my anvil if I am not going to be using it for a while. The sidesn are painted and this stops corrosion which is a major problem here.

Save a piece of scrap or an ASO for hammering cold, straightening things etc. Otherwise it is just too easy easy to be tempted to put cold stuff on the real anvil and hit it!

Make a cutting plate with a bit of square solid or even box section on the back to use with a chisel. A piece of truck leaf spring is as good as anything.

Make a cutting plate with a bit of square solid or even box section on the back to use with a chisel. A piece of truck leaf spring is as good as anything.

Ideally you want your cutting plate to be soft. So that it does not damage the tool that is cutting into it. I see a lot of people using aluminum. If you use a truck leaf spring, you might chip or damage your tool.

I'm thinking of adding some metal to my anvil plate so the hardy hole will hold it in place.. would that work. Whats your thoughts/

I prefer a saddle; when it's hot you can slide it out of the way (or right off the end) without burning your hands.

I mostly use soft cheap hammers when working near the edge of my anvil (I forge my blades to finished, so I work really close). That way I ding the hammer and not the good anvil.

I did find that my brand new anvil is softer than my 100+year old stump It was a student who showed me that one

I like a saddle too, it allows me to use a hold fast at the same time.

Frosty

I have never had trouble hammering mild steel on my anvil. I think one thing to think about to keep an anvil looking good is to work on lots of different areas. Try not to do all your work in one spot. I do lots of hot cutting and punching and I tend not to harden those tools. Even if I mess up it doesn't damage the anvil. You can use nice steel that will last a very long time without much edge maintenance and do lots of work with it while still keeping the edge softer than the anvil. When I was teaching at a school I would keep a plate on top of my anvil so no one could damage it. One can use hammers with softer faces for beginners to prevent the anvil from getting damaged. As long as the steels really hot it won't make a difference.

Following is page on my web site on the Care and Maintenance of anvils. It is not all inclusive, but might be of interest:ANVIL-CARE-and-MAINTENANCE-of-a-NEW-or-OLD

I thought that is why it is called a "cutting table"?
Granted, you can't usualy use a hold down if you're on the cutting table but, I use it all the time.
Now to be perfectly honest I don't cut on the Hay-Bud but I do on the Russian all the time.
One thing my Hay-Bud is good for is teaching a painfull lesson to you if you miss the work and hit the face.
Last week I was trying to make a slight tapper to the edge of a piece and had my face too close to the anvil face. I made a miss hit and was rewarded with a lite ding to my fore head. Fortunatly it was only a 20oz. ball peen but, you get the picture...

NO O/A Had a 150lb Trenton neighbor had cut 13 places with the blue wrench. Luckly only cut thru 1/2 the top plate. 14.5 inches total. Welded up and ground and saved it. 88lb H-B hit with too big a hammer. Horn gone from 3/8 in from table. Studded and welded a 31/2 rb cut and shaped looks like new.
Ken

I went into my smithy the other day and the first thing I do is look at my anvil (Dont we all?). Well what I saw confused me???? I observed what looked to be a damp spot..thats funny I dont have a leak in the roof..even weirder is, it has not rained....MMMmmmmmI dont remember working with any lubricants on my anvil...what the???? So I moved cautiously closer..hovered over it..placed a finger on it..raised my finger to my nose and sniffed.....frowned somewhat...my brain and senses processed what I had just done and came to the conclusion...rather quickly..'WHAT THE'.......that smells like??....perfume!!!...'WHAT THE'...."MEG...MEEEEGGGGGG" (my wifes name) She arrived to say "Yes honey?"...." Whats this?'...."Oh I just thought I would remind you what I smell like considering lately you have reminded me WHAT YOU SMELL LIKE!" Yes she had placed a dab of scented oil on 'MY ANVIL' what could I say but "OK honey message recieved loud and clear... NOW dont ever ever ever do that again BECAUSE THATS NOT WHAT YOU DO TO AN ANVIL" She's a cheeky girl and I love the fact she lets me play with my iron.... But there is limitations....dont you agree????

I try to keep my anvil nice and clean, but the moisture seems to put a lot of surface rust on it all the time. Can I cover it with bees wax to prevent the rusting?

Trimmer

I put a coating of car wax on my anvils and other tools in my shop, as I have tried other coatings over the years and that seems to work well for me. So far the car wax applies easily, prevents rust, does not smell very much, lasts a long time on tools in storage, and has not caught fire when using the surface of an anvil that it is on.

Don

The big question would be, Is it a wedge shape hardy tool that split the heal or someone used a sledge over the heal and broke it? One of the top smith here uses a wedge shape shank for a hardy cutter so it locks in place, And i did make a few and they work great.However if one made say a bottom die tool with a wedge shape shank to fit the hardy hole and used it to draw steel with a striker and a heavy sledge, Which is not the best place for heavy work ( on mine anyway) then that might split it. Also a very cold anvil is not good because some say the horn and possibly the heal can break clean off pretty easy with the wrong blow.

NO O/A Had a 150lb Trenton neighbor had cut 13 places with the blue wrench. Luckly only cut thru 1/2 the top plate. 14.5 inches total. Welded up and ground and saved it. 88lb H-B hit with too big a hammer. Horn gone from 3/8 in from table. Studded and welded a 31/2 rb cut and shaped looks like new.
Ken

I have a 280 lb Vulcan -- same thing, had been used as a rest for O/A cutting, deep cuts along both edges. Built up with with 7018 and has worked well for 18 years.