What does one do if one has an anvil that had a hardy of 3/4 and is now worn out to 13/16+-

I know MSC has 13/16 cold drawn bar but that would be expensive and defeating to start making specialty sized stakes that only work in one anvil. Do people normally bore it out to 7/8? Is that unheard of?

:confused:

You could make a sleeve that would tighten up the fit, one sleeve for use with all hardies.

You could make a sleeve that would tighten up the fit, one sleeve for use with all hardies.

How does one find a sleeve with 13/16 outsides and 3/4" insides? Does such a thing even exist?

Trick from Jnr I believe. Find a suitably thick piece of angle iron about 3 or 4 inches long. Cut down the spine half way and bend the flats out to 90 degrees. Drop into your hardy hole first then put the hardy tool in. It resizes the hardy into a corner.

My hardy hole had been worn to a very awkward rectangular 29 by 34 mm. I made a little insert from flar bar that I welded around a good 3/4" piece of square bar and grinded to fit. The flange on top is to make it removable. I thought about welding it in but decided that is too permanent. So far it gave good use.

You would have to grind or file it to fit, sorry I didn't explain that. Like Sir Ian said above it may end up being just one "side of the Hole". And also Jacques picture illustrates what I was talking about.

Arc or mig some small blobs on two sides of the plug in piece on your hardies and file or grind the weld spots so you hardy tools fit into the hole without a lot of play. The tools are not designed to fit perfectly and if the anvil gets hot they may be difficult to remove. Thinking about how a hardy hole would have so much wear only makes me believe they were never that true to begin with.

Hardy tools are supposed to fit on the loose side. Older anvils were hand punched and can be off to start with too. If you need something held tight use the postvise!

I'm with Rich, build up the shaft of your tools rather than mess with that little of play in your hardy hole.

I have 3 anvils with 1.5" hardy holes and I have had to use two pieces of nesting square tubing to get the hardy hole close to some of my tooling. I cut down the corners and then bend them out flat and you can stack them as needed.

One trick I have seen was to paint the tooling according to the size of the shaft so it's easy to see which tools fit in what hardy hole.

Edited February 10, 200917 yr by ThomasPowers

just a idea forge you something to fit your hardy hole and leave it alone most holes that i have seen are not exact anyway so make tour hardy post fit the hole

Thanks for the ideas and techniques guys. Appreciate it.

My hardy hole is just under 1", I got some 1" square and just forged it to fit, takes a little effort, but it works well.

I have a trick that works well with a 1" hardy hole. Use 25mm stock to make your hardy shank. It is only slightly smaller than an inch but it gives a lovely snug fit but still loose enough to get in and out easily.

because I have one of the old trusty russian HF anvils with the diamond hardy hole, I have to make virtually all of my own hardy tools. I have found that making the stem from a piece of round rod or pipe that fits the hole works well. If I need the tool to stay put, I build up one or two sides (of a circle:D) with a few beads from the welder. works fine so far.

Another trick was to use heavy angle for the stem. Grind it to fit the hole and weld to the base of the tooling

Like most things blacksmithing, I probably read about these ideas here on the forum

For odd shaped hardy holes, use a piece of 1" heavy wall square tubing.* Weld the tool to the tubing shank and heat it up to low red.* Tap the edges of the tubing so that it forms a parallelogram, or a diamond, full length.* Drop it into the hardy hole to make sure it has a snug fit.* When it cools it will slide in and out easily and the diamond shaped shank holds in oposite corners.* Needless to say, this won't work on 3/4" hardy holes.

When I make hardy tools, I always make them a little long, so if they get stuck, I can hammer them out from underneath.

I saw Elmer Roush at a demo, making a hardy tool blank. He hammered it into the hardy hole with a mark (centerpunch) facing him. He said the hardy tools should be made to fit one anvil in one direction, not a sloppy fit. In his experience, even "identical" new anvils had different size/shape holes and the tools would not interchange.

If I sell my anvil, all the hardy tools I've made will go with it.

Good Luck!