anvil restoration

Welding rod, and a grinder.

Search Google. It's been put up on quite a few websites.

Cheers Trevor Jones

I have some quantity of 43% alloy, cobalt hard facing rod called Cobalarc. It is in 10 lbs unopened packages. It may be useful for hardfacing that anvil. I can sell one package.

i

Duh. Never thought to Google. Thanks.

John

Think I've got some Hard surfacing rod. I just hadn't thought that far into the project. John

Whats the length of the working surface? A 1/4in over a couple of feet is an advantage, on any anvil less than

12in its too much.

because if yove done any thicker iron straitening you need a depression to hammer the metal into to take it past its yeild point to get it quite level. Certainly hard face up the edges if theve become somewhat rounded. Tho id only do one side as sometimes you need an edge thats not sharp.

I had an anvil come my way that had a 1in depression in the bic. I filled it in with weld then hard faced on top, you wouldnt know it had been damaged. you need to check what type of anvil yours is It could be old ,forged from wrought iron with crucible steel fire welded on the top. Look carefully underneath as if its got a square type of hole in it its an iron one not steel. These holes were used to hold it whilst it was being hot forged to shape. Some muscle mem!! with sledge hammers.

If it is its rare and you need to be careful what you do to it not to depreciate its antique value. Ive several anvils here, one from about 1750, one dated 1914 ex UK cavalry shoeing /farriers weight 112lbs. and a modern swedish steel thats about 1935, signed with themakersname.

As to the right working height, you need to have it on some end grain tree round so your nuckles just touch the face when you stand along side with your arm hanging down.

I dont do much iron work mostly forging copper ,bronze and silver on it. So ive polished the face to reduce tooling marks.

Have fun!!!.,

You want to use a milder rod for the majority of the fill, and harface only for the last couple passes, according to what I have read.

I think that the reality is, that no matter what you use, the anvil will outlast all you can use it, as well as it's next three owners.

There are damn few shops left in the world that do enough work to wear out a big anvil,even a soft faced one, and most of them use presses or power hammers these days, rather than a team of strikers with sledgehammers.

Cheers Trevor Jones

The flat is about 17 inches long and dished about 1/4" which I find too much.

It has a square hole in the bottom so I guess that makes it forged iron? I can't find any markings on it anywhere. haven't ever weighed it, Only know that at one time I could lift it, can't anymore. It sits on a block of elm. I had a friend who insisted that the only way to set up an anvil was on the end of a 12 to 16 foot tree set into the shop floor. Otherwise it bounced too much. I've never had a shop quite that permanent!

John

snip>>

good points.

John

Actually a tree stump is not necessary. You can make a base out of 3/4" plywood scraps. The base sorta looks like a cube that is larger at the base and then smaller at the top. Measure the base of the anvil and add a couple of inches in both directions this will be the size of the opening at the top of the cube. Increase the dimensions of the top by

2-3" in each directions. These will be the dimensions of the base of the cube Add a piece of plywood to bottom the cube. Make sure the joints are tight or use a sealant on all joints. Place the box where you want the anvil to be and fill the box with sand. Level the sand so you are 3" from the top. Now you can place your anvil on top of the sand. This box will keep the anvil from walking when hit and it will reduce the ring by 80%. Michael Knott

Hi John, It sounds like it IS an iron one!! probably the standard Victorian 1 and a 1/4 cwt pattern.nice! better than all steel. Now Id suggest you take a small grinder to the top and see what kind of sparks you get. then grind some off say, 1 side. If the top is layered with crucible steel youll see very different sparks than from the side.

If you plan to build it up with weld, can you leave it in the sun from morning till say mid afternoon? to warm it through? as theres a risk of cracking the steel layer when you arc into it cold as in over night temp. As for age certainly before 1866, when Bessemer introduced the steel process., making steel cheap enough to use right through most things. if you look at where the four sides splay out , you may see notches on the top of the shoulders. If you do, its where the smith has been testing the hardness of the the chisels hed been reforging. when youve done welding, leave to cool slowly out of draughts. If youve an asbestos blanket put that over it over night . Grind up next day. If it is forged , as in hammered , the sides will look somewhat uneven.Thats because they made these anvils from scrap wrought iron and never got it as smooth as the later cast steel ones.

Does anyone know more than Google does about Wilkinson anvils? After reading this post I reexamined the old anvil - with MY name on it - I tripped over in the back of a friend's garage. "son" was stamped very lightly with a different stamp and "Joseph" or crossed ovals aren't visible. It weighs 0 1 8.

Jim Wilkins

for anvil stuff look around in this page

mike

begin 666 [ABANA] The Artist Blacksmith's Association of North America, Inc..url M6TEN=&5R;F5T4VAO

You can straighten stock just fine on a swaybacked anvil. Unless there us something unusual there isn't a reason to straighten it, especially if it's just 1/4". Have you tried straightening anything on it? Has it been a problem? Are you straightening hot metal, or cold?

If you decide to hardface it be prepared for a lot of grinding... you might want to run it through a Blanchard grinder or a surface grinder.