Anvils: Types and
Specifcations
First, one should recognize there is no "standard" anvil. During the
early part of the twentieth century, shortly before the automobile and
other technical advances put the American Blacksmith out of business,
anvils were made in great quantity and under great competition. Most
anvils were made in the London pattern or it's modification the
American pattern (narrower waist, mass moved into horn and heal).
Other than this brief period anvils were made in a great variety.
Today there are still a number of manufactures making anvils but in
small quantities and there are still organizations and individuals
that make anvils to suit themselves.
Any book on blacksmithing will give the shape and basic nomenclature.
Start with Bealer's classic The Art of Blacksmithing, p.65 Medieval
Anvils, p.66 The London Anvil and nomenclature, p.68 A Lięges anvil.
Then try Eric Sloane's A Museum of Early American Tools, pp.90-93
Early, Colonial, Stake, Nailers.
And for a classic of custom design see Otto Schmirler's Werk und
Werkzeug des Kunstschmieds, the most beautifully illustrated book
about Blacksmithing that I've ever seen.
Old industrial catalogs will often include photos and specs of the
anvils they carried. Industrial Supply Corp., Richmond, VA, 1955
catalog, page 172 lists Fisher "Eagle" Anvils from 50 to 700 pounds,
"The face is made from one piece of high grade tool steel,
accurately ground and tempered. Will not settle, break or
become loose. Horn is a solid piece of forged steel. Body is
of gun iron".
This catalog also included a variety Blacksmith's hand tools and
forges.
Reprints of catalogs such as old Sears and Roebucks are also a good
source of anvil data. In 1984 the Mid-West Tool Collectors reprinted
the 1915 Sears, Roebuck and Co., Tools Machinery Blacksmith's Supplies
catalogue. In 1985 the same catalog was reprinted a second time in
cooperation with A.B.A.N.A. It includes "Acme" (probably Hay-Buden)
steel faced wrought iron anvils, "Steel Face Cast Anvils" and "Chilled
Face Cast Iron Anvils." Weights range from 220 pounds to 20 pounds.
Specialty anvils such as the Farriers anvil sometimes have a bulge to
one side of the horn for forging caulks. V-grooves ground in the face
are also offered. Today's American made Farriers Anvil has a very
narrow waist (approx equal to the face width) and exaggerated horn and
heal. They are not suitable for general work. Formerly, Hay-Budden
produced a Farriers anvil that was their standard anvil with one
corner of the table removed and two pritchel holes (one extra).
Currently European anvils are big on an added block on one side of the
anvil extending to the base called an upsetting block. Europeans are
also keen on double horned anvils (one conical, one pyramidal). THEN,
if we wish to avoid being Eurocentric in our views, the classic
Japanese anvil was a rectangular block set into the ground the smith
also sitting on the ground. This Eastern way of working was practiced
in Ancient Greece and is still practiced in India and Southeast Asia.
Other specialty anvils include the ancient Nailers anvil, Sawyers
anvils, Armorer's anvils, Jewelers anvils and various stake anvils.
CUSTOM ANVILS: Surprisingly custom made anvils are more common than
you would think. Otto Schmirler's personal anvils mentioned above were
made of cast steel from his own patterns in several sizes. At Colonial
Williamsburg they wanted anvils with an old look but did not want to
be wearing out real antiques. They had anvils cast (probably in
ductile iron) and hard faced using special welding rod (Eutectic(tm)
most likely). I knew a blacksmith that used an anvil built by
lamination of plates arc welded together. There are also railroad
track anvils, I-beam anvils (not recomended) and I've had numerous
requests for information on ordering square heavy plate student anvils
(10x10x4" - 113#). Then there's my 500lb. cut from 4145 plate custom
anvil design that I will probably never make. . .
MATERIALS: The earliest anvils were stone and used for working stone.
Bronze age anvils were mostly stone but it would seem that bronze
would work, developing a very hard surface from work hardening.
Granite would have made the best stone anvil.
It has been postulated by historians that the earliest anvil was
meteoric iron. However, rare metoric iron would have been much too
valuable to use when a common piece of granite would do. The first
iron anvils would come with the iron age. For centuries anvils were
made of wrought iron with a thin layer of steel welded to the face. As
steel became more common these plates became thicker but were often a
cause of failure. Not until the 1800's did crucible steel become
common enough to use a plate thick enough to be reliable.
Today most good quality anvils are made of cast steel the type
dependent on the manufacturer. There are also a large number of cast
iron "shop anvils" sold. Cast iron anvils are worthless for forging as
they are dead (no rebound) and very brittle.
Modern anvils have been made by a number of methods.
Wrought iron bodies with heavy face plates welded on.
Cast iron or ductile iron bodies cast onto a steel face
plate.
Solid steel castings (hardened, tempered and stress
relieved)
All these methods make fine anvils. They all have their good and bad
points.
HARDNESS: Ideally the face of an anvil should be as hard as it can be
made. Problems arise at the corners where hard means brittle and
corners shatter. Selective tempering helps but sometimes leaves
corners too soft. Studying used anvils it is obvious that the faces
are generally as hard as can be made with a mild tempering.
Typically I have found that small anvils (less than 150 pounds) have
very hard faces and corners. As anvils get progressivly larger they
tend to have progressivly softer corners. I believe this is due to an
inability to get a good quench on bigger anvils and possibly due to
manufacturers tempering them to prevent breakage.
My 11th edition of Machinery's Handbook (1942) has a paragraph on
anvils but nothing specific about hardness. One must also consider
that the majority of anvils in existance were manufactured before
hardness testing was common or any type of standards existed.
I would guess that high quality anvils were faced with 80 point carbon
steel and hardened and tempered to 60-65 Rockwell C. There also may
have been additional selective tempering around the edges to 45-50 Rc.ANVILS Making a good inexpensive anvil
You can order from most Steel Service Centers, fine flame cut 4140 or
4150 tool steel billets. A 4"x10"x10" block weighs about 114 pounds
and can be had for $1.20 a pound. J.T. Ryerson and Sons will also
Blanchard grind this block (at extra cost). For $125 and some sweat
equity grinding the surfaces you can have a fine anvil. These alloys
can also be flame hardened. A36 (structural) plate is a little cheaper
but is also serviceable. The resulting anvil is the same as used since
the beginning of the iron age and is still in use by the Japanese
swordsmith.
Slab anvil on a wooden stand. Holes drilled through to
[Image] use for punching. The hole on the face intersects with
a larger hole to alow pieces punched out to fall
through.
Those of you using railroad track (for whatever): Did you know rail is
a high alloy carbon steel that can be hardened to the max? It makes
great fullers (sawed of in narrow pieces), and set tools can be made
similarly. Oil quench this steel. Water quenching will crack it. NOTE:
Very early (antique) rail may be wrought iron, not hardenable, but a
great source of wrought.
ANVILS Buying used anvils
Used anvils vary in price from 25 cents to 3 dollars a pound. In the
1960's the rule of thumb was $1/lb. Today the market is just crazy. It
all depends on who's buying and who's selling. I've been lucky and
bought some realy nice anvils at a little less than $1/lb. I've also
been given anvils for free (twice!) and have sold anvils for as much
as 2.25/lb. New anvils sell for $5 to $6 a pound and there is some
question as to the quality sometimes.
The trick is knowing a good anvil from a bad anvil. When buying and
using old anvils you have to overlook a lot of little chips and dings.
Anvils in good condition don't have cracks or big chunks missing. Good
anvils have wrought iron or steel bodies and a hard steel face. Cast
iron anvils are junk and not worth the metal it took to make them. A
good anvil has quick rebound when struck with a hard hammer. Good
anvils ring when struck depending on how they are mounted. An anvil
that is clamped or bolted down dosn't ring very well. Small anvils in
the 100 lb. range will ring enough to hurt the ears while large anvils
in the 300 lb range generally ring less. Taping the horn or heal from
the side will make an anvil ring more than when struck on the face. An
other wise good anvil rings less or not at all if it is cracked (a
hard call).
Modern farriers anvils with the very long horn and heal, narrow waist
and arched base are not suitable for general blacksmithing NOR
manufacturing horseshoes. They are a light duty device for adjustment
and modification of factory made shoes. Many people (including myself)
classify small 90-125# American pattern anvils as farriers anvils. The
advantage of these small anvils is portability. The London pattern
anvil with less horn and heal in the same weight class is OK for light
general work. A serious blacksmith will wear out a small anvil in a
short time (a year or less). For general work an anvil of 200 lbs or
more is needed. Because small 100-130# anvils are very common they
sell for less. Bigger anvils generally sell for more per pound due to
their rarity.
When is an anvil "worn out?" When the face starts to get sway backed
to the point you don't need a straight edge to tell. When the face
starts showing a fine pattern of stress cracks. When any part breaks
off the anvil without undue abuse (ALL anvils are abused to some
degree). It is common on very old anvils with thin steel faces for
peices of the face to break off or get worn through.
Broken worn out anvils have their uses and thus have some monetary
value. They are better than no anvil at all and generally better than
railroad track anvils. At this point the question becomes, "Is this a
museum piece?" and "Should I be pounding on a museum piece?" Tough
questions that even museum curators fight over.
Anvils Quality, welding and other anvil miscelania
QUALITY OF OLD ANVILS: Those familiar with anvils can tell a good one
at a distance. If an anvil is old and has been used a lot but not
abused it will show its age by the thousands of little dings in its
surface. Even the hardest of anvil faces will show use. This well used
look indicates that the anvil has stood up to years of pounding and
has taken it in stride. If the anvil is sway backed or the horn or
heal droops the anvil has been abused, is of poor quality or has been
used for too heavy of survice. It is not unusual to see chisel marks
on the horn and table. There should not be any on the horn but is is
easy enough to clean them up. On your Swedish cast steel anvils is is
not unusual to see significant chipping along the edges of the face.
This is more common on the side away from the smith or tward him if he
had a striker helping him. Almost all good quality anvils eventually
end up with some chipping along the edges.
Test the anvil's ring. Almost all good anvils will ring like a bell
under the right conditions. First the anvil must be free to move. It
can not be bolted or clamped down. There can not be anything sitting
on it (not even a hardy in the hardy hole). It should be sitting
upright on a hard flat surface. If you can, slip a piece of wood under
the anvil. Then with a hammer give the face a little tap near the
center. The hammer should have a crowned semi flat face without sharp
corners. The anvil should ring and the hammer rebound with almost as
much energy as you put into it. If you could not hear the ring (too
much Rock & Roll), give the side of the horn or heal a tap (sideways).
That should produce a clear bell like tone. If not, hit it harder.
Don't be timid. Its not proper etiquette to strike the face of someone
else's anvil. They don't know if you
know the difference between striking the face of an anvil with the
flat of the hammer or the corner. So ask if they mind if you "ring"
their anvil. I'm generaly testing anvils at auctions and don't want to
atract too much attention ringing the anvil so I do it quietly.
Good hard anvils ring brightly. The larger the anvil the lower the
pitch especially when struck from the side. The harder the anvil the
higher the pitch. Small anvils tend to be harder than large anvils due
to the inability to quickly quench a large anvil. Cast iron anvils,
poorly heat treated anvils and cracked anvils do not ring. Really bad
cast iron anvils have no rebound.
So, the anvil rings but looks like heck. If there are a few square
inches of flat face and the horn isn't broken off buy it but pay less
than $1/lb (US). IF the anvil looks great AND rings like a bell, buy
it, pay what you have to get it (within reason). If the anvil looks
like new, makes a dull thud when you hit it and has no rebound then
let someone else have it. This is a door stop.
VALUE OF ANVILS: New anvils suitable for Blacksmithing sell for around
$7/lb (US). Small used anvils in the 100 pound range have been selling
for $1/lb since the 1950's. Larger anvils suitable for general shop
work (150 to 250 pounds) sell for more per pound but $2 to $3/lb seems
to be mormal. Considering the cost of new anvils, used anvils have
been a bargain for a long time. Meanwhile there are fewer
manufacturers and less new anvils sold. Old Hay-Buddens, Peter Wrights
and Kolhswas are as good as or better than new and have been selling
for considerably less for a long time. I do not see how this trend can
last.
On the other hand, I've been given anvils (never when you need one),
I've paid 25c for small anvils and $1.10/lb for a really nice 300
pound anvil at auction while bidding against other Blacksmiths!
MACHINING an ANVIL: IF you can machine the top of your new anvil it is
much too soft. Most anvils will wreck carbide tooling. Anvils have the
top surfaced and ground before hardening. It is possible to regrind an
anvil but precision grinders large enough to do the job are very
expensive on an hourly basis. Most of the time an anvil can be hand
ground with an angle grinder (carefully) and a belt sander.
WELDING ANVIL CORNERS: It is best to leave the edges of your anvil
alone unless it is completely useless. Preheating is only a small part
of the problem. Good anvil faces are straight high carbon tool steel
(no alloying). These steels are very temperature sensitive and will
temper or soften at any temperature that produces temper colors. IF
the area around your weld repair does not crack it will be soft. Any
time repairs are to be made on an anvil face you should plan on
re-heat treating the entire anvil.
WELDING ANVIL FACES: Anvils with wrought bodies and steel faces have
the faces forge welded on. This means they have a continous weld the
size of the face. Cast iron anvils with steel faces are made by a
special foundry process where the face is placed in the mold and the
hot iron poured to create a weld. This process probably included a
flux coating of some type. Eagle anvils were made this way and a
wrought horn was included as well.
It is reported that some cheap anvils had their faces brazed on. I
would think that if a heavy plate were to be furnace brazed (like
carbide inserts) that this would make a fair anvil.
Welding a plate around the edge to reface an anvil will produce an
unsatifactory product as there will be little or no rebound. This is a
common method of repair that is bound to lead to trouble later.
MORE on ANVIL REPAIRS: Unless your anvil is in really terrible
condition you should leave it alone and work around the flaws. OR have
an expert welder do the repairs. The first problem is determining what
kind of anvil you have. Many older anvils have a wrought iron bodies
with a tool steel face welded on. The ones with faces less than 3/8"
thick are not very good anvils OR belong in a museum. Those with a
good heavy hard tool steel face are very good anvils. The problem is
that you will probably damage the surounding face repairing a small
spot. The face will crack or become softened in the weld area. Some
anvils are solid cast steel while some cheap ones are cast iron OR
cast iron with a thin steel face. If your anvil has some mild pitting
from rust or fatigue your best bet is to regrind the face with a belt
sander or HD angle grinder. If using an angle grinder be sure you're
darn good at making flat surfaces first! When roughness of anvil face
is caused by fatigue there will be thousands of underlying microfine
cracks near the surface. Extreame expansion and contraction caused by
welding will open and extend these cracks causing more problems.
Removing a small amount of the fatigued surface (1/32" or less) may
increase the life of the anvil. On the good cast steel Sweedish anvils
your best bet is to grind as much as you need being careful not to
overheat the face. Then be sure to radius the corners when finished.
One Sweedish manufacturer recomended stress releiving a new anvil face
with a small ball pean hammer. They recomended starting at the center
and working toward the edges in a circular pattern taping the face at
close intervals. They stressed avoiding the corners and to repeat the
process several times. This is probably a good recomendation for any
reground or resurfaced anvil face. Many people claim success repairing
an anvil face using Eutectic(tm) Hard Facing Rod. Generally this means
a complete refacing. Eutectic provides procedures for preheat,
application and heat treating. See your welding supplier for details.
This is not a cheap repair. Somewhere, I read that a pattern of
stainless steel weld beads will act as a cushion and help the
transition from the low allow high carbon anvil face to the high alloy
hard facing rod. I do know that stainless rod works well when welding
high allow steels such as wrenches and sockets. In the case of antique
anvils with a very thin steel face on a wrought iron body it is
probably best to remove the entire face before hard facing. Often
these old anvil faces were pieced together from several pieces of tool
steel and tend to come apart on thes joints. SO, live with it, work
around it or grind it but make weld repair a last option.
Anvils Grinding corners
ANVIL CORNERS: When I talk about grinding and resurfacing an anvil
with angle grinder and belt sander I am talking about 1/64 to 1/32
inch MAX! Badly chipped corners can be either radiused or chamfered.
It is common to see anvils with a heavy (3/8") 45 degree chamfer along
the edges from the table to the back side of the body. The rest should
have a minimum of a 1/8" radius on the corners extending around the
heel. The corners of the chamfer should also be slightly radiused. All
these surfaces should be finely finished after grinding.
Anvils Testing Rebound
To test an anvil's rebound which is a function of the face hardness:
Set it upright. Hold a 3lb or less, ball peen or smithing hammer,
handle parallel to the face, over the center of the anvil with both
hands, the tips of the fingers acting like pivots at the end of the
handle the other hand supporting the head. Use the flat face of the
hammers not the peen! About 8 to 10 inches height will do. THEN Drop
the head and observe how far the hammer rebounds. It should rebound
about 1/3 the height dropped, then 1/3 of that and so on. On a cast
iron anvil it will bounce about 1/10 the initial distance or less.
With a hard hammer on a really hard (smaller) anvil the rebound may be
as much as 1/2!
WARNING! You should never strike the face of an anvil with a hammer!
(It does happen though). This test is NOT the same as striking the
anvil.
The Steel Ball Test:
A test inspired by Robert Bastow when he commented on anvilfire by
saying, "You could bounce a 1" steel ball off the monitor!"
Obtain a steel ball bearing ball (1/2" (13mm) to 1"(25mm)) in
diameter. Drop the ball from about 10" onto the face of the anvil. On
a really hard anvil the ball will bounce about 75-90% of the distance
dropped.
We tested a number of anvils and other items in several shops one
weekend (later adding to the list) and here are the results (no one we
knew had a cheap anvil to test).
* 93% - Peddinghaus 165# Forged Steel Anvil
* 85-90% - KOLHSWA 325# Swedish Cast Steel Anvil 55-57 HRC
* 85% - Black Granite Surface Plate 8" thick
* 80-85% - High quality wrought anvils - Hay-Budden & Peter
Wright (average)
* 65% - OLD 18th Century hornless anvil with 5th foot - about
75 pounds.
* 55% - Worn out old anvil, looks like an old Mouse Hole circa
1800
* 50% - Rail road rail - short section of modern 150# section
* 35% - Colonial Anvil 125# missing horn and worn out!
* 30% - Monel Boat Shafting (50/50 Cr/Ni)
* 25% - 2024-T4 Aluminium (hard, aircraft type)
* 25% - Annealed SAE 4140
* 20-25% - Ductile Iron Swage block
* 20% - A-36 Structural steel plate 8" thick
* 15% - Aged Concrete (Smooth)
* 15% - Milling machine Table (Mehanite)
* 5-10% - Massive cast iron weld platen
* 5% - Red oak log (endgrain)
-------------------------
Testing was performed using a 1" (25.4mm) hard steel ball dropped from
a 10" (254mm) height. Percent was read directly from a scale in
inches. Results will vary dependant on the hardness of the ball used,
sample surface texture/flatness and mass. We found it best to test
several different places on the anvil and take an average. In each
spot the highest bounce is the correct one. Lower bounces are due to
surface irregularities. Materials below 30% rebound were visibly
marked by the ball. These are NOT scientific results.
SHORE SCLEROSCOPE
The technique above is similar to the method of
operation of a Shore Scleroscope which is one of
several rebound type hardness testing devices. The
scleroscope uses a diamond tipped "hammer" which
is bounced off the test surface. The rebound
height was recorded on a direct reading scale
[Shore Scleroscope] (much easier than trying to watch the bouncing
Model D-1 ball). This test is no longer used for determining
hardness as it is affected by resiliency, however,
for our purposes this is exactly what we want -
combined hardness and resiliency. Other methods of
testing hardness (Rockwell, Brinell, Vickers. . .)
use a heavy "penatrator" to produce a circular
depression in the surface tested and the size of
the depression is measured.
For testing the hardness of steel balls by the rebound method a
blacksmith's anvil was recomended by the 1942 Edition of ASM Hardness
and Hardness Measurments handbook! Shore's hardness tester is used
little today however his hardness/resiliency scale for elastomers
"Shore's durometer" is the industry standard.
CORRECTIONS: We retested the KOLHSWA and the Peddinghaus after testing
several other anvils. The Peddinghaus always exceeds 90%. My KOLHSWA
seems to have a soft place toward the heal. Retesting showed that most
of the face was harder than the original data (85-90% vs. 75%) and it
moved up in the list. The Rockwell number listed for the KOLHSWA is
from their sales data. The Hay-Buddens we tested were all over 200
pounds. Our experiance with these is that the smaller anvils are quite
a bit harder.
Copyright © 1997, 1998 Jock Dempsey |