52100 block anvil "backyard" hardening?

Sam Salvati

Sam Salvati

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Aug 6, 2007
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Got this block from Chuck of 52100, roughly 5.5 inches square, 6.5 inches long. Technology at my disposal, forge that could heat atleast 1 inch of depth of the face of the 5 inch side, possibly a 55 gallon drum of regular waste oil, and the massive desire to pull this off:D. Not going for anything serious like knife stuff, just enough hardness all over the face to not ding, increase the rebound a bit and make a hard lasting tool. Any help and/or advice is welcome, just going to go with the standard heat and soak, a bit past non magnetic as evenly as the forge will allow, soak for as long as is needed for about an inch depth of non magnetic heat then lift with a hook eye on the bottom and dunk in the vat of 120F oil and pump it up and down and side to side agitating as much as possible. Would a faster quench be be more beneficial to get hardness even in the middle of the face? By only heating up a certain rough depth of 1 inch of the face with the heat trailing off, will the hardness decreas as you go farther away from the face, giving a sort of soft base to support the hard face? Planning on either drawing the temper colors to temper, or soaking in a hot bath for a couple hours. Please keep in mind I am working on the no tech basic only tools, thanks.
 
I have no 52100 in the shop. Was doing a demo at a blacksmith conference and was handed a piece of it if I remember right, and it was really tough to forge. Had a small power hammer too. If indeed it was 52100 I'm thinking it may not need a heat treat for a block anvil.

Correct me if I'm wrong anybody with experience with it.

There is always the possibilty that it wasn't 52100 and someone just wanted to see me sweat. :):)

Edit: Found this post on a forum about 52100

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-497987.html
 
I saw Chuck's tape on anvil making, and the thing that sticks is that it took half an hour to cool the thing down and get the heat out. He was using about 40 points of carbon and super quench and didn't want any draw at all.

So the problem would be whether the oil in the drum even the amount you had would be enough to take away the heat. Probably quench fine but there is a lot of heat in a piece like that. You could possibly pull it out of the drum, and maybe buff one surface somehow, like with a brick. Then you watch for the heat to come up to whatever colour you want and then quench it again, maybe this time in a lot of water.
 
find a fast moving stream, use your portable forge, get it all nice and hot through and through, drop it in the stream in front of you. Many anvils were quenched using a continuous flow of water from a large overhead source of water, the flow prevents a steam jacket.
 
At that size I'm guessing it wouldn't crack. Think of all the 10XX steels that are "water hardening." We use oil because blades are thin and ping-prone, but if you quenched a chunk of 1095 in water I doubt it would crack.

But it's not my expensive piece of tool steel, and I'm pretty far from really knowing what I'm talking about. :)

Josh
 
I once did some work with 52100 with water but it was an interrupted quench - water for a few seconds then oil .This was to get the parts hard enough as the hardenability was too low for the application. I don't remember the timing but too long in the water and the parts cracked !!..In those large sections it's important to soak long enough to get the center up to temperature ! For that section and larger a press works the center better than a hammer.
 
This is a 33# double horn anvil forged and arc welded from mild steel. it's purpose was for a light rendezvous anvil but it never saw much service. It is used in the shop once in a while, the tapered square horn especially. It is mild steel and was heated above non magnetic and quenched in cold water. it's never used for hard forging work, mainly finish work for knife springs or some small products in the past.

mtmananvil33lb.jpg


Thats my 2 1/2# hammer on top with thin machinist hickory handle. When I see blacksmith hammers with thick handles, it makes my elbow hurt, my doctor calls it blacksmith elbow, or tennis elbow in other sport.
 
Thanks, the square tapered horn is great for those small pieces that just can't be worked on a English style anvil.
 
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