Anvil Question

[MBB]

So, this has been bothering me.

Most of the new steel anvils I have seen are listed as being heat treated with a Rockwell hardness around 48-52. I assume they are heat treated, quenched, and tempered like any other hardened piece of steel.

So my question is, how do you maintain a tempered face hardness of 48-52 Rockwell C when you are placing 1700 F (or hotter) pieces of steel directly on the face? I get that the heat will radiate through the anvil, but the surface should lose temper very quickly local to the hot steel being placed on it. Even high temperature alloys like H13 drop hardness like a rock over 1000 F. Is the face functionally elastic with a harder core to rebound off of? Enquiring minds want to know!

Thanks!

Mike

 

[Lieblad]

Even right at the workpiece to anvil junction, Anvils conduct heat well enough that their surface never gets hot enough to harm its temper.
One should be more concerned with an anvil cooling the workpiece too much. Its really important on blade thickness profiles. I developed habit of slightly lifting work between strikes.

 

[MBB]

For 1/8" blades I can see this. But for thicker pieces, I'm willing to bet that temper is lost at the anvil surface at least.

 

[A.McPherson]

Try an experiment. Take a chunk of metal, heat it up red/orange hot. Beat the snot out of it on your anvil, while letting it stay flat on the anvil.
When it gets too cold to forge pick it up and use a laser thermometer to take the temp right where you were forging.
I'm betting that it'll be under 500.

 

[Don Hanson III]

The face of an anvil doesn't get anywhere near hot enough to lose any hardness.
The face would have to turn blue before it even starts to lose any.