Anvil question

D

Daniel Swanson

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Mar 13, 2018
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local steelyard guy is willing to sell me a 9 inch round of 1045 steel, 12 inches long. By my calculation this is 215 lbs. For $100 this seems like a good deal. I was thinking I could weld on some re-bar handles/tool holders and heat treat the face of this thing using a big coal fire in my fire pit and quenching in a giant bucket of water.
I’ve been scouring Craigslist in my semi-rural area for an anvil for 6 months without success.
Anyways what do you guys think about 1045 for an anvil? I know it’s not perfectly ideal but it’s a huge piece of metal.
 
As long as it doesn't move, it'll work.
You could weld a 1/2 inch plate of hardenable steel if you're really concerned.
 
Hope its at least sawn (or turned) off ends...!
It will work fine as is. On 1045 I doubt diy hardening is worthwhile for the amount of effort and cost will entail.

Stand it on end and pound away!!
 
Forget trying to DIY harden it. You would need a couple hundred gallon tank of water/brine to do the job, and have to heat the metal to around 1550 for at least 30 minutes.

Just use it as it is.
 
I’ve heat treated some big pieces of 1045 before. Up to about 5”..
This is what I do. You probably don’t have a torch/rosebud so a good coal fire would heat the face.
You only need to heat about 1”-2” if the face to have a good workable surface.
Water won’t do it. To much of a steam jacket. You’ll need brine or super quench. If your just heat treating the surface of the face then about 30 gallons of brine will do it.
Set up everything beforehand. Have a fast way to move it from the fire to the quench.
When your heating it don’t run the forge at full blast the whole time. Throttle back some and let the heat build up slow and even..
I have a big radius block made from 1045 I heat treated that’s been forged on a lot. It’s held up great. I left it as quenched.
It’s no small job just make sure you have everything in place before you go
Do a bit of research on “SeaRobin Anvil”.. Chuck Robinson just heat treated the face of his but used a rosebud and super quench
 
The difference in mass between a 5" round and a 9" round is huge. One weighs 215 pounds and the other weighs 65 pounds. The amount of heat needed would take a shipyard type torch with a 1" rosebud head or a big and hard to control coal/charcoal fire pit. I could, and has been done, but it isn't easy, and it is hardly worth the effort.

IIRC, the ratio of quenchant to steel is around 1 pound steel to one gallon liquid, starting with a 5 gallon minimum, so he would need around 220 gallons quenchant.

There used to be a video of these guys doing a homemade anvil HT by building a big charcoal fire around the anvil. They had welded a big ring of 3/4" round stock through the hardie. They had a long 4X4 on a pivot such that the end with a chain and hook could swing from the fire pit to a very big hole they dug and lined with a tarp. The hole had been filled with water and a couple sacks of de-icer were dumped in. Once they got the anvil to the desired temp (magnet on a long stick), they hooked the chain to the ring and lifted the anvil in one smooth swing to the hole where they lowered it in .... Old Faithful!!! Once the water had stopped boiling, they took it out and put a hose on it for a good while to get it down to touchable temperaturte.
 
I was thinking 6” round for some reason. 9” would be hard but just heat treating the top inch of face I don’t think would take that much quenchant. I hardened the face of a 70 pound, 6” square block of 4140 in 30 gallons of super quench and it barely got warm..
9” round would be hard to heat evenly.. if say the easiest way would be a couple rosebuds and pouring barrels of water over the face. Still a big undertaking and I’m not sure plain water would get max hardness . Be fun though
If I were doing it I’d hook it to the boom of my tractor. Heat in an oversized pit forge by the moving creek(that runs by my shop) and swing it faciing in the creek current
 
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That reminds me of another YouTube video I saw where some guys were hardening a 300 lb anvil in a huge bonfire and then used a backhoe to lower it into the ocean. It was pretty spectacular.
I have a firepit but no tractor. I’d be thinking of welding a couple handles, hooking a chain through them, and then using a long bar to lower it into a bucket of water but it sounds like that won’t be nearly big enough. I could dig a pit and do it that way. But for now I’ll probably just start hammering and see how it goes. If I end up with large dents, I’ll grind off the surface and harden the thing at a later time. Or weld on a hard surface. With that in kind, what kind of metal would make the best surface so I can start looking around?
Thanks for everyone’s input! You guys are awesome.
 
Yep, I saw that one too.

One method of hardening 4140 is to hammer work it. Get a buddy to take turns with and work the surface with a smooth faced 8 pound sledge for an hour. Sand it down with a hand help belt sander. It should increase in hardness a good bit.
 
That wasn't "some guys," but rather Adam and Haley DesRosiers, both Mastersmiths. They had a total loss shop fire and were re-hardening their anvils that had been in the fire.
 
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