Old anvil question

[47 knuckle]

Hello all, newbie here. I have a very old anvil, made by "William Foster" in England. This maker dated his anvils, and this one was made in 1842. As with most old anvils, this one has seen its share of abuses. My question is, would it be possible to true up the working face of this anvil, and if possible, would you try a milling machine or a surface grinder, or what? I am thinking that at least an eigth of an inch would have to be removed to get it true again, maybe a little more. The working face of this particular anvil is of a different material than the rest, and it was "flame-welded" onto the anvil body by the maker. Thank you for any input on this, and by the way, this is a great site! Knuck

 

[tnmike]

I have restored several anvils using an old Cincinatti vertical mill with a 6 inch carbide face mill. Some were welded prior to milling to repair bad places and some were not. A little work after surfacing with a palm sander (120 grit) brought the finish to about mirror status. Beleive it or not its hard to find the welded area in the top...almost invisible. I think the most Ive had to remove was about 150 thou.

A surface grinder will work but its going to be a LOT slower. Its somewhat hard to find a surface grinder that has enough throat to accept the anvil height.

My 2 cents worth, for whats its worth..MIKE

 

[47 knuckle]

Thanks Mike, I was talking to a buddy today who has access to lots of machine tools, and he also thought that milling would be the way to go. By the way, what type of rod did you use when you built up the low spots on some of those anvils? I was thinking about E7018. Thanks again, knuck

 

[tnmike]

Ive used that rod and also a hardening rod that I was given by a man that runs a welding supply business. I cant for the life of me remember the number.