post anvil Rc hardness?

B

boilermaker

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Aug 26, 2005
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G'day all, i've recently acquired a 5" square x 16" long chunk of 4140 high tensile and am planning on flame hardening the working face soon. my question is what rockwell hardness should i be aiming for? what hardness are anvils gennerally?
thanks all for your help:)
 
Anvils usually have a soft body to support a hard face, but i think that is more when talking about wrought bodied steel faced anvils. Flame hardening is usually not really like regular hardening, you set the torch at a certain speed and then follow behind with a spray of water or oil. My anvils faces will skate a nicholson bastard file, while that is really not too accurate of a judgement i would guess around 60sRC? Your anvil should be the hardest tool in the shop, with the hammers next, then striking tools next.
 
JHM Anvils have a face hardness of HRC 48 to 52.
Kohlswa Gjuteri Anvils are HRC 55
Refflinghaus are hardened to 1" deep to HRC 59
I'm still looking for Peddinghaus for conformation of HRC 54
Nimba, Vaughn, Valley, Mankel, Cliff Carroll, O'Dwyer, NC tool, Emerson, didn't have there HRC listed.
And as a side note Reffinghaus has an anvil at over 1000 lbs
 
Do you know if these anvils are just flame hardened or some other HT ??
 
http://www.blksmth.com/Refflinghaus Anvils_1.htm

Refflinghaus and Peddinghaus are top of the line German made. Peddinghaus is a forged anvil. Refflinghaus is cast steel. Kohlswa Gjuteri is made in Sweden Also supposed to be top notch. Kuhlswa is heat treated in a oven. A little vague on details on the web. These Are reported to be deep hardened to an inch or so.
Nimba is the new guy USA made, after a medieval Italian pattern. Cast steel, no information on hardness in there web.
 
I remember reading the Nimba anvils were hard on every surface, somthing like upper
50s RC. I will have to look for where i saw it.

Let me just say boilermaker, i am JEALOUS AS CAN BE. Been looking for a block anvil or big scrap square or round peice forever now, no luck at the local scrap places just yet. Good luck getting it shaped up and usefull:D.
 
Thanks everyone for the replies.:thumbup:

Sam, i managed to find this piece through the local steel merchant where i used to work, they rang their supplier who just happend to have an offcut taking up shop space and was prepared to sell it to me reasonably cheap
($200AUD) guess i was just in the right place in the right time? HT'ing this thing is going to be a challenge though;)
 
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