question bout my anvil face

[kevin adams]

ok,all this is a newb question i am sure,but the anvils i worked on at the bladesmithing school had faces that were very smooth,the small anvil i have has what looks like grinding marks,or swirls of sorts ,i assume fron grinding it flat from the company.I guess my question would be,is ther something i need to do to my anvil to get it to be as smooth as possible,or does that just happen with use? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[kibuddha4]

I grew up in cabot! What type of anvil did you get? I tend to sand a little. I started with 220 grit then moved to 320, then 400.

-Mike Sheffield

 

[L.K.Smithy]

they will polish with use in my experience, maybe sand it out if theres any roughness to it. and make sure not to hammer with scale on your anvil face to keep everything from being affected. if the edges are all square, i find having a slight and decreasing radius is nice to work with. just dont overdo anything and wreck the lines on your anvil if you aren't comfortable doing it.

 

[kevin adams]

thanks for the responses gents,been gone from home a while so sorry bout the time. ,as far as the anvil type,it doesn't have a name on it,was a gift from my brother in law,and he won't tell me,lol. The bounceback is very good, and it is a neat little 110 lb anvil. And as far as sanding anything,as per your advice,i think i will leave it alone,since i could mess up a rock fight!,ty again

 

[Reg ELLERY]

The hardness of he anvil can be tested by dropping a large ball bearing on it.
1/2 inch or bigger.
It should bounce back about 80% of the height and more on a very hard anvil.

I have a softer one that I am lucky to get 20-30% the hader one is nicly work shined up with few hammer marks or cut marks.
My oldest softer anvil started life with milling marks but they have all gone with work. It is not the same to look at as the very hard one. So it is hard to compare one with another. Rather than sand I would revert to what I have bee told was the old way to clean the face of an anvil. That is have the apprentice in this case you use a polish faced hammer lightly tap the surface of the anvil over the entire surface for a day. I have been told that will remove the marks and work harden the face on a softer anvil.

It may be myth or legend but it seems to have worked on mine with just working the anvil. If you try it let us know how it goes but only if it works if it does not you may not want to tell everybody let them find out the hard way. If you are new you may find that the practice at hitting the exact spot on the anvil you are aiming at is valuable muscle memory and not a waiste of time. Don't just throw random blow all over the face work in sequence with overlaping blows. Not too hard

Stay happy
Reg