Steel ball drop??

69_knives

69_knives

Joined
Nov 20, 2008
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In testing an anvil what should I be looking for when I drop a steel ball bearing onto it?

What is the proper procedure for the test?

I know a hole in the wall place that bought a full weight Sea Can full of anvils from China and they 'look' ok but I was a little shy to start banging away on one to test it and not know exactly what to look for. The place did have a legit buyer for most of the anvils they just got a really good deal on the full weight can so they have surplus.
 
what you want to do is to drop the ball bearing onto the face of the anvil from about 18 inches above the face. on a really good anvil you will hear a nice ring and the ball will pretty much bounce back into your hand. the less the ball bounces the poorer the anvil. there are some pretty good chinese anvils but most are soft ASO that are no better than a large rock for pounding steel on.
 
Not to hijack too much (sorry 69) here but I noticed that Grizzly sells anvils. Anyone know the quality on those?
 
Nuts! I went for another look with steel ball in hand, dropped it onto the face from about 18" and it only bounced about 3"-4" and made a little dent in the surface, whereas I get about 9"-10" from my mystery steel Anvil Like Object.
 
If I remember correctly, something like 80% is a good return. Yep, above 80% is good. Here's a good link:

http://www.anvilfire.com/index.php?...ilfire.com Blacksmithing FAQs Anvils Hardness

Or you can look down at the anvil in a forging position, swing a hammer squarely to the anvil and see if it comes back up and knocks you out :D. I almost did that the other day. Missed my work by a hair. Luckily my hat deflected the blow :D

--nathan
 
You might check in several places on the face too, as my anvil has some harder and softer areas. Just dropping it once in one spot might not give you whole story..
 
69_knives said:
Nuts! I went for another look with steel ball in hand, dropped it onto the face from about 18" and it only bounced about 3"-4" and made a little dent in the surface, whereas I get about 9"-10" from my mystery steel Anvil Like Object.
Click to expand...

just imagine how much of a dent you'd get if you actually pounded on some steel. :eek::eek:
 
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