Will an anvil in a major shop fire lose its temper?

Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
The only footage I have seen of this being done had a much bigger fire.
Let us know what a ball-pein does now.
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I'll let you know. The fire was originally bigger as a pile of coals was made, and then was kept fed continuously. However I do wish I'd made it huge!
 
Hey guys, I got a chance to test the anvil. The face is much improved, showing virtually no sign of a divot even from a rather pointy hammer end. The horn is a little softer, and shows a very slight divot when hit with the pointy hammer.

It’s a lot better than it was, but could still be better yet. I may try again if I get ahold of a better way of doing it, such as a bigass coal forge and blower.

I think the exercise was a moderate success!

Link to a little test video:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKcrEcJjhr2/?igshid=18xt4g8raz3rd
 
Toink, toink, good job! A small pit roughly shaped like anvil and about 10 inch deeper then the anvil height would maybe help to keep the heat in, maybe also splitting the air blower in two pipes to not have all the heat concentrated in one place?
 
A.McPherson said:
Just curious...
The type of wood burned makes a big difference in the heat of the fire.

Have you seen the charts that list btu per pound of wood?

They are pretty interesting...

Here's a link if you're interested.
https://forestry.usu.edu/forest-products/wood-heating
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That's great, thank you!



FredyCro said:
Toink, toink, good job! A small pit roughly shaped like anvil and about 10 inch deeper then the anvil height would maybe help to keep the heat in, maybe also splitting the air blower in two pipes to not have all the heat concentrated in one place?
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Yep that would have been a good idea. It was in a shallow bowl-shaped depression in the ground, like a 2 foot diameter wok. Should have made a deeper pit! Well at any rate, I learned from this and perhaps it will help out others who do an internet search for this sort of thing.

The pipe was blowing lengthwise from the horn back, partially buried to get some airflow under the anvil. It was all done at the spur of the moment, as the pile of firewood I had access to was getting removed imminently.

So, doing it again:

-Deeper depression in the ground
-More wood and coals
-More even spread of airflow.

I might be getting a large coal forge in the spring, complete with air blower. If that happens, I might do it again with hopefully even better results. The anvil is improved, but probably not as good as it was by any means.
 
Wood or charcoal will get hot enough, ‘specially with forced air.
Take a pipe and drill some holes in it all on the same side of the pipe. Plug one end then put the whole thing horizontal on your pit.
Hook your blower up to it and bang, you’ve got a primitive twyer, (tywer, teywer however you spell it) in a blown forge that will get hot enough to melt steel, given enough time and fuel.
 
Great job on documenting, filming and honest feedback, it's going to be a valuable info for someone who wants to do a "back door" HT for a big chunk of steel.
 
Posts 35-39 were funny!!!! Thanks for a good laugh....my students did trebuchets a few years ago. One group fired a grapefruit 200 yards across our field, through the football uprights and off a car in a townhouse complex way beyond my calculated possibilities. My initial thought was to scream "run" and head for the cars. But being the teacher that organized the fiasco..... I'm just thinking of the dent that your anvil would have created! Probably a bit more than the $750 ding the grapefruit left.




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Randydb said:
Posts 35-39 were funny!!!! Thanks for a good laugh....my students did trebuchets a few years ago. One group fired a grapefruit 200 yards across our field, through the football uprights and off a car in a townhouse complex way beyond my calculated possibilities. My initial thought was to scream "run" and head for the cars. But being the teacher that organized the fiasco..... I'm just thinking of the dent that your anvil would have created! Probably a bit more than the $750 ding the grapefruit left.




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That's hilarious. When I was in middle school we had a day where students made all kinds of launching devices and used them to shoot produce into an adjacent sound. The winner were some guys who made a large potato gun.
 
My friend made a 7 foot potato cannon with a huge chamber. It could punch rutabaga cores through old wooden doors... good times.
 
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