Thread: portable anvil

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Perhaps a study of how anvils were heat-treated in the old days?

Water quench. But I don't think that would be good for O1.

start watching about 50 seconds in...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBMNuzArqSk

I just recieved my portable anvil in the mail tonight !!!!!

Yeah! Beat and grind, Beat and grind! Like pinning a razor sometimes!

You may already be there, Charlie!

Slightly off topic, but here is some forging being done on a mild steel anvil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkbxRXgGRJA

Please do not use water over oil.

I am a VFD and was also a firefighter in the Navy. Before someone says everyone is a firefigher, I went to a month long school on it, there is more to it than "put water on it and it will go out". Lots of nasty stuff would/could happen if you use oil over water. Fire needs three things to exist: Heat (we will have that), fuel (oil above flash point around the hot steel), and oxygen. If the anvil had enough volume to it, when it hit the water it would boil VIOLENTLY. This will add oxygen to the flashed oil and in the violence you would have the potential for a VERY large flash of fire.

I don't know the exact size of your anvil, but my recommendation would be about 1/3 of a 55 gallon metal drum that would have about 3-4" of space from the rim with the anvil in it. Heat the anvil to temp and drop it (I like Tim's idea) in the oil & cover it with a metal "lid". There will be fire on the dunk, the volume should be ok to avoid flash point of a large volume of fire, but it will be a little spectacular. I would still do it outside and have an ABC extinguisher handy...i doubt you would need it.

Side note, I saw a video somewhere where anvils were just dropped into a pond or lake for HT...but it wasn't O1.

Thank you, Scott, I appreciate your knowledge.

Originally Posted by ScottGoodman

Please do not use water over oil.

I am a VFD and was also a firefighter in the Navy. Before someone says everyone is a firefigher, I went to a month long school on it, there is more to it than "put water on it and it will go out". Lots of nasty stuff would/could happen if you use oil over water. Fire needs three things to exist: Heat (we will have that), fuel (oil above flash point around the hot steel), and oxygen. If the anvil had enough volume to it, when it hit the water it would boil VIOLENTLY. This will add oxygen to the flashed oil and in the violence you would have the potential for a VERY large flash of fire.

I don't know the exact size of your anvil, but my recommendation would be about 1/3 of a 55 gallon metal drum that would have about 3-4" of space from the rim with the anvil in it. Heat the anvil to temp and drop it (I like Tim's idea) in the oil & cover it with a metal "lid". There will be fire on the dunk, the volume should be ok to avoid flash point of a large volume of fire, but it will be a little spectacular. I would still do it outside and have an ABC extinguisher handy...i doubt you would need it.

Side note, I saw a video somewhere where anvils were just dropped into a pond or lake for HT...but it wasn't O1.

I don't know how big your anvil is, but I'd likely go with a water quench. I did a post anvil a while back and wound up having to mix up a 30 gallon batch of super quench to get it hard. It was a 4"x4"x12" piece of 4140 and I heated almost half the length in the gas forge. Straight water got it to about 45 RC, the super quench to mid 50's. Mass plays a big role in quenching things, 1095 is a water quench steel, but in knife thicknesses it's asking to break a blade, for example.

What I would do is set it up to heat like you did, have a large metal trash can full of water close at hand, when the top 1/3 or so of the anvil is at the low end of critical I'd shut the propane off and remove the ceramic wool and flip into the water and agitate it as much as you can, not sure how heavy it is, might need two people. Just be careful of steam and flash burns. After the color is out of the metal and it's not boiling the water like mad, take it out and polish the surface with a flap wheel to bright metal and watch for temper colors. After a straw or gold I'd put it back in the water to finish cooling. I'd also take any sharp corners off before heating and quenching as that's where cracks will develop and you don't generally want sharp corners on an anvil anyway. This is still not an ideal heat treat, but should result in a mid 50's rockwell hardness for about 1/2" or so of the surface and the lower half will be fairly soft and ductile. Just wear face protection when quenching as water is going to boiling and a lot of steam coming up.

Anyway, I like the design, it's a handy size and shape for doing things that a larger anvil would make difficult.

Originally Posted by bluesman7

Water quench. But I don't think that would be good for O1.

And why not? I think you are all overthinking it. With a mass of metal like that, there would be plenty of strength to resist cracking, there is no need for attempting maximum hardness, so it could be taken to less than critical temp, and with that much mass, it could be hosed from a distance to get it to hard, and by using a thermal sensor just quit when it was about 550F and let it cool naturally from there, giving itself an auto temper. no?

Didn't think about that, but with decent water pressure and a small enough size metal, no reason a simple garden hose wouldn't cool it down fast enough, mainly the top. And if you get the top hard and it's soft an inch down, that's all to the good. Most anvils are heat teated with a water fall technique, but we are talking a lot of water and anvils in 100 pound to 500 pound range, not a small 20 pound or less chunk.