You know you want one, but you don't have one, or maybe one isn't enough? A real steel anvil is expensive. A real steel anvil weighs 250lb. Most of the expense is in the shipping for a new one and even used local ones demand around $1/lb. Sure you can buy a cheap cast iron one that was made in china. Problem is these are made from cast iron can be kind of soft or kind of brittle. That means you hammer dents into it as you use it or even worse you can small break chunks of sharp cast iron off it as you hammer it that can fly a good distance or you could break a big 5lb chunk off it with sharp edges and have it fall on your foot. So my solution was to get a section for rail road track from the scrap yard because its made of steel and cheap, at 15 cents per pound. Then make it more anvil shaped. Also I don't need a 250+lb anvil. First I carved out circular sections of the anvil to make it lighter with my miller spectrum 625 plasma cutter because I do move mine around. Second I noticed that the rail road track is very soft. I will need to cap it with something a little harder. The first step there is adding metal to it build up a pad to hammer on with 3/16 inch 7024 electrode. 7024 electrode isn't ideal for impact resistance so I am going to top it with 7018 and cap it with hard facing rod. Then use a needle descaler to remove every bit of slag between layers of weld. I am going to have the local machine shop mill down this pad so its nice and flat I asked them if they can mill through high impact hard facing electrode and it shouldn't be a problem. A lot of hard facing rods recommend putting down a layer of 7018 before hardfacing electrode unless the steel is above a certain hardness. I have a feeling soft railroad track steel isn't that hard. I can use my 230 amp AC and DC stick welding machine for this. You could weld a piece of mild steel, A36 structural steel or AR500 to the anvil but it could potentially break off. For light duty stuff welding on a top plate would be fine, but not for me. I have not welded on it for a while, I left it in the back yard and it got rained on for a few months.
I've used my 2' long piece of railway iron for 30 years as-is. Never thought of hard facing it, but haven't had any problems with it deforming. I cut mine like you did, but there weren't any plasma cutters back then.
I too have a rail anvil. Train wheels will over the years work harden the rail's top surface. Mine is adequately hard and have had no problems as is. YMMV... AT
I had a RR anvil years ago and it sufficed for what I was doing then without a hard top, but the steel was on the soft side. Another way to achieve a harder topped anvil is through heat treatment as described by Alexander Weygers in his book THE MODERN BLACKSMITH.
I have handled several RR anvils and for their convenience it's good enough till I can afford the real thing. Later I'll show one I made from pipe and an I beam. It's different than the standard anvil, but it served exactly the way I needed it at the time. If no one makes what I want, I make it my self . Being really hard is not necessary , if your working with a forge . Any marring you might accomplish, can be ground off in due course. (if it's really necessary .) IMO
i've been using this one for at least 20yrs even using mauls on it, i see no dents. I've formed thousands of parts here, over time. I think you are working harder at it than necessary. They are useful.
I have a 100 pound anvil I got years ago and have never done anything with it.got it for my son hoping he would try blacksmithing ---nope sad too I even got hammers and tongs
Like others have already said, I too have made several anvils out of rail iron over the years. Most end up being given away, but I have a good sized one here. I do take the time to shape them like a standard anvil with a tapered nose and a squared heel. They have always been plenty hard for what was needed. I've never left a mark from a hammer or tool on them. Just my
I was expecting my steel track to be work hardened and much stronger than it is. Hammer blows and cold work were notching and cratering the track much to my surprise. And no one said to stop posting that anvil porn.
Presumably track comes from different manufactures and certainly different dates of manufacture. Maybe there is a lot of variance in the metal composition and heat treatment. All I can say is I have beat on my RR anvil a lot over the years and it has held up pretty well.
Alright, we have a former railroad thermite welder, working for us. I asked about the rails. 1)all of the old rail is very hard, and gets work hardened. 2) there are different specs on rail, depending on where it is used. 3) there are three grades currently in use, and they can be determined by the width of the base plate. 4)ALL of the main line rail, is the highest level of hardness, yards and sidings use the lesser grades, but all of it will withstand hammer blows, considering the stress loads it is designed for, and will make good anvil material. 5) the wider the base plate, the harder the steel, because higher stress rail, requires the most stability. 6) the harder the rail, the more shock up your arm when it is struck with a hammer. (As per our ex-railroad thermite welder.) One glance, and he determined my chunk is old, work hardened, yard rail.
Well I went to work on my anvil some, tried to get it milled flat but the 10018 welding rod is too hard. There's random hard spots. So I'm going to anneal the anvil this fall and try to mill it again. I'll probably get a nice coal fire going and toss the anvil in my coal furnace. Then once it's flat I'm going to heat harden it by quenching in oil and tempering it in my oven. Don't tell my wife. I also added a second RxR anvil, no alterations, just milled flat.
Anvils roasting in a coal furnace. It's solidly glowing orange in that picture. After a nice gradual cooling it should be good and normalized, annealed. The other anvil that's milled flat needs to get hotter than that and be quenched in water, then tempered. Oils a bad idea, how much oil can a yellow hot anvil set on fire and spit? I don't want to find out. Tempering is easy the oven in the kitchen can do that.
besides my couple of real anvils - I've picked up a score of RR anvils over the years from estate & garage sales - got a few mounted on my secondary workbenches - have one mounted to a hitch mount for some portable working - don't even bother with them anymore unless they are at scrap $$$$ .... gave away a few over the years - just moved the more BS ones outside and stacked them - still have a few loose ones getting in the way ....
Here is the other anvil, smaller, already milled flat. I heated it up to around 1,600f and quenched it in water. That was too hot, I know that now because it cracked. It's goingto be hard AF. It's repairable. When I do the bigger one I won't get it as hot and I'll quench in oil. It's going to make a huge fire ball.