I know the Blade Show crunch is on, but I'm hoping for some advice.....
That being said, I'm more than lucky to have a father that loves tools and happened to have a large Fisher anvil (250-300 lbs....best guess) collecting dust in the barn. It was acquired in trade years ago from another local that had no use for it on his farm. My father loves blacksmith work and tinkers with it on the farm, but insisted that I take this anvil home and put it to use forging blades. There is a date on the "south end" that indicates it was built in 1910.
I've used it for the past year and its definitely functional, but there are voids in the face that I'd like to address if possible. Please see the pics below. A few possibilities on my mind are:
[list]
What ya'll recommend?
My advice would be to mill or surface grind it. There are some IFs. I can't tell by the pics, but it appears to be the type of anvil that has a "plate" for the face....you have to be VERY careful about how much is milled/surface ground off. If you get that plate too thin, then you run a real risk of "swayback", and if that happens, there's no saving it....well, no easy or logical way. Another point to think about...is there enough plate thickness to remove the pits, and still have the thickness to prevent swayback?
Although it can be done, I would discourage trying to fill it with weld material.... it's a very tedious and precise process, requiring you pre-heat and post-heat properly, otherwise any weld/filler material will simply pop back out in short order. Although you'll see this method touted a lot on the net, most of the time folks simply don't do it properly and end up wrecking an otherwise usable anvil.
Using lead as a filler is only a cosmetic fix.... it won't stay in place with use.
All that being said, my first choice would be milling/surface grinding. Personally I own a #300 Trenton that took me over a year to find someplace with big enough machinery to mill it....I finally had to end up taking mine to Canada..... but they did a marvelous job on it. Everybody thinks "Oh, you can't hurt an anvil." I always tell anyone who's in my shop to treat my anvils like they are made of glass. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />
Ed Caffrey, ABS MS
"The Montana Bladesmith"
www.CaffreyKnives.net
I am going to disagree with Ed here. leave it alone . Fishers have a hardened top plate and the hardness is not all that deep in some cases you could easily mill through it and take a good solid tool and make it less. Those pits do not look all that deep I would just use it as is other than rounding the corners a bit (fishers like to chip). That is a good anvil nice and flat with very crisp corners use it as is. I know a lot of people "restore" anvils honestly I have never worked on a restored anvil that was better after restoration welds always crack , edges always mushroom , faces are always soft. For my self if is is use able I would leave it alone.
MP
Thanks guys. I'm glad I was able to resist the urge to start welding and grindin' on it before I asked ya'll.
I'll round off the corners and go back to forging blades rather than tinkering with stuff that's better left alone for now.
