Your grinding job was first rate.
Now, a long winded report on heat of organic materials:
For the record, almost all organic material burns within a narrow temperature range. Lpg gas, wood, and coal will all get about as hot as each other and all will burn at 2000ºf snd hotter. Burn temperatures are not ignition temperatures, I.E., natural gas has a much lower ignition temperature than wood.
This goes against our own experience, it would seem, but it is true and is a fact that I live with as a fire protection engineer. Single family homes flash over at temperatures over 2000ºf, often within minutes of ignition. A single christmas tree can cause a 2400º flash in minutes.
For wood, moisture needs to be removed, so we see it burn slower (at first). In a large fire moisture is removed quicker. The heat is greatest within the fire and dissipates quickly at the flame tips and as the smoke plume rises.
The amount of available oxygen is a big factor, as is enclosure configuration. Smiths are accutely aware of the effect of blower usage on heat output, and as every 12 year old boy scout learns when starting fires, added air can heat things up quickly. Reflected heat adds to the heat of a fire, in a bonfire there wouldn't be much reflected heat
Wood fires have been used for temperatures over 2000ºf in ceramic kilns for a long time.
Speaking of kilns (I have 6, 3 that I use regularly.) This would be one of the rare times that I would disagree with Aunt Phil (I still do this carefully and never married to my thoughts completely, like a cub questioning a journeyman) Many modern kilns are very efficent, with little heat loss. My biggest is 41" wide x 25.5" x 13.5" deep. It has a computer controller and you control the rate of temperature rise/fall, how long to stay at a certain temperature, etc. It holds heat so well that I have to vent it to cool slowly even. I think our power is moderately priced here in Colorado. Anyway, running it through a heating to melting / fusing phase then down through a 6 or 8 hour annealing phase down to 150ºf costs very little (a few bucks at most.)
I've enjoyed this thread, I think I've learned from many of you. I saw valid points in all posts, and from an outsiders perspective it seems like there is more than one way to skin this cat.
I have questions, I understand that hardening an anvil face is not needed after hard facing, but if you did heat up an anvil and quench it - Would you need to anneal to relieve stress? I would guess that an anvil, like one that was in a fire (even if it cooled without quenching) could be hardened too much, is that correct? Would such an anvil be unsafe or subject to hardened parts flying off when struck?
Does the sheer mass of a big anvil offer some level of safety?
My anvil is nicely sized for me, it is a whopping 35 lbs. It is a Cliff Carroll model made right here in Colorado. I have it on an anvil stand that cost more than my anvil. I like the stand much better than the stump setup I had before. I think that these anvils are mostly for farriers. I don't know its construction, and their website doesn't answer that question.
I'm taking a picture of my set up. I'm adding some of my stakes (they are equally small scaled as the rest of my beating kit.) I dont use a forge - just an annealing pan or a fire brick box for bigger stuff.
Don't you smiths make fun of my rig, and any aspersions as to my strength would be ridiculous if you saw me.
When I want to work steel or iron I do that at my in-laws. When it comes to toys, his shop is the bomb. I gave him his anvil, it is welded to a section of I-beam. I saved it from the trash in 1984. It was a shop warming present for when he had a 40x60 ft metal building put in behind his house (hobby shop and hot rod storage.)
Looking forward to opinions of Twilite, Aunty, Keykeeper and others.
Chilly
