Anvil - video

[Jon]

Anvil. By Rigoni Ironworks. 10:15 video:

[N00b Machinist]

If the time in the large furnace was for heat treatment, as labeled on the video, what was the purpose of the bringing it to red hot in the table top kiln / forge?

Will a stick weld around the four outside sides of the anvil realistically yield a connection sufficient to hold together, over a long term, something designed to be pounded and hard? I was expecting some sort of forge welding, vertical strikes, after the kiln step to join together the facing surfaces for a more secure connection between the two halves.

[Frank S]

If the time in the large furnace was for heat treatment, as labeled on the video, what was the purpose of the bringing it to red hot in the table top kiln / forge?

Will a stick weld around the four outside sides of the anvil realistically yield a connection sufficient to hold together, over a long term, something designed to be pounded and hard? I was expecting some sort of forge welding, vertical strikes, after the kiln step to join together the facing surfaces for a more secure connection between the two halves.

The table top forge would have been to normalize the stresses of the welding.
I have my doubts about stick welding the 2 halves together in the small V groves on the 4 sides unless the metal had been brought up to 400°f prior to welding but a lot depends on the properties of the filler rods the amperage while welding and the silicon and carbon content of the steel being welded. Normalizing after welding before being put in a large oven was a good choice. But the shots of the large oven may have just been video filler content After all the table top oven was sufeincent enough to bring it to red hot the first time.

[wizard69]

If the time in the large furnace was for heat treatment, as labeled on the video, what was the purpose of the bringing it to red hot in the table top kiln / forge?

I have to agree the likely reason was to normalize after welding. As for the video of the large oven treatment the desire to do so in a professional shop might have more to do with safety during quench than anything. I can't imagine handling such a large block of steel in a common quench tank found in a small shop.

Will a stick weld around the four outside sides of the anvil realistically yield a connection sufficient to hold together, over a long term, something designed to be pounded and hard?

This is a good question and there are so many variables that it is hard to say. Apparently he was using an old Lincoln buzz box and I'm not even sure it is one that supports DC welding. In the end we would have to get the builder to comment on methods and the steels used. We are not even sure if the two halves are the same types of steel.

However as for this type of anvil being pounded on hard, that may not be the intended usage at all. Many anvils are manufactured for the purpose of fine or light work, I really don't see somebody working steel on such an anvil with a 10 pound maul.

I was expecting some sort of forge welding, vertical strikes, after the kiln step to join together the facing surfaces for a more secure connection between the two halves.

Honestly I'm not sure forge welding would be any more successful than arc welding here. The steel to forge weld would need to be much hotter that the video shows and you would one big hammer to forge the two together in a reliable manner. Even then you would likely have inclusions and other imperfections that ARC welding done right would almost eliminate. Given that it would be most interesting to see comments from blacksmiths. All of my welding experience comes from arc welding of some sort or another and I do believe it is possible to do so and get the job right. That normalizing step (what we are assuming) would be key in making that weld perform well over the long term.