Warning: I thought grazing on my anvil was just for looks until I tried it on a 40 pound leaf spring | Blacksmiths - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Warning: I thought grazing on my anvil was just for looks until I tried it on a 40 pound leaf spring
For the first 6 months at my forge I used a big box store anvil and kept getting these dented hammer marks on the face. An old timer in Tulsa told me to try a light graze with my hammer every few heats instead of letting the face build up scale, and I figured he was just set in his ways. Last week I was drawing out a 40 pound leaf spring into a blade and gave it a quick graze before each pass, and the face stayed clean and my hammer marks almost disappeared. I still do a full brush and blow off the anvil between heats too, so it's not magic, just a cheap habit. Has anyone else noticed a real difference, or am I just seeing what I want to see after spending $180 on that anvil?
Man, I gotta say I disagree on the graze being the thing that fixed your hammer marks. Those dents come from a soft face and bad hammer angle, not from scale buildup, and a cheap graze won't harden steel or fix your swing. A clean anvil face does help, sure, but I'd bet your leaf spring run just had you hitting flatter because you slowed down and paid attention.