i bought a Peter Wright anvil at the Weaverville Hammer-In. The anvil is 89 lbs and in good overall condition. The anvil is flat along the length of its face but domed across the face with very rounded edges. I attempted an edge repair by pre-heating to 400 degrees using a temp stick to gauge temperature, building up the edges with Stoody 1105 rod on DC straight polarity, cooling slowly in vermiculite over night and then removing excess material with a right angle grinder and a belt sander.

The anvil looks great and most of the face has great rebound using a 1" steel ball at 12". There is a soft area adacent to the weld that has poor rebound and steel ball left small dents in that area. I guess I got the anvil too hot during welding or maybe the vermiculite let that part of the face anneal.

I think I can attempt to heat treat the anvil by heating it in my coal forge to face non-magnetic and cooling it in a series of three portable horse watering troughs with maybe some ice to keep the quench water temperature down.

One blacksmith buddy suggests using the anvil as is but I can imagine what a hammer miss hit in that soft area would do. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks,

Steve

It's too late to leave it as found,  most smith's round the edges anyway. If you need a sharp edge make a plate to fit the hardy hole that way you have both Sharp and round. At this point I vote to use as is. Hardening the face requires high pressure water such as from a fire hose to break through the steam barrier that will be generated. 

The answer to hammer marks on the face in the soft spot is to learn hammer control and don't hit the soft spot. 

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