Howdy /sci/, I have a quandary I was hoping you could help me solve. I have been having a discussion in a blacksmithing group on Facebook and I lack the knowledge to come up with a definitive answer. You see, we have been going back and forth on wether a specific style of tool called a shoulder-less hot cut will do significant damage to the anvil hardy hole either over time or in the short term. One side says it does no significant damage and the other says that eventually the tail will break off the anvil. The reason for the fear of a break is because of the taper on the shank that fits into the hardy hole and wedges it in place while in use. However, the other side holds that since it is a hot cut and has minimal surface area exposed to the force of the hammer through the hot steel that most of the energy goes to dividing the steel and not into the wedging action of the shank.
I hope you guys can help me out here as this conversation has been going on for days and hundreds of comments and either way it goes I would just like to see it end. Any help or knowledge would be appreciated and thanks.
Here is a picture of the tool in question for illustrative purposes.
Are you worried about damage to the anvil because of the lever action of the tool, or because of the wedging action possibly opening the hole wider than it used to be?
If the former, I can't imagine it would put any more stress on the anvil than normal use of that region would, and if the latter, I would imagine the hardened face would prevent hole enlargement quite well.
Those that don't like the pictured design are concerned the wedging action will split off the tail at the the hardy hole, most likely after years of use. I hold that most of the energy goes into dividing the hot steel and will not damage the anvil significantly. So I suppose opening the hole wider than it was is the concern and since it is a hardened steel face it shouldn't distort but instead crack and break. Not concerned about an levering here.
>>8096595
Well, is there actually evidence of that happening? Can anyone point to an anvil that's split right across at the hardy hole and say "I was just doing a hot cut and it fell off!"?
One guy keeps posting pictures of anvils broken in the same way that this would cause but he has no evidence that they were the hot cuts in question. No one has any evidence to say that this specific tool will damage the anvil in this way.
It is known that a tapered shank will cause this type of damage on any other tooling but because of a hot cuts limited surface area exposed to the force of the blow this doesn't seem to be the case for this tool.
Put the anvil on a scale while using it and see
That is a fantastic idea and I will be sure to suggest this, thank you.
the other option is,
anvils cost what, two, three hundred dollars?
if you have to perform some cuts that, in a couple years, might cause the tail of the anvil to fall off, who the fuck cares? stash away a couple bucks a week and by the time you break your anvil you can just buy a new one
>>8096878
It's hard to find good anvils and depending on the size they can be a lot more than $300
>>8096883
so could you get a shitty one just for these cuts?
>>8096885
Infeasible as it would take years of regular hot cutting for the stress to accumulate, if it ever does, and no smith has time for a special hot cutting anvil but it is a worthy idea and I wish we could test it that way.
