cold anvil

I have a good knifemaking book that tells me that even before the heat treat begins, the forging needs to be done at the right temps. I was outside at 10 below and could see the blade cool (from orange to grey) as soon as it touched the anvil, especially as I was getting the bevels down. If I don't warm up that anvil while I'm forging am I going to have a hard time later with grain refinement when I heat treat?

Thanks a lot,
Luke

A cold anvil will not effect heat cycling but it will cut down on the amount of time that you have to forge on one heat. Try heating up a bar of steel and letting it cool on the face of the anvil until it feels warm.

Doug

Thanks Doug. I had considered heating it with hot steel from the forge. I was going to put hangars on the sides so I could insert hot round stock on each side but hadn't thought exactly how. Placing steel on top is much simpler. Thanks for the advice.

Luke

Thanks for getting me thinking Doug. I had a chainsaw bar I was going to use for knives but changed my mind. After I cut it in half both pieces were lying there so I decided to try this. I saw something similar for hardie tools. These'll come off and on and fit into the forge. Just right for a railroad track anvil but the next ones will be thicker steel.

Luke