attlihammer

If I am making a tool it is often cheeper and easyer to make the tool out of mild steel, and to then case harden them. This process only hardens the surface and so is not sutable for tools that are to be regularly ground. my scrolling forks have been made this way and have been in use now for several years, and are as good as new. In the uk it is possible to buy case hardening compound. My case hardening compound goes under the brand name of "hardenit" and is obtainable from- Glendale forge, monk street, thaxted, essex CM6 2NR. I assume there is a us eqivalent.

I suspect that you have forged your steel to hot and burnt the surface. this would result in the cracks that you talked of. I have almost entirely worked with recycled materials and as such have never known the content of my steels. the lighting conditions of your forge will greatly affect the apperance of the colour of your steel so in my experiance experimentation is the key. for heat treatment, personly I would produce a series of test peices quenching in oil and water and then drawing different tempers, before testing with a file and then doing impact tests over the edge of the anvil to assess how tough the material is at different tempers (be warned the metal can shatter with some force and send extreemly sharp shards in all directions with some force so protective gear is a must!) I hope this may be of some help.