19Branden86

Wow!!! That's awesome!! Leaf spring steel or any spring really is usually, what, 5160 I believe? Correct me if I'm wrong

Fulton, USA 3/4" and then 10----- something

There was a number stamped in it or some kind of lettering, it's been welded on so it's hard to make out but there is for sure a 1 and a 0 on it. 1045 was a guess. I know it gets used as a tool steel, hammer heads, etc

Well, Mr. Powers, It hasn't been determined for sure, but there is an old blacksmith that works for us by the name of Bill Wolfe. He does demonstrations out at the old Civil War Fort in Larned, KS. Anyway that's not the point. The point is, I asked him about it and he said it is MOST LIKELY, keywords, most likely not 1045 but instead more likely to be S steel as S is good for impact resistance. He also did say and I quote, "I could be wrong, though" Lol. So yeah.

Okay, After doing some research after a fairly major terminology mistake over at the hot cut thread, I guess my question belongs here. My question is, can I take this old cold chisel (pictured), which I originally thought was 1045 but it is actually S grade steel, and turn it into a splitter for making railroad spike split crosses?

I don't know how else to explain what I'm attempting to do but here goes nothing. I want to take a RR spike and turn it into one of these: I apologize for any confusion .

I would like to start making horseshoes at some point. I would say a split I guess as I want to be able to split railroad spike split crosses

I've got an old busted chisel that I have been considering turning into a hot split, and my question is should I forge it into shape or just grind it into a hot split? (Going to be used for RR spike split crosses. The people of the town I live in are primarily Catholics and all tell me they would absolutely love stuff like that.) Also, after forging or grinding or whatever you guys suggest, should I reharden and temper it or leave as is? The chisel is 1045 I also have a cape chisel made from 1045 that I am considering turning into a pritchel. P.S. The angle. What is a normal hot split bevel? 30 degrees? Or perhaps a little more narrow for the application I will be using it for?

Hello, smiths. Brand new to forging and just wanted to show off my simple setup. I made a brake rotor forge last week and am having a blast so far using it. (Behind it is an old 1880's Buffalo forge I plan on restoring. Has the ratchet handle with a flywheel and belt that connects to the blower.) My forge just used a hair dryer as the blower for now. Plan on building a double lung bellows later on. My anvils are two pieces of railroad material that a blacksmith that works at the company I work for gave me. And on my bench I have various tools. A punch and drift set that my lovely wife got me as an early father's day gift. Some borax for welding. Linseed oil for traditional finish work. Hammers, wire brushes, etc, etc. The pallets will become charcoal. So yeah, simple setup but it works for right now.

Okay. Thank you for that information. And all the ideas/information the rest of you have provided as well. So indeed those spikes will become S hooks

Obviously! Lol. I'll keep that in mind for future reference when I'm working with MM grade steel. Thanks Thomas! Hey, speaking of alloys, are HC railroad spikes actually high carbon or still a midgrade steel? When I was building my forge a friend of mine gave me a bucket full of them. So I upset the spike end, 20 Mule Teamed the heads down into a square stock billet. Was thinking about making S hooks out of them for practice unless they are, in fact, a decent steel, though I doubt that. They are what led me to want to make the tongs in the first place. Was using pliers to upset and forge weld them but even with thick leather gloves, the knuckles tend to get a little hot! Lol

Interesting stuff. I'll have to see if some of the engineer's tool steel made it to our scrap bin. See, we have tool steel at our shop. 4140 chromium tool steel. The engineers design and build our jigs and welding fixtures but they are in a different part of the shop than we are and have their own iron bin. They keep their steel separate from ours but I guess it is always possible that pieces find their way out of their proper receptacles

I know each grade of steel has a different "butter zone" if you will. I found a temperature/color guide to kind of help me gauge how hot my metal is (not sure on accuracy because it doesn't specify outdoor or indoor shop and the color can look different depending. I work outdoors, no canopy or awning). But anyway just as a general guideline, is there a certain area I should try to keep my material temperature/color? Not white hot, and not dull red obviously. But just a very general "try not to heat to above here and quit bashing on it like a Neanderthal below here"

Hello everyone. I'm Branden. I was born, raised, and live in central Kansas. I just built a brake rotor forge last week as my starter forge. I'm a pure greenhorn when it comes to smithing. The only other metalwork I have done is 10 years experience as a welder, and 5 years experience with soldering copper and brass. My very first forging project was this set of tongs I was trying to make out of some 1/2" round stock from the iron bin here at work. As far as I know, it should be mild steel. I'm not aware of any high carbon alloys here at our shop. The problem I ran into is that after shaping and working the steel, all was going well until it was time to punch out and drift the rivet holes. Shattered it. The nib busted off as you can see as well as part of the reigns. (I was only hammering on the boss so how the reigns broke is beyond my understanding) Somehow, and I'm not sure what I did wrong, and perhaps you guys can give me some ideas, but somehow I managed to crystallize my billet. No water to cool it off, no dipping, no quenching or anything of that nature was involved. I'm not really familiar with the properties of iron alloys beyond just for welding applications, so I haven'ta clue of whether I got the metal too hot, or worked it when it had cooled down too much or a combination of rookie mistakes. Any ideas of what this completely newbie greenhorn might have done wrong and tips on how to not do it again to the best of my ability. I look forward to getting to know you guys and I'll be on here often, I'm sure, as I venture deeper into the art and science of blacksmithing. Good day Also, if this helps, the parts that broke off, the fractured areas looked like sugar or sand