when I forge and the cracking happens, I use 5160 leaf springs, when I used the file and it went well it was 1095, the bar stock I used and cracked was also 1095, that Is why I am confused, I don't know if he steel is not hot enough when I hammer it, or if the steel itself was cracked before. and thanks for the tip of being thankful, always a good idea

TYF

What color are you moving the steel at and what color do you stop?

 What kind of forge are you using?

Try your best to answer the rest of the questions asked. It will help people answer your questions better. (If that makes sense)

 

 

I do it at a yellow?red and an atlas mini forge, propane powered it gets up to 2800 Farenheit

 

I can rattle off a dozen alloys used as "spring steel", it's not a single alloy and they often get treated differently.

Just so files can vary quite a bit; so much so that I go out of my way to collect one brand that was 1.2% carbon to use them to juice up billets.

The biggest help you can get is to contact someone in person and have them see what you are doing as descriptions tend to not be specific enough.  Of course this means you have to interact with folks in person and you are asking a favor of them; so try to impress them that you are a person worth helping.

a lesson learned long ago, is better to give too much info than not enough. 

The Young Forge. pictures speak volumes. 

as i understand it to check to see if you have cracks beforehand try to polish the steel before you do any work on it. 

if there are cracks they may show up on a clean surface.