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I Forge Iron

Steel for hammers


Ernie42141

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well pretty much the definition of mild steel is that it doesn't harden  and "hardened and annealed"  means harden and make as soft as possible.  I think you need to learn a bit more of the basics before doing this project.  Get a medium carbon steel for the hammer(s) and learn proper heat treat for it.

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Perhaps I should elaborate on the steel in question. Extremely heavy pin used in a commercial truck scale. By mild I should have said suft. In spread easily just driving the pin out of a 12 inch I-beam it's set into.  Don't know what it is but mean to see if it will harden before waste time forging anything.  How does that sound.

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If it does not harden, it is not worth your time and effort. That said, your "hardened and annealed" comment leads me to think you should take a while and read up on heat treat terminology and procedures. If you don't know what the terms mean, how will you know how to properly heat treat? Not knowing the alloy will make heat treating a very big hit or miss. Hammers are alot of work. I would hate to see you get in over your head and waste time/money. Always learn from your mistakes, but don't set yourself up for failure either. 

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39 minutes ago, Ernie42141 said:

Yea it should have been harden and temper. Have been reading the heat treating guide and use a professional machinest/blacksmith for help. You guys are Grammer hammers. My fault not reviewing before posting.

Not so much grammar hammers but it's easier to explain stuff and understand questions when we / you know what's really goin on. You can try brinin it to critical and quenching in oil see if it hardens up, if it does your golden if  not don't waste your time and effort. 

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It occurs to me that a "pin" from a heavy truck scale sounds like something that's got to resist a lot of shear forces.  It would make sense to me if the pin was hardened, if it was in a pivot, or if it was tempered for a calibrated "toughness" if it was supposed to shear as part of a fail-safe.

What doesn't sound right is a heavy pin from that application that's soft enough to deform getting installed or removed.

Stuff like a truck scale is generally designed by people who know what they're doing and engineer accordingly.  If they needed the shear limit of a known mild steel, that's what they'd use. I'm struggling to think of a reason why an engineer would use annealed higher carbon steel when mild is cheaper.

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When looking at metal the easy way to test it is a spark test. after doing that. I try oil first as a quench, then if it dose not get hard enough. I use a salt bath like the gunther quench, and last of all water. When you make hammers 1045 is Ok at best. 4140 through 4340 are great choices. 3" of steel is a lot to hammer for a first try. I would start out with a 1 3/4" to 2" piece first. But if you just want to go through the steps there is nothing wrong with mild steel a lot better choice then clay. 

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9 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Yup y'all have the puny deer out on the east coast...I've run across a herd of elk crossing the road about 2 am where it looked like most could just suck in their gut and my pickup would slide right under them without ruffling a hair...

Lol, yeah they're like underfed doggies over here, funny looking brown greyhounds... Well, none at all by me now that I'm a city boy, but out on Long Island there are plenty.

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