March 16, 20179 yr I'd suggest you use the right alloy for the specific job. As written this is a "How high is up?" question. In general this means mild steel like 1018 or 1020; or semi mild like A36 for most ornamental forging; medium carbon steels like 4140 for things like hammers, fullers, drifts, bending forks and other tooling. High alloy steels like S7 or H13 for tools designed to be buried in hot steel like punches and slitting chisels. For blades anything from 5160 and up depending... If you are doing historical replication pre-1850's then you need to use real wrought iron, crucible steel, blister or shear steel---depending on what where and when.
March 16, 20179 yr For starting out hot rolled mild or A36 is the best choice and sourcing it from a place that sells steel is FAR better than buying it at a big box store---The steel place that's the same distance from me as the big box store will sell me 20' of steel for the same cost as 4' at the big box store. This sort of Steel generally comes in a 20' stick as I get Hot Rolled A-36/Mild. (Cold rolled is more expensive and comes in shorter lengths 12' for 1/4" sq stock, but it's the only 1/4" square I can find out here) As soon as you put cold rolled steel in the forge you lose the cold rolled features and it's more expensive. The steel dealer will generally cut it down in size but will charge per cut for this.---I generally bring my hacksaw and cut it in their parking lot to fit my pickup... Higher carbon higher alloy steels I source in a different manner; but you start of with the mild/A36 stuff to learn on.
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