Does higher carbon steel need to be annealed before forging?

[silly goose]

When repurposing a file or coil spring for making flint strikers, should the steel be annealed first, or just heat it, and beat it?

 

Thank you for any and all replies.

[Will W.]

Personally, I usually don't truly anneal coil springs, leaf springs, files, etc. It probably wouldn't hurt to throw in a normalization cycle before you start, but I don't think annealing it would be necessary. 

[C-1ToolSteel]

Annealing steel is for making it easier to grind. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with forging. A 2,000 degree piece of steel is a 2,000 degree piece of steel, no matter what it was five minutes ago.

[ThomasPowers]

Annealing and normalization relieve stresses/work hardening in a material by taking it above the dislocation climb temperature. Forging heat is already above the dislocation climb temperature!

I know some folks anneal/normalize high alloy steels before welding as they fear that previously induced strains might cause the piece to crack/crumble/explode under the uneven heat of welding. (52100 is often treated this way for instance)

[Frosty]

Not necessary Thomas laid out the reasons I won't do a repeat. Spring steel isn't heat treated for hardness it's a spring it's supposed to flexible. You can cut it with a hack saw and drill it with HS drill bits, it's NOT brittle unless you make it so.

Okay, here's a useful shop tip. Clean off dirty or rusty steel BEFORE sawing or drilling it, dust grit and such will dull your cutters a little wire brushing lets your bits stay sharp longer. and do NOT grind or use an abrasive wheel, grinder, sand paper, etc. and then use a cutter! The abrasive grit embedded in the stock will blunt, not just dull, blunt your cutters. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[JerryCarroll]

How about fileing? I usually file the rust off that the wire brush/wheel don't get. I've never given any thought about it dulling my files

[Frosty]

1 hour ago, JerryCarroll said:

How about fileing? I usually file the rust off that the wire brush/wheel don't get. I've never given any thought about it dulling my files

Grit dulling them? Oh yes, files are basically very wide saws. Rust isn't particularly abrasive but dust and grit sure is and rust catches dirt nicely.

Frosty The Lucky.

[SmoothBore]

While that's all entirely true, ... it's my personal philosophy that "life's too short to worry about incidental wear on cutting tools".

That's why we call them "consumables".

 

"Tool Worship" is a particularly insidious form of dementia, that can quickly render you ineffectual. 

 

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