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I Forge Iron

First hot cut Hardy


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Received Ford Mustang axle from a friend of mine and forged a hot cut out a piece of it.  

A problem I ran into was when I was striking to set the bevel the end started to cup.  It was like the outer metal was moving but the innermost part of the metal stayed put.   I was able to correct it but I was wondering if I was doing something wrong or is this normal   

 

This is is he finished project 

 

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23 minutes ago, Matt Matney said:

A problem I ran into was when I was striking to set the bevel the end started to cup.  It was like the outer metal was moving but the innermost part of the metal stayed put.

Yes, that's exactly what's happening; it's called "fishmouthing". This is caused by one or more of the following: metal not heated all the way through, hammer blows not heavy enough, and/or the direction of your hammer blow is off. In the first case (as @Jasent notes), you need to let the metal soak up the heat, so that the center moves as much as the outside. In the second case, light hammer blows don't penetrate all the way to the center, so the surface moves more than the middle. In the third case, poorly directed hammer blows can force the surface to flow over the edge.

If you don't get it corrected in the forging, make sure you grind it out completely. It can cause a cold shut which can lead to cracking.

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also, to help with the fish mouthing, you can dome the end of the piece, so that when it does fish mouth it just brings the corners back square, and you have little to no fishmouthing. if this makes any sense.

                                                                                                                                       Littleblacksmith 

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Think about heating steel like roasting a marshmallow, tasty brown on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside, heat it to fast and you either get toasty brown and cold and hard or burnt and cold. Then forge your taper from the tip back. That is as LB points out, forge a blunt taper and then forge it back to a more acute taper.  

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Thank Steve and Crazy Goat lady. Steve interdicted me to the idea of slowly heating stock to forge weld, turning and letting it soak. Then in a conversation with Crazy goat lady I had an epifiny as to how to describe it. Some of my stic in your head descriptions would get me on Glens "no coal for x-mas" list...

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This Friday our church down here is having their first fall bonfire. it's Revolution Day at the factory so I get it off and will be taking the forge over early and forging marshmallow roasters; unfortunately I only get *1* smore(s) due to my diabetes and will be taking a good dose of insulin to even get that!

The wire frames they put election signs on out here make pretty good marshmallow toasting forks if you straighten them, bend double and then twist *leaving about 6" for a handle and 8-10" on the ends to make the fork out of. About a month after elections I can generally find a bunch abandoned alongside the roads with no signs on them...or as I generally put it "Every year there is a crop of them and every 4 years it's a bumper crop of them!"    (Back in Ohio they had massive issues with them being abandoned falling into the weeds and wrapping up around the road dept mowing equipment.  So one of the radio stations started having a contest for who could bring the most in; a friend of mine had over 300!)

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