Newbie diving head first, couple questions

[Paradigm11]

Hi all!

I did a class a couple years ago and liked it enough to get a small forge off of craigslist and various homeownership realities prevented me from using it until now.

Anyway, I've only worked with mild steel but I said screw it and just try (and fail) with higher carbon steel.

I bought a splitting wedge from an antique store and I've read that they are hardened so I tried annealing it and halfway through it... Broke in half?

I just kept heating them as I read (a nice bright orange for about 90 min) and they're currently cooling.

Question is why would it split in half? How can I tell if its annealed correctly? There's so much info out there. It's overwhelming and it's hard to see what's real and what's not.

I can't even get a good lock on what temp, just color.

My goal is to make an axe, currently.

I don't really care about ruining anything, I'm trying to learn by screwing up. I've got a solid source of metal from my neighbor.

I'm almost positive it's going to be a mess that I junk, but the best way to learn is to try. At least that's how I learn.

Added some pics below. The chunks on the vice are after annealing (theoretically). Any advice or insights are welcome. 

https://imgur.com/OecYB7A

[Steve Sells]

where did you get the idea that it has to be annealed before forging? looks like you may have burnt it, also 90 minutes it a bit long that causes massive grain growth and damages the steel, as you found out

 

[Paradigm11]

I'm learning as I go pretty blindly. I was looking to do SOMETHING this weekend so I bought a chunk of junk to play with.

I'd read that splitting wedges were hardened and you can anneal harden metal to make it workable again so I said "why not" and tried. I'd read that you soak the hardened metal at (some temp, cherry red they suggested) for an hour for each 1" and then cool it slowly.

I might be entirely wrong. 

 

Is there a way to salvage it? I'm not concerned about that chunk of metal, but it'd be good to know when to call it quits for the future.

[Frosty]

Hmmmm, burnt to death alright. Try aiming at NOT screwing up. There's nothing wrong with screwing up but don't set your sights on it. Whatever online videos you've been watching . . . stop. Heating a piece of steel to forging temperature brings it above critical and has drawn any hardness out long before. Annealing is only AFTER a forging session to relieve stresses and reduce the steel's hardness as much as possible for the next processes IF they require it. 

I highly recommend you start with smaller projects until you develop the hammer control and muscle groups necessary to forge something like an axe. And pick better steel than a splitting wedge, those are low end of medium carbon so they don't break under all the hammering. They're intended to be tough, NOT HARD.

Take a look at the broken wedge, see how granular the broken surface is? This is the grain growth Steve is referring to and pretty much punched that steel's ticket. As steel it might be salvageable  but that would take knowledge and equipment you frankly don't have. I've been at this as a hobby for better than 50 years and I'd toss it unless it were a survival situation. Do you read / watch post apocalyptic stories? 

Start out with some simple exercises, make a nail header you'll learn some basic forging and punch a hole. Now make nails, not only is it good to develop hammer control its an excellent warm up for a forging session any day.

Leave off high carbon steel for a while, its much more temperature and time sensitive and is harder to move under the hammer. If you learn how to move ad control mild steel, you HAVE THAT SKILL. When you start forging higher carbon steels you will notice how much harder it is to move immediately, say by the 3rd. blow and you'll learn how hot it works best and what it takes to burn it.

With the basic skills under your belt learning a different steel is EZ PZ, you only need to learn a new working temperature range. You'll destroy a few, everybody does even after years of smithing you lose pieces. Some just surprise you with something new, others you just screw up.

Don't take Steve's reply as anything but being direct and too the point, he has as big a heart as anybody you'll ever meet. He's just blunt where I'm long winded.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Paradigm11]

Understood, I thought as much. Luckily, I actually really enjoy making nails.

I prefer people not beating around the bush anyway haha.