Thread: Crucible steel file

I have had problems with forging without annealing. Couldn't drill pinning holes. May have had something to do with the temperatures during forging. I will continue to anneal before forging.
Respectfully,
Skipnord

Originally Posted by Bruno

Keep in mind that this is only important if you are only going to use stock removal.
If you are going to forge, annealing up front will not do anything.

Just a thought, but if that file is still fully hardened, is there actually ANY NEED to further heat treat it?

It might be hard enough as is, no?

Originally Posted by skipnord

I have had problems with forging without annealing. Couldn't drill pinning holes. May have had something to do with the temperatures during forging. I will continue to anneal before forging.
Respectfully,
Skipnord

You should anneal after forging. Annealing before forging will not do much because the forging process itself will leave the metal in a semi hardened state. The only way to have any knowledge about the state of a forged piece is either to harden it or anneal it. Not doing anything means that the piece can be either.

Well stage one of the forge build is complete...
I used a van rim and welded a piece of 3 inch steam pipe out from the centre hole where the hub would be. The steam pipe I cut and 90 degrees coming away from the forge and then goes to some flexi hose to my fan. It's all a bit trial and error at this stage but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. There is some drilled 3 inch plate sitting in the bottom over the pipe inlet. The mixture I have just literally just built up inside the rim, no idea how long it's going to take to go off hard. I'm eager to fire it up already!!! The legs I made of some angle I had knocking around and need to put cross members in yet to give it more stability.

Here's another big old file I've got that's got warranted cast steel stamped on. It an old Sheffield file. Would cast steel be suitable for using? I don't want to start cutting and grinding if I'm wasting my time. I don't know the technical properties of 'cast'

Here's a pic.....

Sorry, just done some research, cast steel has been used for a few hundred years to make razors!! My bad. . duuuhhhhhhh!!

That setup looks nice. A couple of tips:

You'll notice it will take a long time to dry out. You can help that along by filling it with charcoal and lighting it, first time, don't force air through it, just make sure it can draw air on its own and let the fire burn out on its own.
Use only charcoal, not briquettes. The briquettes will leave a lot of clay residue which will instantly smother the fire as soon as they are spent.
You'll always want at least 3 to 4 inches of charcoal burning between the air inlet and your workpiece. Otherwise you are blowing 'cold' air over your piece.
Your setup will work nicely for razor sized objects. If you want to make larger obejcts, you need to have a way to move your piece over the hotspot. This means taking a piece out of the front and back where you can slide your object through.

To all intents and purposes 'cast steel' is the same as 'crucible steel' which is the same as 'acier fondue' which is the same as 'wootz' steel - all were made in relatively small pours in a crucible. The term refers to casting it into an ingot from which the file, razor, or whatever is then wrought. It doesn't mean the article was cast in the 'moulded' sense.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

To all intents and purposes 'cast steel' is the same as 'crucible steel' which is the same as 'acier fondue' which is the same as 'wootz' steel - all were made in relatively small pours in a crucible. The term refers to casting it into an ingot from which the file, razor, or whatever is then wrought. It doesn't mean the article was cast in the 'moulded' sense.

Regards,
Neil

Not entirely sure I agree that it would be the same as wootz. That depends on the type and amount of alloying elements. Without those dendritic strucutres, crucible steel is not wootz.