We are in the mid of full on summer heat here at home & I have been really wanting to move some steel around and the heat from the forge & apron is out of the question right now. I was looking at some of Murray Carters comments on his website & other places and noticed his mention of doing a LOT of cold forging & it's benefits. While I can't see in my mind how cold forging would help the steel on the molecular level, he states it's a good thing.

My question is do any of you smiths/makers cold forge? Can it cause stress fractures in the steel when moving the steel around? Murray does reference using a smaller hammer on annealed steel. My steels are 1095 & O-1.

To top off my question, I haven't seen much going on here in the forge & thought it would be a good conversation while enjoying the A/C.