1095 Hot Rolled vs Cold Rolled

[David Stifle]

Hi Guys,

I've been doing some research, trying to find a good, reasonable priced source for 1095. I know most of the normal suppliers, just looking around. Anyway, the suppliers keep mentioning hot rolled vs cold rolled. What's the difference in terms of forging/blades?

Dave

 

[Carl_First_Timer]

Cold will have more stress, hot will have scale.

 

[Fred.Rowe]

Here is a decent article, David: http://www.spaco.org/hrvscr.htm

 

[jll346]

I use cold rolled as it is clean and ready to go. The hot rolled has scales on it.

 

[Don Hanson III]

One is rolled cold and the other is rolled hot

 

[A C Richards]

If you are forging your blades it make absolutely no difference. You are going to get it hot and scaly anyhow. Use the cheaper of the 2, normally hot rolled. If you are doing stock removal or Damascus use the cold rolled. I know you are going to forge the Damascus anyway, cold rolled has no mill scale so there is less prep grinding it off before assembling the billet. It is also a little tighter tolerance in size so the stack will be easier to align.

 

[David Stifle]

Thanks for the replies, guys. That clears it right up.

Don, you're a character, fo shure!

Dave

 

[me2]

The only cold rolled I've seen is CRA, cold rolled annealed. Hot rolled is usually not as soft. If you plan to file or grind the blades, CRA will be softer. HRA, hot rolled annealed, is out there too, but many times HR is just hot rolled and air cooled, possibly causing some hard spots and such.

 

[RyanW]

I get the Hot rolled and have to anneal it (Stock removal). As stated if you are forging go with the cheapest option.

 

[David Stifle]

Thanks Ryan,

I've been doing a lot more forging these days, just never really paid any attention to the hot vs cold rolled question before.

Fred, thanks for that link. It explains it quite clearly.

Dave