Burnt metal

[Jaydugas]

I recently (last weekend) built my first forge, and decided to try knife making. So I attack a pin bearing (1.5"×1.5") with a 12 lbs sledge for 3 hours. I had it down to about 3/8" thick, when I burnt it. My question is, can it be fixed, and if not how can I tell how far back it is garbage?

 

[JTknives]

By "burnt" what do you mean. Does it have cracks in the steel or did it just crumble. 52100 can be tricky to forge as it's a tad bit tempature sensitive and if forged to hot it will start to come apart. If you pulled it out and it was sparkling then it was way to hot. Bearings can be frustrating to forge by hand because you desperately want the steel to move faster. But if your forging and all the sudden forging is easy STOP, you most likely over heated it. A picture would help us out in giving advice. Without seeing it my first thought is start over as you don't know where the bad spot is unless it's just the tip.

But the solution is the same, it can't be fixed if it's "burnt". I have a few bearings kicking around the I forged to hot when not paying attention and thy are full of cracks. Toss it in the recycle bucket and learn from it

 

[Jaydugas]

When I hit it, the end crumbled off. Live and learn. thank you JT.

 

[mete]

technically - overheated means excessive grain growth and some grain boundary problems .Usually can be fixed .
Burned means you have oxidized the grain boundary , now you have scrap !!!
Energy levels are higher in the GB so things happen there first . Diffusion of elements , then melting , then oxidizing.
Crumbling = oxidizing !