First attempt to forge, help needed !

[Alain M-D]

I bought some olds files to forge into knives and some ball peen hammer to
make tomahawk. The only problem, I never forged anything! That will be my
first attempt... And I have some basic questions:

- I must heat steel to which color to forge it? (bright red, cherry red, yellow?)

- I imagine that I can heat treat these steels like I treat my 0-1 ?
Heat to non-magnetic and quench into water instead of oil ?

- Which hardness should I choose for the tomahawk? (Which tempering
temperature ?)

- In general, which kind of steel are made files and ball peen hammer ?

Thanks for your help !

Alain M-D

 

[etp777]

I've had good success quenching filesin oil(though I think supposedly they are often made from W2). To be honest, I'm too much of a chicken to quench in water yet.

But ones I"ve done got nicely hardened with an oil quench, and skated a file easily(was first times heat treating though, so all but one I haven't tested yet, which is just junk knife I use, had really bad grain growth). Still use two of them anyways because they're used for things that it doesn't matter if they break, but are too useful to throw away.

 

[Reg ELLERY]

I have made a tomahawke and a long flate blade for a gold prospecting
tool out of hammers. They forged well they will be hard under the hammer but they will move. Get yourself set up with the correct type of tongs to hold the hammer head you will need to be carefull not to collaps the hole for the handle. You can always re open the hole if you make a mistake just make a metal drift and knock it back through.

I don't have a pic of the tomahawk but i do have one of the prospecting tool. reg_ellery@optusnet.com.au is my address. I can send you a copy of the image to give you an idea how far you can draw out a hammer. I could have gone longer but it was all I needed.

I chenched in oil. chickly cleaned the front edge and waited for the coulor to travel to the edge and quenched again until cold. worke ok.