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Hardening tongs
- Thread starter Rick Lowe
- Start date
You can work mild steel colder if you want to, but it'll just tire your arm out. 
As for hardening them, why bother? If you're using them to hold hot stuff they'll lose their temper quickly anyways. Most of the tongs I've ever seen are just plain old mild steel.
-d
As for hardening them, why bother? If you're using them to hold hot stuff they'll lose their temper quickly anyways. Most of the tongs I've ever seen are just plain old mild steel.
-d
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2005
- Messages
- 655
Tongs with thin reins can benefit from the reins being hardened, but generally speaking, I just forge them a little thicker.
Water quench is pretty safe for "mild steel" but don't expect consistent results, as what most people think is mild steel actually is whatever the cheapest steel was that would meet certain minimum requirements, not steel that meets specific carbon and alloying content requirements.
1018 steel won't get appreciably harder in a water quench, a36 (what is most commonly sold as mild steel) might or might not.
Water quench is pretty safe for "mild steel" but don't expect consistent results, as what most people think is mild steel actually is whatever the cheapest steel was that would meet certain minimum requirements, not steel that meets specific carbon and alloying content requirements.
1018 steel won't get appreciably harder in a water quench, a36 (what is most commonly sold as mild steel) might or might not.