Forging Issues

#1 · June 26, 2026, 7:50 am

Hello wootz guys,

Experienced my first serious issue with forging on some crucible steel. I am a bit at lost as it what actually going on. I’m aware hot-shortness is a common problem but I don’t think that is this. I did have a crack from on the tip pretty early and cut that out, than I thought there was some wild scale that just didn’t wanna fall off, figured it was a weird thing with the carbides.

However after I stopped and cleaned the blade, some immediately (scale or peeling) came back with reforging and they seemed to repeat in the same areas.

Overall most of the blade looks fantastic! But I gotta clean some areas that may change the profile more than I want.

Here is a pic of the cake and some pics of what I experienced.

Note: It forged to large bar without issues and seemed to lower temp forging as a culprit. This mix was different and contained half 1018 so it was much much higher in MN. The other possible thought was I tried slow cooling this a little different , so far those are my two best guesses! 😬

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Jacob Christian has reacted to this post.

#2 · June 27, 2026, 1:26 pm

Forging too cold, sub 730, and moving the metal a significant amount will absolutely result in tearing of the layers. If you rotate your forging plane once in small bar form and forge 800 ish, it will also tear.

Chemistry will have a huge impact on things as well. Too high P will always tear at lower temps.