[TheForge] Steel substitution

[John Newman]

I use H13 on cold steel regularly and find it holds up well.  I used a
H13 punch in my flypress to punch over 200 1/4" holes cold and it still
looks fine. You have to temper it to a faint red in the shadows after
air hardening it at a yellow heat.  If you skip the temper the edge
dulls.  I have found H13 to be fairly cheap as well (12' of 3/8" and
1/2" round for $30 Cdn.)

John Newman

Frederick Faller wrote:

> These pins are typically an H-13 steel that must
> withstand the high working temperatures of the molding
> process.
>
>  (H-13 is self
> hardening steel) If you work the steel cold, these
> will dull up as they are not a particullarly hard
> steel, so don't use them for cold cutting, but with
> hot work, you never have to worry about losing
> hardeness with tempering because they self harden.
>
>