[TheForge] Re: cold drawn steel

[Mike Spencer]

> For what it is worth, I don't know of any steel products that are
> "rolled" cold.

I don't know about garden variety commodity steel buyt Michelin makes
megamiles of fiune wire for steel belting that starts as ca. 8mm coils
and is cold rolled to a much smalled size before before starting into
a rather complicated series of die drawing, pickling, brass plating
and more drawing.

> I have found that the quality of the cold finished bars tends to be
> inferior to the hot rolled material, that is, I suspect the mill
> takes the bars that are too ugly to sell in their "as rolled"
> condition, and sends them through the cold finishing in the hope of
> making "sellable" product.

Is it reasonable to surmise that te mills will select stock that is in
the lower end of the carbon range in order to reduce power
requirements  and tool wear in the cold finish process?  The only CF
I've used regularly is 3/16" square but it always seems much more
easily forgeable -- softer -- than hot rolled 1/4" suqare.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada 
                                 
mspencer@tallships.ca            
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/