Ideal Forging Temperatures and Colors

Should you forge steel when it's cherry red?

No, the steel is too cold at this temperature.

What we consider hot in a campfire is not hot enough to make steel pliable enough to efficiently change its shape.

In this video and post, we'll talk about what color is best for forging using mild steel as our example.

Mild steel requires less energy to bring it up to heat and less human energy to change its shape due to the relative lack of carbon compared to tool steels.

Why You Should Hit It While It's Hot and Quit When It's Not:

1. Steel at higher temperatures is more flexible. It will change shape much more easily. This means it requires less force from you to change it.
2. Cold steel (even at cherry red) will put stress on the anvil, the hammer, and your body as you attempt to change its shape. 
3. You ALWAYS have another heat coming. Don't try to do all your work in a single heat. 

What Color Is Ideal for Forging?

Bring your steel up to a bright yellow-orange color to get the longest heat possible without risking material degradation.*

*This is much more common and easier to do in coal forges. They lack a regulator like gas forges, so they have the potential to get MUCH hotter.

You can burn up your metal if you don't pay attention with a coal forge.

This is where the expression "You have too many irons in the fire" comes from.

If you're working on your anvil and you have three pieces in the forge and it gets too hot, you will waste that material.

You have too much going on.

Forging Temperature and Color are Key to Effective Blacksmithing

It's less about power and arm strength than it is about attention to details like this.