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Step 3Play with fire...
WARNING: Red-hot metal will cause third degree burns before you can react. Black iron can (and often is) hot enough to burn. BE CAREFUL!
Start a fire in your forge.
After the fire is going and there is a red/orange hot area put the steel in. If you are starting with a strait piece of steel (lucky you!) you can skip this part...
I need to straiten out the spring piece. Heat an area to orange, move it to the anvil, and pound on what sticks up. For me, putting most of the round on the bottom works best. Once the metal cools to red or less, put it back in the fire. Metal moves where it's hot, and easiest where it's hottest.
WARNING: if the metal gets to hot (yellow to white) it will start to spark. This is the carbon burning out and the iron burning away. If you catch it quickly, you might not have done to much damage, otherwise cut the burnt piece off and start over. It is no longer high carbon and can never be hardened, so it's useless for a knife blade.
Start a fire in your forge.
After the fire is going and there is a red/orange hot area put the steel in. If you are starting with a strait piece of steel (lucky you!) you can skip this part...
I need to straiten out the spring piece. Heat an area to orange, move it to the anvil, and pound on what sticks up. For me, putting most of the round on the bottom works best. Once the metal cools to red or less, put it back in the fire. Metal moves where it's hot, and easiest where it's hottest.
WARNING: if the metal gets to hot (yellow to white) it will start to spark. This is the carbon burning out and the iron burning away. If you catch it quickly, you might not have done to much damage, otherwise cut the burnt piece off and start over. It is no longer high carbon and can never be hardened, so it's useless for a knife blade.
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2 layers folded becomes 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192 layers after folding 12 times. It's 12! (factorial) not 12x12 (squared).
The early iron-smiths had to average out the carbon content of what they had, and so had to mix the metal by folding it. Bessimer fixed that.