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Heat & beat (blacksmith type of question) - reshape end of crowbar

Greetings all:

My favorite crowbar / wrecking bar is one that came with a house that I bought.

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this crowbar had the claw broken off by a prior owner and it appears that someone tried to weld it back on.
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know that I could buy a new crowbar but I would like to try to reshape the end to create a new claw - and of course I do not know the steel grade.

My plan is to grind off the vestiges of the weld, heat to a cherry red / straw color w/ a torch and hammer it to get the taper needed for a claw. I think I want to let it air cool and grind in the "V" for the nail puller on the claw and blend the outer edges of the new claw. Next heat to cherry red and then??? quench in water? quench in oil? stick the claw end into sand or kitty litter and allow to cool? air cool? quench and then temper?

I have a torch set, hammers, I-beam drop for an anvil, non-contact digital thermometer (up to 500 F, I think) & a contact thermometer (I don't remember the range - was used to test for plugged catalytic converters, higher than the non-contact one).

Your thoughts and suggestions?

Reply to
aribert n
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Unfortunately this crowbar had the claw broken off by a prior owner

I suspect that all that work was done when the bar was straight and the bends were the last things done before final tempering. I would guess that you will need to straighten the bar back out to have a chance of forming an adequate new head and then reforming the curve. My experience with welding and modifying hot forged items has not been great, I hope your experience is better.

Reply to
DanG

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Unfortunately this crowbar had the claw broken off by a prior owner

To forge the bar you need to get it "cherry Red", or thereabouts, which is nearly to the yellow stages. Forge to shape and finish.

To harden heat to "Cherry Red" which is nearly yellow and quench in something like kerosene or very, very light oil. Cold water provides the fastest quench and the greatest hardness (and the best chance of cracking). Once the part is hardened sand or grind off a section - to get a clean bright strip of steel where you can see the colors and temper by heating to a dark yellow/amber or very light blue and re-quench. Lighter colors mean a lower temperature and thus harder tempering.

Reply to
John B.

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