What does "Forged" mean? Is it good?

What does \"Forged\" mean? Is it good?

/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif Earlier we were discussing the bolt issue again as it related to tow hooks and Team Rush mentioned to be watchful for "fake" forgings. So THAT prompted me to think: "Hmmmm......I wonder if everyone knows WHAT forgings are, and why they are good? At least one guy did ask about them, so for everyone's benefit, here is a sort of thumbnail explanation: A forging is a piece of STEEL...not cast iron.....STEEL which has been poured in ingot form....to GENERALLY resemble some specific item, like a hook for instance. I say generally, because "as poured" it is MUCH bigger in every direction that you could measure, and isn't very well defined. While it is still good and hot, it is grabbed by hand tongs, OR by mechanical tongs if it is big, and placed on a surface which may have sort of a pocket on it, a pocket that vaguely resembles a hook. Above this surface is a HUGE mechanical hammer....really huge...so big and powerful that it shakes the floor when it hits. The workers place the still-hot ingot over the pocket, and the mechanical hammer comes down repeatedly, and smacks the hot ingot. The pressure from the hammer does two things: ONE...it forces the ingot into a more specific shape...in this case a hook....and TWO...it compresses the steel...literally....into a smaller area.....squeezing out any spaces that remain in the structure of the steel itself, and making a DENSER material out of it. As the process goes forward, the workers use a smaller and smaller pocket as they pound the crap out of the now-beginning-to-cool-off ingot, and it starts to take on a recognizable shape. SMALLER.....but one heck of a lot DENSER.
So by using a machine called a DROP HAMMER, the workers have made a forging....something that has both stiffness, AND ductility. It can resist bending, but WHEN it finally does bend, it won't snap. This is a very desireable characteristic for things that matter, like front spindles, and steering arms. AND....tools. Your wrenches probably say: "Drop Forged"....what they mean is DROP HAMMER Forged. Good crankshafts were always made by forging, but in the 80's some auto makers went to cast steel cranks to save a buck. They worked, but a lot of them snapped off. The cast steel was there all right, but the DENSITY wasn't. I've heard that Weatherby Rifle barrels aren't bored to caliber, but are actually "poked" to near caliber.....THEN bored to size. By "Poking" a rod through the hot barrel and oversizing a small pilot hole in that fashion the theory is that the material compacts and the barrel is denser as a result. Sounds like a good idea, but I don't know if it's true./wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif

CJDave
I never believe any statistics unless my moonguys /wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif made 'em up themselves.