Discovered a trick for avoiding cracked steel on tight bends after 20 years

I was making a set of hook tools last month and kept getting hairline cracks on the inside of a tight 90 degree bend. Tried heating it more, tried cooling it slower, nothing worked. Then an old timer at the shop told me to forge a slight hump on the inside curve before bending. That added a bit of extra material where it needed it most and the bend came out clean on the first try. I had never even thought of that in two decades of smithing. Has anyone else run into this or got a weird fix for a common problem?

2 comments

2 Comments

linda_murphy1mo ago

Forty years in and I've always found cracks come from poor hammer control, not lack of material. Adding extra metal just gives you more to compress wrong and hide a bad technique. Fix the way you hit the steel and the bend sorts itself out without any hump at all.

the_drew1mo ago

Hot damn, that hump trick is slick. I've been doing this for about fifteen years and I ran into the exact same nightmare last summer on a set of heavy wall hooks for a ranch gate. Tried everything you did, even talked to a couple guys who swore by quenching the inside curve, which just made it worse. What finally worked for me was something I picked up from an old horseshoer, he said to leave the edge a little thicker on the inside of the bend from the start before any shaping. Basically just plan for that material to stretch and it buys you enough meat to keep the crack from ever starting. It's crazy how the simple fixes are the ones nobody tells you about.