This method (or any) won't make your mild steel into high carbon steel, it's only surface carburizing or case hardening. This means only the surface (around 0.5 mm deep) will absorb a tiny amount of carbon, which can let its surface be hardened, but not all through the piece. Mild steel cannot be carburized fully to turn it into high carbon steel at home or in a shop, it can only be done in a foundry by melting and adding precise amounts of coal and some minerals, while paying attention to the temperature. I know one can feel good about the results, but hardening the outer layer of a piece of mild steel won't make it a high carbon steel, so you can't make a trusty knife or sword out of it.
What you are saying may be true, but I like to do the experiment myself, even if I get a success rate of a small twenty percent, this is considered a success for me, and it can be benefited by increasing the hardness of ordinary steel, not just iron.
tbf i watched a vid some years ago were ray mears was presented with a knife made on tv by a smith. he placed a piece of carbon between the folded metal and forged a very.nice knife so as a watcher of forged in fire series.what do you think of this method...regards
@@diytothedayyoudie3913the clay you're using appears to be of low thermal resilience based in the wet color alone. If you use a bauxite crucible as well as a well insulated coke furnace with a steady natural gas supply (propane or butane) to help better control the heat. Moreover, you need a massive air intake so an entrainment system with your natural gas wouldn't be a bad idea. Moreover, if you have a separate air inlet, you can make the inlet out of a number of steel pipes over burning coals so as to cause minimal loss in temperature.
clay and metal work beter when heated for a long time you cant heat it up to high or fast you have to heat it up and hold it there so the carbon can sock in the more thick the metal the longer you heat something thin like a shet metal take any where from 30 m to 1hr something big like a knife blad can be 1-1.5 hr to soak up the carbon i have also hear of peopl useing lethr and paper as a carbon sors bu you also need to ad the right amot to i love watch peopl make thing th old way its so much nicer
