A forged part is stronger than an identical shape machined from solid bar, and the reason has nothing to do with the alloy. It is grain flow. Inside a forging plant the sequence is brutally simple and fiercely controlled. Bar stock is sheared to a precise mass, because the die cavity is fixed and the only real variable is how much metal enters it. That slug then passes through an induction coil, heated to roughly 1150 to 1250 degrees Celsius for carbon steel, above the recrystallisation temperature where the metal deforms plastically without work hardening and without cracking. The billet emerges coated in mill scale, an oxide skin that would otherwise be hammered into the surface as a permanent defect. High pressure water descaling strips it before the first blow. Then the die work begins: - Preforming or upsetting redistributes mass towards the heaviest sections - A blocker die establishes rough geometry with generous radii - A finisher die delivers final form in a single strike ...