If you respond to this please keep in mind that i am completely in the dark about forging or how most things work. Do not worry about talking down to me.
I read in a book Restoring Antique tools by Michael Dunbar that it is possible to anneal, harden and temper tool steel with a small plumber's torch. I was wondering if it is possible to shape steel as well with such a concentrated heat source? The first thing i want to do is cut up a plane blade to use for marking knives in marking gauges. I thought I could get it soft to cut with a hacksaw. Would I cut it hot or let it cool to an annealed state? Do smiths cut things by folding them as well? would that be possible with tool steel? Would you bend back and forth over a crease? Once i get the rectangle i want, is the knife shape typically pounded or ground?
I have also read that part of what makes old cast steel take a better edge is that it has been pounded and folded over on itself improving the grain structure. You can not buy modern steels like O1 and A2 that have been worked like this, correct? Would they benefit from such treatment? Would this be possible with just a torch? Maybe I was wrong about the smiths of old folding a piece of steel over and over? I imagine it would have to be pretty hot for the faces folded together to fuse? And i think I read in another forum here that when temps get too high steel loses carbon?
Another thing i'd like to do is make some woodworking chisels out of those blue cold chisels as i have heard the steel in them is fine and they are a fraction of the cost of woodworking chisels. I do not know if shaping something like that is better done with a hammer or grinder. Like shaping a tang.
I would also like to try and shape when of those cold chisels or a cheaper wood chisel into a lock mortise chisel if possible.
thank you