[gavin]

I started a thread on cast rods that went in unintended directions.So this thread is not on should you play with old forged rods(maybe not)but what happens when you do.Since I have had a stack of them hanging arround I decided to get a set hardened.The guy said he would do one with a batch of other stuff to try and see what happened. According to theory 58-62 rods will heat treat to 32 rockwell from about stock 17-18 and up to 40 rockwell vacuum heat treatment.So we tried too vacuum heat treat one and it went to the grand total of 18 rockwell.It may be that not all 58-60 rods are 1140 some may be near mild steel.Any way rod with bushing is 55-57 said to be about 1137 rockwell about 10-12 other rod is 58-62 1140 rockwell about 15-18.last rod is after unsuccessful heat treating.Very disappointing I wont be doing the rest.Epic fail but at least a cheap failure.