Dumb Question - Hot rolled vs. Cold rolled??

When steel is heated up the molecules align in to what they called a matrix. This becomes a stronger steel. In cold rolling they start with a huge billet of steel and run it throguh rollers compressing the steel. In cold roll steel youll have the same matrix as you did in the original billet (for the most part its really less change to the matrix). Cold rolling also uses many more rollers and or passes to get the stock to the final size and shape this is why it will tend to have a nicer looking finish.

With hot rolled steel the matrix will change become more dense and well aligned. In stock removal this is a good thing as it will grind and file etc smoother for us (more consitancy) than cold rolled. In the end though if your heat treating is good other than the ease of finishing both will end up the same or very close to the same in hardness grain structure etc.

Remember on raw hot rolled youll need to remove a portion of the mettal from top bottom and both esdges to get past the scale layer.

OT sort of but intresting. You know that alluminum foil you use to wrap your lunch in? Well it is a multi layer or damascus alloy. To get foil they use hot roller to thin out a very huge billet of aluminum. Once its at a given thickness it is folded in half and ran through the rollers again to increase its strength. Depending on how heavy a duty its to be used for it may be folded again and again ran through the rollers. So you heavy duty foil is folded twice giving a 4 layer damscus aluminum foil

Just a fun little fact i picked up watchign how its made heheh

Ok this was just on history channel and a while back how its made.When steel is heated up the molecules align in to what they called a matrix. This becomes a stronger steel. In cold rolling they start with a huge billet of steel and run it throguh rollers compressing the steel. In cold roll steel youll have the same matrix as you did in the original billet (for the most part its really less change to the matrix). Cold rolling also uses many more rollers and or passes to get the stock to the final size and shape this is why it will tend to have a nicer looking finish.With hot rolled steel the matrix will change become more dense and well aligned. In stock removal this is a good thing as it will grind and file etc smoother for us (more consitancy) than cold rolled. In the end though if your heat treating is good other than the ease of finishing both will end up the same or very close to the same in hardness grain structure etc.Remember on raw hot rolled youll need to remove a portion of the mettal from top bottom and both esdges to get past the scale layer.OT sort of but intresting. You know that alluminum foil you use to wrap your lunch in? Well it is a multi layer or damascus alloy. To get foil they use hot roller to thin out a very huge billet of aluminum. Once its at a given thickness it is folded in half and ran through the rollers again to increase its strength. Depending on how heavy a duty its to be used for it may be folded again and again ran through the rollers. So you heavy duty foil is folded twice giving a 4 layer damscus aluminum foilJust a fun little fact i picked up watchign how its made heheh