Mild steel for fabricating sights, tow worms etc

[Chowmi]

What mild steel do you recommend for hand fabricating (not on a lathe)  bits and pieces such as Tow Worms for the ramrod, vent picks, rear sights etc? 

After making a sight from some pretty hard stuff, I want to buy something specific to the task. 

Looking at online metals.com, I find round bar stock and square or rectangular stock in various alloys. 

1018 or 12L14 seems to be promising. 

I do not have a metal lathe, so I am hack sawing and filing. 

Thanks!

Norm

[Clark Badgett]

Both should work. 1045 can be hardened a little if you needed too.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I like tow worms filed from drill rod, like Jim Webb makes.  Mild steel isn't stiff enough for that job.  But for sights, it's great.

[Daryl]

Angle iron for sights.

[Clark Badgett]

Angle iron for sights.

Daryl, I've often wondered why more people haven't mentioned making sight from angle iron. Cheap, easily found in about any size you want, and saves a lot of sawing compared to bar stock.

[longcruise]

How about rail road spikes?

[rich pierce]

Angle iron for sights.

Daryl, I've often wondered why more people haven't mentioned making sight from angle iron. Cheap, easily found in about any size you want, and saves a lot of sawing compared to bar stock.

Some angle iron is hardened steel.  Old bed rails for example.

[Mark Elliott]

I recommend water hardening drill rod for making worms.    You can forge it without it air hardening.   I also use it to make drill bits and taps.    Otherwise,  I use 1018 where mild steel is required.   I also have wrought iron that I use for forging mounts and lock parts.   I case harden the lock parts.   I use 1075/85 for springs and 1095 for cutting tools.   12L14 is for screws.

[Curtis]

How about rail road spikes?

I second that! 
Curtis

[Pukka Bundook]

I just have a big pile of farm scrap that has been building here since the late 1800's.  Got rid of a good bit, but its handy for iron or steel.  Tow worms I just case harden if made of mild.
One time, I got  a bullet mould so far made and realised it was stainless!  Cut beautifully slick though, you'd have  thought I knew what I was doing!
Still use it. 

[Adrie luke]

He Norm,

You can use old bolds.
May be it is easy to buy a vice with flat grips.
I have made an example of a rear sight for you and you can see the vice I mean.
Than you can work better in line.
I spend only 15 minutes on you!
I used also a little saw.
I hope you understand what I mean.

[Adrie luke]

I forgot!
Easy to make the right angel.

[Elnathan]

When I made my worm (after several failures) and ball puller I just used 5/16" hardware-store rod. The tines of the worm did tend to deform in use at first, since I used heat while bending them to shape (my initial attempts to curl them cold resulted in a lot of broken tines) but after fixing them once or twice they have work-hardened to the point where they have enough spring to keep their shape.

How thick are y'all making your worm tines? Mine are about 1/16."

[Chowmi]

Hey guys, thanks for all the replies!  I've been off grid for a few days (Las Vegas!!), so haven't responded. 

Here's a few thoughts and questions regarding all the responses:

Angle iron for sights:
I thought about that, but thought that the rear, raised sections of the sight I wanted to build at the time might be thicker (in length) than you can get in angle iron.  Frankly, never looked at angle iron.  I suspect it would be great for most sights, might not for the one I had in mind. 

Adrie,  I really like the idea of using a bolt like you showed!   Saves quite a bit of filing, and bolts are cheap!

Pukka,
I have some farm scrap in my yard as well.  Not that much, and the one I pulled hoping it was iron was definitely not!  Hence my question about milder steels.  I will save the scrap steel I have for something that needs to be hard steel. 

Question about tow worms:

I always thought these were separate and distinct from ball pullers, and just served as a way to carry a wad of tow down the barrel.  Am I wrong?  The posts saying that various steels were not hard enough for tow worms has me confused.  If it only needs to carry tow, then why does it need to be strong?  As long as it doesn't break in forming, then I would think that any strength metal could carry tow.  What am I missing?  Are they in fact dual purpose: tow worm and ball puller?

Cheers,
Norm

[rich pierce]

I have a mild steel toe worm that gives me fits. I ran out down and it hits the breech and the times collapse so they have to be pried apart in order to wrap clean tow. I am sure the times will fatigue and break off soon.

[Elnathan]

Norm,

I think what folks are thinking of is the tines deforming in use. The one I made was squeezed together when I first used it from (possibly) friction along the bore and (certainly) banging it against the breech plug and had to be re-adjusted with some pliers to get a nice graceful spiral back. I think that this one re-adjustment was sufficient to work-harden the tines to the point that they will retain their shape under normal use, though admittedly I couldn't swear that I have actually used it on a muzzleloader since then (I know I have used it with great success to oil up a modern shotgun for which I had no bore mop, but that didn't involve banging it against a breechplug).

A nice spring temper on the tines would save that initial trouble, though the idea of running hardened steel tools up an down the bore doesn't thrill me even if they aren't supposed to ever touch the barrel in use. If using O-1 drill rod I suspect that you could get it sufficiently hard to retain its shape just by heating red hot and letting it air cool.

[Chowmi]

Norm,

I think what folks are thinking of is the tines deforming in use. The one I made was squeezed together when I first used it from (possibly) friction along the bore and (certainly) banging it against the breech plug and had to be re-adjusted with some pliers to get a nice graceful spiral back.

Aha, Mongo understand now!