THIS WORKS ON THE iPHONE 6 - In the world of Production Open Die and Step Down Shaft Forging, blacksmiths will take a piece of metal, heat this metal for a set time and temperature until it is red hot, before it is rotated, hammered and carefully elongated in unison to reach a specific shape or size. This forging process is truly a work of art, as the metal has to be worked by multiple blacksmiths while the temperatures are above their recrystallization temperatures. The starting piece of metal, sometimes called a "Blank" or "Mult", can be tricky or time-consuming to calculate from the customers finish forge prints. Use this Reverse Forging Calculator to save you time and money. For example: If a "Blank" is cut too short, all the heating and hammering time will be wasted when the final part cannot make its finished size. Having said this, if the starting piece of metal is too long, then everything left over gets cut off and scrapped, including the extra labor and heating time. All that energy usage, labor and furnace real estate can be very costly to throw away and, again, this is why this program was engineered - use this software to help calculate the starting length of the piece of metal to achieve your forging goal with minimal waste. Once you calculate your "Blank" size, click the E-mail button to send your report to your MFG or saw operator. To save material look through your left over pieces before cutting off of a new full bar. You can also enter your shops price per pound to help quickly estimate your job quotes. Click the QC Visual Heat Chart button to open the Quality Assurance thermal chart to help prevent over heating of parts, you can also click the Heat Ranges button to list the thermal ranges for various metals. The scale loss used in the calculator is the percentage of material that will flake off during the forging process, 5% per heat cycle with alloy steel should be perfect, but is configurable. LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Since blacksmithing can be full of unknown variables, this calculator should be used as an estimating tool only and for entertainment use only. Visit our website below by clicking the logo and feel free to email your suggestions for the next revision. METRIC VERSION ALSO AVAILABLE ON THE APP STORE.