Mild Steel Plate and Sheet Hammered from a Billet

Before sheet mills, iron plate was hammered out hot, and thin sheet was hammered thinner still. A billet from a mild steel ingot is spread wide with the cross peen and smoothed with the flatter: thick results are plate, thin ones sheet. By hand, sheet much thinner than about 1.5 mm is very hard to keep even; measure what you get. Work at yellow heat and return to the fire at red, as for bar stock.