Hot Rods Forged or Cast Steering arms

I have been reading alot here in regards to welding on steering components which is taboo in most peoples eyes with cast components. I have a set of steering arms from a 1935 Dodge car and I originally thought they were cast but a friend of mine was looking at them tonight and he tells me that they are forged.They have a 1/4 " at least flat strip on the sides from either the mould or the press . He said that if they were cast they would have a fine line on the sides.
Is it possible that they are forged in the 30"s?

 

Yes of course..Way easier to wack a piece of steel onto shape than making molds and casting..

 

Forged parts like that commonly have 'squeezed' material remaining after the forging dies do their work. That is usually ground off during manufacture, leaving the 'flats' you describe

Ray

 

Forging in the 30s ?
1930s yep
1830s yep
1730s yep
1630s yep
1530s yep
1430s yep

Forging is 1000s of years old process

Does that mean everything is forged, no it does not but you asked based on its age of 1930s alone.

 

That is the way they should be made.
More expensive, which is why a lot of the cheap aftermarket stuff is cast.

Forged suspension parts don't break.
Cast parts can.

 

Your friend is right. That flat area is called the parting line. On a small cast part it will be about 1/16" wide or a bit more. On a forging it will be much wider like your parts are. That's because there has to be a bit of excess metal in the blank used for forging such that the dies are fully filled when the press closes the die set. The excess metal squeezes out between the 2 halves of the die set, and if you look closely at the flat area you'll likely see what looks like some real coarse grind marks across the flat. When the part was initially forged, there was quite a bit more metal forced out, and the excess is later ground off with big grinders running very coarse wheels, leaving the flat area you now see.

Looking at the width of the parting lines is also an easy way to identify whether a crankshaft was cast or forged. Some forged cranks will have the remains of a parting line that's close to 1/2" wide.

 

So after identifing these as forged ,would it be safe to assume one can safely heat and bend or weld on them compared to cast

 

Only if they are forged.

Welding only if you are a qualified and experienced welder.

Either way, they need to go to a machine shop, after modification, for Magnaflux inspection before use.