hot or cold rolled steel?

For a couple of years I have thought that cold rolled steel was the best choice for practice plates. I was reading an NRA Engraving book by Neil Hartlieb to day and he suggested that hot rolled steel was best for engraving plates. Can any of the experienced engravers here set the record straight?

Thanks..
JohnC

Hot rolled steel is the cheapest way to go, but must be surfaced to get the finish you desire before you get into your practice sessions. There may be some scale and unevenness, but even a belt sander can handle that. Cold rolled steel is more expensive, as finish rolling operations are done cold, to some specific size, and, you have to pay for that. Both can be of the same alloys, but one costs more, and, you can have rusty cold rolled that you'd have to dress up, anyway, so why pay for something unnecessary. If you have no finishing equipment of any kind, which I'd find it odd that an engraver wouldn't, cold rolled, with a decent finish, would be your choice. As for me, I look for the cheapest, usually free, junk I can find and finish it the way I want. You can do the same.

I look for free when ever i can, practice is practice. When it come to practice plates I pay what ever the going price is. I haven't noticed a significant difference in the price any way.

I never expected a free education anyway, especially for an art as demanding as engraving.

If you have a band saw, great. If not, a hack saw will do. Go to home depot, lowes, tractor supply or most any hardware store and get some 2 or 3 inch wide "weldable steel" they call it which is just mild hot rolled steel. They usually sell it in 3 or 4 foot lengths. I used to cut that stuff up and sand it smooth and practice on that. It's cheap!

It sounds like if you take the time to sand your plates it doesn't matter that much. I have a roll of 240 grit 2" wide and a roll of 600 grit 1.5 " wide I use for preparing the plates

thanks to all

JohnC

Hot or cold rolled, either way it is mild soft steel and is easy to engrave. You can polish it and blue it if you like but you can't harden it other than case hardening so keep that in mind if you end up using it for a project later other than just practice plates.