Selection and treatment of test-pieces
48.—(1)  All the test-pieces required shall be selected and stamped by a surveyor of ships, and, except where otherwise specified in this Part, the tests shall be made in his presence at the place of manufacture and before the despatch of the material.
(2)  Test-pieces shall not be cut off castings or forgings until they have been stamped by a surveyor of ships after the annealing has been completed. The marks stamped on the test-pieces, castings and forgings shall be such that the charge from which they are made can be readily identified.
(3)  If any material, including plates, is annealed or otherwise heat treated after test-pieces have been detached, the testpieces shall be similarly and simultaneously treated with the material before they are tested. The test-pieces shall not be further heated excepting those intended for temper bending tests.
(4)  When a number of articles are cut from one plate, bar or forging, the number of tests required shall be the same as that required from the original piece, provided the articles have not been further heated or forged, and can be identified as having formed part of the original piece.
(5)  In the case of a forging, the test-pieces shall be taken from a part of the forging of sectional dimensions not less than those of the body of the forging. In special cases, where the couplings of a shaft are formed by upsetting, the test-pieces may be cut from the outer edge of the coupling.
(6)  When a number of small forgings are made from the same ingot, or a number of small castings from the same charge of steel, the full number of tests specified hereafter need not be made; tensile and bending tests at the rate of one of each for every 4 articles shall, in such cases, be sufficient.
(7)  For small sectional material the bending tests may be made from the flattened bar.
(8)  Bending tests may be made either by pressure or by blows.
(9)  Except where specially mentioned in these Rules, any straightening of test-pieces, which may be required, shall be done cold.