1144 seems to machine pretty well...
 

The 18" bar of 3.5" round 1144 was delivered today. I have it chucked up
in the lathe and have started working on turning it into gear blanks.
Using just the cheap cemented carbide bits and soluble oil coolant it
seems to turn a lot more easily than I was expecting. Hopefully I'll
have the blanks made in a couple evenings and move on to keyway
broaching and finally the gear cutting. So far so good, the bronze gear
I made on the weekend is still installed on the lathe and working nicely
for the power feeds.