If the gears are of imperial pitch, you may be better off to look on E Bay for used ones, those carbon steels can be tough. I have made many change gears out of 1018 steel, they work fine, Cast iron is very common for change gears and is easy to cut.
The cheap cutters are sometimes just some grade of tool steel - not HSS - so you need to be careful with heat. The cheap set I've got glide through cast iron and ali very nicely, but I have yet to try steel. Quality HSS cutters area huge jump in price, though. A cheap set of 8 can be bought for ~£65, where a single HSS cutter costs £25 - £125.
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