Specimens from a 0.14 % C mild steel were austenitized at 1000 °C for 1 h and thereafter furnace-cooled or isothermally transformed at 700 °C for 0.5,2, and 8 h. The microconstituents present in the as-received material were ferrite and pearlite and their amounts did not substantially change even after heat treatment. The impact energy of the as-received and the furnace-cooled materials increased from 4 to 89 J and from 4 to 108 J, respectively, when the temperature was changed from - 196 to 23 °C. For these materials, the failure mode was by ductile fracture at 0 and 23 °C and by quasicleavage fracture at - 196 and - 40 °C. The fracture toughness did not show any significant change with isothermal transformation time at 700 °C. The failure mode of the isothermally transformed materials was always by quasicleavage fracture.