Bed frame steel = knives?

[mountainm]

more

 

[Xunil]

Hard to tell for certain from those two pics but it looks like mild steel/iron or low carbon to me.

High carbon or tool steel usually gives lots of bursts of a different pattern while your pics show mainly straight with only the ends of a small few showing any burst. This could be down to the pictures though, and perhaps a better camera might show more encouraging results (or not as the case may be).

Spark testing information, for those who want to know more:

http://shopswarf.orconhosting.net.nz/spark.html

http://www.capeforge.com/Spark testing.html

As unhelpful as this might sound, you could be back to the 'cut a piece off and heat it and quench it to see if it hardens' solution.

What you could do is use the grinder to get the end of a piece glowing and simply throw a load of water on it to cool it very fast. This is far too aggressive a quench for blades but it will harden the steel if it can be hardened. Put the very end you just doused into a vice and bend it - if it bends without protest it won't make a knife. If it breaks then it's blade quality steel.

 

[ex-member Raikey]

Hard to tell for certain from those two pics but it looks like mild steel/iron or low carbon to me.

High carbon or tool steel usually gives lots of bursts of a different pattern while your pics show mainly straight with only the ends of a small few showing any burst. This could be down to the pictures though, and perhaps a better camera might show more encouraging results (or not as the case may be).

Spark testing information, for those who want to know more:

http://shopswarf.orconhosting.net.nz/spark.html

http://www.capeforge.com/Spark testing.html

As unhelpful as this might sound, you could be back to the 'cut a piece off and heat it and quench it to see if it hardens' solution.

What you could do is use the grinder to get the end of a piece glowing and simply throw a load of water on it to cool it very fast. This is far too aggressive a quench for blades but it will harden the steel if it can be hardened. Put the very end you just doused into a vice and bend it - if it bends without protest it won't make a knife. If it breaks then it's blade quality steel.

excellent info in simple terms, and two good links too,....

thanks Xunil, i know i,ll make use of the info here,....

Stu

 

[Xunil]

I should have added that rather than bending in a vice or seeing if you can otherwise break it after quenching, simply taking a metal file to it after quenching will be sufficient to check whether or not the steel hardened.

If the file skates over the steel after quenching then it it did actually harden and you can make sharps from it (yay !). If the file bites into the steel after quenching then it is still soft and therefore cannot be made into blades.

You don't need seriously high heat to test this - anything glowing around full red is more than enough to quench and you can generate that easily on a small area with an angle grinder (step well back while a willing assistant chucks water on the glowing piece )

 

[mountainm]

I should have added that rather than bending in a vice or seeing if you can otherwise break it after quenching, simply taking a metal file to it after quenching will be sufficient to check whether or not the steel hardened.

If the file skates over the steel after quenching then it it did actually harden and you can make sharps from it (yay !). If the file bites into the steel after quenching then it is still soft and therefore cannot be made into blades.

You don't need seriously high heat to test this - anything glowing around full red is more than enough to quench and you can generate that easily on a small area with an angle grinder (step well back while a willing assistant chucks water on the glowing piece )

Do you think a chefs blowtorch would the trick?

 

[ex-member Raikey]

yeah if you just do a thin bit or the tip of a piece,...

probably safer than throwin water at your mate whos holding a grinder.....hahahahahaha

 

[Xunil]

Do you think a chefs blowtorch would the trick?

Yes, if you use the grinder to 'slice' a thin piece off around, say, 1/4 of an inch or slightly less thick. The thinner it is the easier it is to get to sufficiently high temperature to quench. You could use the gas ring on a cooker if the piece is only a few MM thick.

Take it to at least full red and quench in water. Run a file over it and if it skates you have hardenable steel. If the file bites, so does the steel...