German air saw blade

[Redbaird]

Has anyone worked with these before? The brand is Fein power hacksaw blades made in Germany. The steel is tough to soften for drilling and grinding but gets hard and sharp. I was wondering if anyone knows what they are made of.

 

[EdCaffreyMS]

There's no telling. That's the problem with "spec manufacturing"..... the very same item can be made of various steels/alloys from batch to batch. If you don't know what "spec manufacturing" is, that might sound strange.....but for the past 2-3 decades, in hopes of making the most money they can, companies have not/no longer specify a particular steel when having products produced......but rather they specify how many "cycles" of use a given item must endure, with the specification being to meet that, AND that the item be made out of the CHEAPEST available steel/material at the time of production. Which means the same item(s), from the same company, and for the same use, could be made of any number of steel types......

Is it starting to make sense why so many of us tell folks to use new/known steel as opposed to scrap?? Just a couple of decades ago, you could be fairly certain that something like a coil spring was made of 9260 Steel..... and that a leaf spring was made of 5160...... fast forward, and today there are no less than 20+ different alloys that either of those items are made from.... see where it makes steel types of scrap impossible to identify??

 

[Redbaird]

There's no telling. That's the problem with "spec manufacturing"..... the very same item can be made of various steels/alloys from batch to batch. If you don't know what "spec manufacturing" is, that might sound strange.....but for the past 2-3 decades, in hopes of making the most money they can, companies have not/no longer specify a particular steel when having products produced......but rather they specify how many "cycles" of use a given item must endure, with the specification being to meet that, AND that the item be made out of the CHEAPEST available steel/material at the time of production. Which means the same item(s), from the same company, and for the same use, could be made of any number of steel types......

Is it starting to make sense why so many of us tell folks to use new/known steel as opposed to scrap?? Just a couple of decades ago, you could be fairly certain that something like a coil spring was made of 9260 Steel..... and that a leaf spring was made of 5160...... fast forward, and today there are no less than 20+ different alloys that either of those items are made from.... see where it makes steel types of scrap impossible to identify??

Thanks Ed. I took them to work and shot em with a PMI gun. It looks like they are very close to 1075 Cr1. I heated them to nonmag and let them slow cool 2 times which softened them enough to work. I am making some kitchen knives out of them for my mom.