Question about steel.

B

bagata

Member
Hello, i have watched many tutorials on youtube and readed many book about knife making past few months. Finally i decided to make my first knife.
Now i think not to invest in steel for my first knife, i want first to try, and if my first knife is good then i will invest.
I am thinking of making knife from old file, but today i was loking in my workshop and i saw one piece of steel. I don't now what steel is, so i am asking for advise from the experienced knife makers, can this piece be my steel for my first knife ?

Here is it
Picture 001.jpgPicture 002.jpg

it's about 3-3.2 mm thick

when i grind it's shining.

So please give your advice. THanx
 
High carbon steel is not something most people have laying around the shop. I would think you have common mild steel. If your heart is set on using it cut off a small piece and see if you can harden it before making a knife out of the rest. If it wont harden it is not good for a knife
 
thanx for your opinion are you thinking of heat treat one small piece , before making a knife too see is it enought hard ? or what
 
Sorry if I was not clear but I would try to heat treat a sample of the steel you have first. Making a knife is a lot of work I would hate to make a knife that will not harden
 
Brad Lilly said:
Sorry if I was not clear but I would try to heat treat a sample of the steel you have first. Making a knife is a lot of work I would hate to make a knife that will not harden
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oh i understed you now, i have one more question how i will now that the steel is enought harden after heat treat ?
 
Chances are slim to none that there is enough carbon in that piece of steel to make a usable knife blade. When you also consider the work that's gonna be involved in removing the layer of expandable steel off of the top, as well as cutting it into a manageable piece to even profile into a blade, I think you'll realize that you'll be money ahead to just purchase and work with a known steel.

http://newjerseysteelbaron.com/shop/1084/

Give Aldo a call. You can get 4 feet of 1084 for about $15 bucks (plus whatever shipping costs) and you will have a perfectly useable, workable piece of uniform thickness steel. 4 feet should also be enough to make 5 or 6 decent sized blades.

BTW: you should fill out your profile a little more so that we know where you're located. There may be some knifemakers in your area that are willing to help you out, or even spot you a piece of good steel.
 
bagata said:
oh i understed you now, i have one more question how i will now that the steel is enought harden after heat treat ?
Click to expand...

And just to answer your curiosity... although it's by no means the "definiitive" or "scientific" answer/method to testing hardness (assuming you don't have a rockwell tester in your shop, at which point you'd just use that... hahaha), you can usually heat the "mystery" steel until it's non-magnetic, and then quench it in something like some preheated vegetable oil. You would then take the piece and put it in a vice, then smack it with a hammer. If it breaks halfway cleanly, there's a good chance you hardened it. If it's just plane old mild steel, it will just bend and distort.

Granted, there can be a few other factors involved in all of that, but that's the short answer.
 
ARCustomKnives said:
Chances are slim to none that there is enough carbon in that piece of steel to make a usable knife blade. When you also consider the work that's gonna be involved in removing the layer of expandable steel off of the top, as well as cutting it into a manageable piece to even profile into a blade, I think you'll realize that you'll be money ahead to just purchase and work with a known steel.

http://newjerseysteelbaron.com/shop/1084/

Give Aldo a call. You can get 4 feet of 1084 for about $15 bucks (plus whatever shipping costs) and you will have a perfectly useable, workable piece of uniform thickness steel. 4 feet should also be enough to make 5 or 6 decent sized blades.

BTW: you should fill out your profile a little more so that we know where you're located. There may be some knifemakers in your area that are willing to help you out, or even spot you a piece of good steel.
Click to expand...

it's not for money i willing to pay but i must wait at least 20 days to receive that steel because i am from macedonia,europe.
but i think that buying steel will be the best solution
 
Ah... There may be some better "local" options for steel supply then. I'd have to defer that question to some of our European knife dogs.
 
The best way I know of to tell if your heat treated steel is any harder is to try to use a file on it.
First you will not be able to cut it into the steel as easy and second there is a sound it will make as the file teeth skate across the steel.

The harder the heat treatment of the steel, The higher the Pitch/Sound of the file.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
Of source of recycled steel that you can use, old auto springs are the best. If you have a auto repair shop in you area that works on suspensions you can see if they will sell cut offs from where they rebuild springs. You could take a look at some of you local suppliers. The only European grade that I know of is an English grade of spring steel known there as EN45. It is roughly the equivalent of our 9260.

Doug
 
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