Steel supplier question

Matt de Clercq

Matt de Clercq

Well-Known Member
Is all steel shipped with the same finish no matter who you get it from? For example, I received some 440c that was ground by what looks to be a 24 grit belt. Does all 440c come like this or does the shipped condition vary? I noticed that 1084 and 01 come with different size scratches too.
 
They are not shipped with the same finish. If you order hot rolled and annealed steel, the surface is just like it comes off the least sizing roll. The other finishes are surface ground, double disc ground, etc, etc. Find out what your supplier supplies and see what each steel finish will cost.
 
As stated there are at least four.

with scale, Descaled, belt ground, and persison ground. I buy, belt ground. it sounds like you have belt ground.
 
The belt ground i buy from http://nsm-ny.com is done to appox 80 grit and it fine for me since I buy by the sheet most of the time. As you make your flats and bevels or hollows etc, it should all clean up?
 
Thanks for the link. After I profile I like to grind the whole blade section to 4,6, or 800 depending on what my final fish will be because it is easiest to keep everything flat at this point. I like to hollow grind and don't like to go too close to the spine so at this point I have found it easiest to do before bevels. I'm am trying to get 16 knives ready to send to heat treat and it would have saved me a bunch of time and belts if I ordered steel that was closer to being workable. Obviously I am new at all this so thanks again for your time helping me.
 
Matt,
If you are in the valley? I am over the hill in Santa Monica. You are welcome to stop by and maybe I can share a few ways to screw up some steel with you!
 
I shop around for steel. The supplier you linked is higher than admiral steel. I buy 154cm and Admiral has it for the lowest price I have found so far.
 
gotta look at what your needs are. admiral may seem to be lowest price, but what about when you add shipping? is their product annealed? is it made in USA? the steel i use that admiral sells is only available hot rolled, they dont even say if it is annealed. i buy precision ground flat stock that is certified annealed and has batch and heat lot numbers for a few dollars more, less dollars than I would spend on belts and time to get rid of the decarb and have a smooth finish. JMHO
 
scott.livesey said:
gotta look at what your needs are. admiral may seem to be lowest price, but what about when you add shipping? is their product annealed? is it made in USA? the steel i use that admiral sells is only available hot rolled, they dont even say if it is annealed. i buy precision ground flat stock that is certified annealed and has batch and heat lot numbers for a few dollars more, less dollars than I would spend on belts and time to get rid of the decarb and have a smooth finish. JMHO
Click to expand...

That's JMHO as well.

Belts and time add up fast when I could be making the knife instead of taking the crude scale off of steel. I have one remaining bar of ATS-34 that I purchased about 13 years ago that just sits here because that batch of ATS-34 had so much hard scale/slag that stunk so bad grinding it I threw my shirt out afterwards and must have been in the mid 60's in hardness that ate up belts, that I started only buying Annealed and 80 grit ground or finer finished steel. Also each sheet or bar I purchase from Niagara comes with a cert from a metallurgist of content & batch.
 
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+1 on heat numbers and some evidence of the chain of source and supply. BTDT in structural steel and I find it applies just as firmly in our field with much smaller material.
 
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