New projects

Hi Guys,
Project 1: --------- As I was finding it extremely difficult to get sheet spring steel, or spring steel strip, I figured out another way to skin my personal cat. I bought 78 black spring washers, a really thick square section wire.
Put it in the forge straighten and flatten, next to laminate this either with mild steel or L6.
I should be able to get 13 blanks out of this.
Project 2: --------- When I bought my spring washers I was glancing around and noticed stainless steel bolts.
"Hmmm..." thought I. "I wonder if I could make a carving set from two stainless steel bolts".
Well the problem for me is not shaping the bolts into something that looks like a carving set it's heat treating stainless steel.
Anyone on the list heat treated stainless steel?
Regards Charles

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Did you spark test them yet?
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Cool but are they medium carbon steel tho? (my guess) And do they have any Mo in them? (pronounced, separated red arrow head at the ends of the streams)
You know... them dangged;) knife forgers tend to buy their steel in rounds. Cheaper and offered in a wider range of alloys than sheet.
Howard Clark was buying 3/4" rounds of L6 in 20 foot lengths last I heard.
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Did you spark test those for carbon content? ;) Betcha they are low-ass carbon and will only work harden. :/
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I don't, but a guy on r.k used to use a torch as if 440C were carbon steel and it'd harden up. :) Of course that method won't get you all that can be got from any particular piece of stainless steel or medium or higher alloy tool steel either. That medium and high alloy stuff needs -soaking time- in a specific temperature range to get what the alloy has to offer, over what a low alloy steel has to offer.
For example there is no reason for me to heat treat A2 tool steel without a temperature controlled oven and at least a dry ice temperature cold treating setup ...since I can get all that A2's got to offer -me- by using O1 -if- all I do is heat and cold treat the A2 the same way as I do the O1. :/
LN temperatures would be better and the metallurgy teacher told me that LN is cheaper to get than dry ice. A couple other students backed him up on the price part. There's a LiquideAir plant closer to me than town so in my case it might be truer than for others?
I can get all the low alloy steels like O1, 1095, L6, 8670-M and 50100-B "has to offer" with a measly -5F treatment before the first temper and a quick austenitizing where the steel never really soaks at any particular temperature. The fact that they are thin knife blades and springs are part of the process tho.
Alvin in AZ

snipped-for-privacy@Example.com wrote:
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Yep. All good.
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Absolutely, look like little tridents (or more points), and many of them.
Looks medium to high carbon to me ;-) Which is good, I'm going to mix them with L6, not sure if I'll get as good a contrast, but we'll see. If it's not pretty then it's mild steel for the next batch.
There is an addendum here, I should be able to get 26 billets... which is better for me. I can add as many as I want or even Gordion Knot them :-)
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I was thinking of getting a heavy duty square section wire, anything is better than reducing a 50 mm by 6 mm by 1000 mm piece of flat bar :-(
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Looks low carbon (if any at all), it does spark a lot, although the forks are far and few between :-(
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Well I was thinking of a subzero quench, but if this doesn't work I will try to add more carbon by pieing the blade for a week or two. Sort of like case hardening but a bit more extreme, it allows pure iron to be converted to high carbon steel, so it's worth a shot with the stainless.
Or I could try coating the cutting edge with a eutectic powdered metal :-)
Regards Charles

Chilla wrote:
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Forge welds beautifully, must have almost zero sulphur. Just did a couple of casual welds only up to 28 layers from 7, three spring washer layers and four L6 layers.
It welds really easily, next time I might even start with a greater layer count :-)
Regards Charles

Gday Chilla, Mate,
try RS www.rsaustralia.com stock# 314-0527 from the april05-march 06 catalogue. about $36 a pack. Its flat springsteel stock in a number of different thickness.
I'll keep my eyes open for other places, but try Blackwoods or any engineering supply place, they sell it to make springs from.
is the stainless magnetic??? from memory its only the non-magnetic stuff that can be hardened.
Regards Rusty_iron Brisbane, Oz.

Thanks Rusty,
I'll have to contact them and see if I can get a coil from their supplier.
Not sure if the stainless is magnetic, but I'll check this out.
Regards Charles
Rusty_iron wrote:
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Progress update.
204 layers and twisted for start pattern, finished in record time... well for me at least. A spring washer for the cutting edge is next... this is going to be sweet :-)
I'm thinking that 15 start layers for the next billet, that's 7 spring washers, and 8 pieces of L6, would be the way to go, less forge welding and more billet.
I might get back to it this afternoon, it's GD! hot in a metal shed with a hot forge running :-(
Regards Charles
Chilla wrote:
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