Rebar for sword cores

The problem (as I understand it) with rebar is that it can be anything, so long as it meets the minimum tensile strength. Some will be low alloy, some will be high carbon, and there's no telling which - depends what they dumped in the pot that day. You can be a little more sure that it's not high carbon/alloy if it's marked as "weldable", I think. Good luck with it!

seems like a good excuse to practice spark testing, or just try to harden a piece and see what happens?

I got a piece of re-bar a few years ago and made a complete set of repousse chisels from it. I tried to use a second piece to make some wood lathe chisels, and couldn't get it to harden - and that was (supposedly) from the same batch/bundle. ho-hum

Well, it's more important to me if it forge welds easily. I can add high carbon alloys to the mix easily enough. With a little carbon migration I could do some good things... maybe.

I'll do a spark test today.

I'm going to buy some angle today, as I've figured out how to cut those scaled from that damn hard wood.

Regards Charles

a few years ago i read an article about radioactive re-bar sent up from mexico yah, you never know what is in re-bar ! have fun, mark

Cool my swords will glow in the dark :-)

I did a spark test today and it appears that there is enough carbon in the bars.

I acquired two lengths (40 feet), and cut metre lengths.

Should be interesting.

I just have to clean the mill scale off them... might just work it off.

Regards Charles

And I once saw a piece that had chips of *stainless* embedded. You never know what went into the pot!

JK

oooh. magic sword. glows in the dark.

sounds like if you get the right piece, you wouldn't need to do the laminating.

That actually makes it very interesting for me.

I like using mystery metal, it makes it interesting.

Some swords and knives I've made out of mystery metal in the past have been excellent, okay, and terrible. The terrible ones either get reworked with added elements or get thrown out.

Regards Charles

Maybe, depends on how well the alloy is mixed.

Although stainless steel chips would make an interesting blade.

You'd definitely need to make sure you put on a good edge.

Regards Charles