Recommendation? 24" Carpenters Square Steel Identification

[Andrew Clark]

Hi everyone! I'm bootstrapping my first knife with materials from around the yard and dusty tools laying around. The only thing I found was an old rusty carpenters square and have shaped it into a dagger. Now I'm ready to harden/temper and have no idea what temperatures to use because it's mystery steel. Anyone out there have experience with this material?

I have a feeling everyone will say "you wasted your time with that crap" but even if the thing shatters into a million pieces, I'll have amassed many hours of experience to put toward my next one. Thanks in advance!

 

[Andrew Clark]

It's crazy I consider myself very computer literate and can't figure out how to add photos ha.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PWwCiIJVgKmqe4RrVzadoUg5iym2jzUN

 

[KnuckleDownKnives]

You got some good practice in grinding. If you want to put a handle on it and use it for a letter opener you'll have a fancy one. Heat treat is not something you're going to be able to accomplish with that steel. It's not going to be hardenable. As for images you need a paid membership to post them otherwise you'll need to link to it as you have.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Some older squares are higher carbon steel. What you should do is take a left over piece of the square and try and harden it. Heat to non-magnetic, then heat a shade brighter red, and quench in 130 degree canola oil. Try to file it. If it won't file, it will haren. Do the same for the dagger. t will likely warp, so wear heavy leather gloves and immediately straighten it after it has been in the oil for eight seconds. Once you feel it stiffen, stop any staightening .

 

[Andrew Clark]

Thank you for replies! Aggregating both suggests there's a chance the carbon content is high enough to harden, but there's a chance the carbon content is less than .2% which I've read is too low to harden. I will definitely test the left over pieces first. If the carbon is too low, is there a way to cook some into it?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Not at this stage.

 

[Ken H>]

As for images you need a paid membership to post them otherwise you'll need to link to it as you have.

non-paid membership allows me to post direct to site by using an offsite hosting site.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

It's crazy I consider myself very computer literate and can't figure out how to add photos ha.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PWwCiIJVgKmqe4RrVzadoUg5iym2jzUN

The info is in the Bladeforums FAQs as well as can be found by using the custom search engine in the stickys. Basically you store the photo on a hosting site, then insert the photo url in the images icon (in the posting header) and it will put the photo in the thread.