HomeDepot Steel??????

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soopy

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I have a question for all of you that know more about knife making than I do. In my real job as a mild mannerd reporter....ops that was SUPERMAN not me:D .......I am really a truckdriver. On my lunch today,I stopped at The Home Depot and lo and behold,I found some flat bars of steel. So I fished around through the bin and got a bar of 1+1/2 x 3/16 x 36" stock. After i thought about it, I went back to talk to the folks in recieving(they are a good customer of mine so I know tehm all by name) and got the phone # for the manufacturer........Crown Bolt CO.......The lady that I taked with sayed it was a low carbon ,non-annealed steel but she couldnt say if it was hot or cold rolled(does it make a diff?) They get hot from the U.S.A. and cold from overseas but dont sepperate them when they shipp out to customers. I guess this steel is meant for hone use since it was AT the DEPOT, Does it have any value as blade steel???????? If not I guess I will just use it for Practice grinding since I am just starting out and it was only $5.oo any comments would be great....btw..I do have some 1095 that I picked up at the Wolverine Knife show a few months ago.....It seems to want to rip the teeth off of any hacksaw bldes that i buy....any ideas on how I can cut this stuff?? special blades etc! THANXALOT............
 
It is of no value as a knife. I guess you could use it to work on your grind but when you finish you still have nothing. Check with some spring shops and get scraps from them. Most are free. If you wind up with something you like you can it ht'ed. Gee....most of the first timers produce better knives their first time out than I do now.
 
The steel doesn't have enough carbon to harden. Save it for when you want to build some equipment or something.
I have a 4.5 inch angle grinder(Harbor Freight about $19.95)didn't use it much until I found some Cutting disk that were only.045 thick.
It cuts 1095 and 1084 real nice. I threw away my hack saw.
Hope this helps
TJ Smith
PS Disks came from Lowes for $1.98 ea.
 
Just use the stel from the depot for guards and handle frames,or jigs and things in the shop..
I also use a cutoff wheel on a anglle grinder and also one on a table saw to cut steel with..
Bruce
 
That steel you bought is likely A-36. I purchased a hot rolled round bar, non-galvanized piece from Home Depot and Crown Bolt told me it was A36. Which was predictable enough, but I am just someone who has to find out for himself. These pieces are painted blue on the end. A36 is very similar to 1020. Which means, it is a low carbon grade and not suitable for a cutting edge. Its fine for other tools though. I am currently forging tongs out of the piece I got, moves very easily under the hammer too. Its fun to depart from a knife every once in a while. Anyhow, about that "non-annealed" statement... that probably means your flat piece was cold rolled, instead of "hot rolled, annealed". If you see HR, its hot rolled. CR, its cold rolled. I bought a flat piece too and it seems a bit strong for an annealed piece, so I am betting on a cold rolled piece. They cold roll to improve the steels strength in such alloys typically because they cannot be appreciably hardened though heat treatment. Cold rolling is one of a only a few strength imparting options for such grades. A36 is one of the most common structural steels around. Its everywhere.

-Jason
 
I bought some 1/8" stock of various dimensions, but like Bruce said, I'n not using it for blades. I plan on building a cross slide for various purposes, like a poor man's surface grinder.

The steel drills well and is cut with a scrollsaw with a Remgrit blade, or the angle grinder.

Mike
 
superquench it. about 45r not great but good as rr spike knives. letter openers stuff like that:D
 
Somes week ago a buyed this type of steel (in a Reno Depot, similar to Home Depot) and I have write to the manufacturer to ask what kind of steel is it.

The answer:

1/8"x1-1/2"x72 Flat Stock Plated

Low carbon steel
.15 Carbon
.60 Magnese
 
Soopy, spend a little extra and get 1084. I get mine from Koval, I think, and it makes good knives. Pretty easy to grind, even with files, and it is super easy to heat treat with a very basic setup. I would not get thicker than 1/8" stock if you plan to hand grind, but if you have a belt grinder, then go crazy! The cold rolled stuff ends up with a pitted, rough finish which is fine for rustic-looking knives, and isn't too tough to clean up a bit, but if you want a really nice piece of steel you will need precision ground stock, which is basically planed to remove the mill finish. 1084 is a great "learning steel," especially if you want to get into doing the heat treat yourself. Good luck!

PS- 1084 is cheap enough that it works well as practice steel. Even if you end up with some bad efforts, you can still heat treat it and end up with a usable knife. There is no sense practicing grinding on junk steel, in my opinion, because if you end up with something decent it still ends up being junk.
 
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