Off Topic Rifle barrels for blade steel

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kvaughn

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Driving 10+ hrs alone this weekend I had a lot of free time to think. I'm not a knife maker but this question popped into my head. I've seen blades made out of a number of things. e.g.-motorcycle chains, railroad spikes,saw blades etc. Does the type of steel in a good rifle barrel make a good knife?--Thanx--KV
 
I do not think a gun barrel would make a very good knife. They usually have less than .45% carbon, you could still make a knife from it but it would mostly be show piece (unless you like sharpening). For cladding in a laminated blade it would most likely be just fine, but that's the easy way around these kinds of questions and the easy way is no fun.

Not an expert on gun barrels but I would imagine they are not hardened in the first place, I thought they were just mild steels with some alloys added in to prevent excessive wear. The heating and cooling of a day at the range could ruin a HT. And a hardened barrel risks cracking more, which would not be a good day at the range. Maybe someone more experienced with gun barrels will come along.
 
4140 is a typical steel for gunbarrels, and being only .40% carbon it just won't harden very much. SS barrels are typically 416, which again isn't going to harden sufficient for a decent blade.
 
Folks have used gun barrels as component steel for damascus jut like they have used battleship armor plate and tank armor. But like with meteorite, you don't want to use too much. I have seen or heard of barrels steel from the main gun of a Leopard tank, a minigun and an old rusty WW2 .50 caliber M2 machine gun that was dug up in Germany or Belgium being used.
 
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