Shear blades steel

Alarion

Alarion

Joined
Nov 26, 2001
Messages
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I could lay my hands on a couple of power shear blades, used to cut steel sheet.
They are about a yard long, an half-inch thick and planned to use them to forge some blades.
But there are some problems.

1) Which steel are most probably made of?

2) Is it any good for knife blades?

3) The baldes are drilled to be affixed to the jaw of the shear with bolts, so I have to cut them to use the undrilled parts.
Provided I can cut them by hand or with a power hacksaw, how can I anneal them?
Can I just anneal the portion of blade where I want to do the cut?
 
As always, you could do what I feel is the best thing... Cut off a piece and send it out for chemical analysis. You can't get more on target than that.

I'd really have to see what these things look like and watch them in action to give any real good answer. They could be several steels. Mostly likely tool steels. I would include D2 and A2 as canditates. Also there is a chance of them being an austempered alloy steel. Many choices. Try to find out who used them; then who they bought them from; then who the company is; then call the company. Or look for similar blades from another company (i.e. try a web search) and ask about their steel and common competitors.

Some ideas to go on.

-Jason
 
BUY NEW STEEL :)

The allure of using something that's initially free or very cheap (and used to be something else) is pretty strong. But after you've forged, ground, and tried to heat-treat them with such ambiguity, that allure is gone.

For a few dollars you can have a brand new bar of low alloy, high carbon steel...and KNOW what steel you have.

Nick
 
I agree with Nick. For the average knife, the materials are the cheapest part. It's the labor that's expensive. Why waste time trying to save five bucks.
 
Because right now I don't have any other source but scrounging, and the only steel mill that sells steel less than a ton at a time has just C70 as carbon steel, and then only in 3mm thickness.
While I find a way to get new steel, I have to do with what I can get... (no, ordering steel in the States is not the brightest thing I can do :D)
 
Thank you, but I think having steel sent from the UK would be just marginally less expensive than getting it from the US.
I'll have to find a source in Italy, and a source easily accessible to me.
 
I had 4 used shear blades from a Paper cutting press used by a printer.

Totally free so I contacted the people that sharpened them and found out they were bi metal. The front was supposed to be hardened A2 and the rear portion may be 52100.

I have dontated the blades to a friend that is a black smith and he and I are going to try to work up the 52100 back to see if it is indeed 52100. The problem is that the guy who sharpened them was unsure what they were made of and they are really hard. If you can not find out what they are how will you ever anneal them and heat treat them?

I would look for a scrap dealer around your area and try to buy some cheap scrap that is annealed and have it tested to find out what it is or order new steel since 1095 and 5160 are so cheap.

Hope this helps,

Jim Bunker
 
Thank you :)
I'll try to search for firms that do chemical analysis of metals and know the prices for such analysis.
 
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