Steel analysis?

i4Marc

i4Marc

Joined
Oct 19, 2011
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Anyone here (in the United States) that can test a steel sample and tell what the type/composition is? I may have access to a lot of hardened steel rods (3/4" X 9'). The seller claims a saw won't cut it. If I can find out what it is it might be worth picking some up.
 
I will start by saying I cannot test your pieces of metal but want to offer some info that may help.
You might call around to a few different places that deal with large quantity's of steel and other metals like large scrap yards local mining company's and asking if they have a handheld LIBS analyzer if they do ask is they would be willing to test a piece for a service fee and you may get lucky.

link to what LIBS is:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser-induced_breakdown_spectroscopy
 
Peters HT offers that service. I talked to Brad Stallsmith at BLADE show regarding some old core damascus that was labeled as "420V" but the maker said he never used 420V for the san mai. Brad said he could test it to ensure the correct HT protocol.
 
I haven't checked in a long time, but Fastenal used to offer metal analysis.
Also, try VERICHECK.
 
Brad at peters can do it.

I had an old file one time that a 36 grit cubitron 2 belt at full speed (5000 sfpm) wouldn't hardly touch. Dunno what it was, never experienced that before.
 
atlastestingdotcom

A good chemical analysis used to cost about $75 back in the 2000s. Better than pointing the flourescence gun at it.
 
IIRC correctly, those "guns" like they use at Peter's cannot tell the carbon content. They give you the other alloy data, however. Say you had a piece of D2 you didn't know was D2. The "ray gun" will tell you 12% chromium, 1% vanadium, .4% manganese, .3% silicon, etc. I may be wrong on that, but pretty sure that's what I recall. You can get a pretty decent ID of the steel with the "ray gun", tho.
 
The XRF gun could likely tell you if it is austenitic stainless because it would have high nickel (7%+) which would be undesirable for knives. Or if the chromium content was really high (23%+) probably indicating a certain type of ferritic stainless steel. But if it measured a relatively simple steel with 12-18% Cr there would be a range of different carbon contents it could have, many of them potentially low carbon steels.
 
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Stuart Davenport Knives said:
IIRC correctly, those "guns" like they use at Peter's cannot tell the carbon content. They give you the other alloy data, however. Say you had a piece of D2 you didn't know was D2. The "ray gun" will tell you 12% chromium, 1% vanadium, .4% manganese, .3% silicon, etc. I may be wrong on that, but pretty sure that's what I recall. You can get a pretty decent ID of the steel with the "ray gun", tho.
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from what I understand an XRF lazer will not read carbon however LIBS would be capable to tell carbon content
fitzo said:
atlastestingdotcom

A good chemical analysis used to cost about $75 back in the 2000s. Better than pointing the flourescence gun at it.
Click to expand...
I've tryed contacting labs to test samples before and have had one heck of a time trying to just get them to reply to an email,that may have just been bad luck on my end though,most university's used to have the equipment and would offer general testing to the public for meteorites and if they could test meteorite than steel should be possible,however it is hard to find any university's that still offer this.
 
Evan Wilson said:
I've tryed contacting labs to test samples before and have had one heck of a time trying to just get them to reply to an email,that may have just been bad luck on my end though,most university's used to have the equipment and would offer general testing to the public for meteorites and if they could test meteorite than steel should be possible,however it is hard to find any university's that still offer this.
Click to expand...
That may well be the case now. That was in my bookmarks for years. There was another place that was frequently pointed to for analyses but I’m danged if I can remember the name. That bookmark was a few computers back.
 

I put a call in to the local Fastenal but the guy on duty didn't know the answers. Waiting for a call back from the manager to see if they do anaylsis.
 
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