Unknown Steel

H

Hathenbruck

Joined
Dec 30, 2018
Messages
57
I have a buddy whose dad owns a block factory, and they have a ton of old wear plates from their block forms. I know it's a hardened steel, but absolutely no clue as to what it might be. Does anyone have a clue to what it could be?

Thanks
 
Only way to tell is to send it out and have it tested. I think fastenall does it or atleast thy did back in the day. I think it was between $50-$100 per sample. It’s kinda expensive but if there is a ton of it then it could be worth it.
 
JTknives said:
Only way to tell is to send it out and have it tested. I think fastenall does it or atleast thy did back in the day. I think it was between $50-$100 per sample. It’s kinda expensive but if there is a ton of it then it could be worth it.
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They may. Last place I worked Fastenal was one of our major vendors for the machine shop. They had just about everything. If not, some major machine shops have testers. Our shop had one but it wasn't from Fastenal. It might be worth your time to call some of the larger machine shops in your area and check with them.
 
seanj said:
They may. Last place I worked Fastenal was one of our major vendors for the machine shop. They had just about everything. If not, some major machine shops have testers. Our shop had one but it wasn't from Fastenal. It might be worth your time to call some of the larger machine shops in your area and check with them.
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The testing I’m talking about is not a hardness test. That will tell you nothing about what alloy he has. What he needs is X-ray or gas chromatography testing. It will show every alloying elament in the steel. Thy are very pricy testers to buy with the X-ray gun being the cheapest but I think thy are still in like the 10k$ range if not more if your wanting it to do steel.
 
Daniel Fairly Knives said:
Get all and get it tested! If you can harden it is probably good stuff, maybe for tools and hopefully for knives.
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I was hoping it's some sort of tool steel. I went to a site that sells this sort of thing and their spec sheets show stuff like 1045, 4140, O1, O2, and a bunch of other stuff.
 
JTknives said:
The testing I’m talking about is not a hardness test. That will tell you nothing about what alloy he has. What he needs is X-ray or gas chromatography testing. It will show every alloying elament in the steel. Thy are very pricy testers to buy with the X-ray gun being the cheapest but I think thy are still in like the 10k$ range if not more if your wanting it to do steel.
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I guess I wasn't clear. I was referring to the X-ray gun. They aren't cheap that's for sure. The one at the shop where I worked at was around $15K I believe. The QC guy there called it his Tri-corder. It told him exactly what the elements were in the steel and how much. Very cool piece of apparatus and did remind me of a Tri-corder :D
 
seanj said:
I guess I wasn't clear. I was referring to the X-ray gun. They aren't cheap that's for sure. The one at the shop where I worked at was around $15K I believe. The QC guy there called it his Tri-corder. It told him exactly what the elements were in the steel and how much. Very cool piece of apparatus and did remind me of a Tri-corder :D
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And Fastenal has this sort of machine?
 
Fastenall does not have them in the store. You drop off your sample and thy send it to the lab.
 
Mystery steel be like: Me walking up to grinder with my eyes closed and hoping for good bevels.

It may work... "Insert GIF"
 
Larrin said:
Handheld XRF testers can't measure carbon which is important to know when identifying mystery steel.
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I didn't know that. The impression I received from our QC guy was that it could.
 
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