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The one thing that doesn't excite me are makers that use truck springs or steel scrap to make their knives. Just doesn't do it for me.
Umm ... "Truck springs" (and car springs) are generally 5160 ... they make a fantastic blade.
I'll agree with the use of recycled scrap steel. Talk about a
"mystery steel"!
Made with everything from cast iron and mild steel (such as refrigerators, and auto bodies), to high carbon steels, stainless steels, welding rod of various types, and steel foundry/ plant rejects, among other sources, all melted together ... who knows if the finished conglomerate/mess will take and hold an edge, or if it can even be hardened and tempered.
I worked at Novak's American Metal Reduction back in the early/mid 1970's. At the time, Novak's was one of the largest metal recycling yards in the country. (I don't know if they are still going, or under what name if they are, after the founder passed. His son and daughter didn't seem interested in carrying on the family business, from what I saw. I've little doubt they sold the company when their pop passed, presuming he didn't sell out before then, when/if he decided to retire, for instance.)
Steel recycled went into one pile. No attempt was made to separate the various grades or types. There was also a
lot of rejected steel from Kaiser Steel, over in Fontana. Not to mention chips from all the area's machine shops, new to decades old barbed wire and chain link fencing, and literally tons of scrap welding rod that had gotten wet. Cars were stripped of the fuel tank, engine, and transmission, (using an articulated end loader with a claw) then crushed and shipped out.
The only "clean" metals shipped were aluminum, brass (red and yellow brass were kept separated), and copper. I'm not sure if the rare bronze could be considered "clean" since there were at least three different types. ("Marine" "Plumbing" and "Gun" bronze were three most common types I saw.) They were all shipped out mixed and crushed together in multi-ton cubes.
Engines and transmissions were never separated; they went on to trailers, still joined together. I helped replace the landing gear on one trailer that had 125,000 pounds of "engines" loaded on/in it. The 50,000 pound capacity landing gear collapsed when the yard mule truck disconnected from it. Unsurprisingly, the crane operator who loaded that trailer wasn't fired.