Admiral Steel

I hate to pile on, but I used to order from Admiral from time to time. It once cost me big time as I ordered 1080 for a very complex and time-consuming pattern welding project. After it was essentially ruined because it wouldn't HT as expected/needed, I had some of the unused material tested and it came back with much lower carbon than expected. I don't recall the exact number right now (it's been several years), but I think it was .63 or .65 or something like that. With the expected carbon loss from the type of work it was subjected to, it was somewhat lower by the time it came to HT, and starting so low took away my margin and then some.
I contacted them on it and they said that this tested carbon content was "Within Spec."

Never again!
 
Gentlemen,

I feel loved:D. Justin you nailed it. I so appreciate that fact. It is difficult to talk to a company looking to sell 5 to 70 ton loads about a few pounds of a steel that hasn't been produced in the country for 30+ years as in the case of W-2 or for an individual to give it the time it takes to scrounge up steels like S-2 or O-2.

I always saw it a little differently. I've had more steel companies tell me they would call me back with a quote that didn't follow through than you can imagine, and I'm talking to them about thousands of pounds. At times I've felt that they look at knife makers as the scourge of there customer base. A women once said that even a dog deserves the scraps from the table. Well, I'm not a dog, I'm a knife maker and I know a whole bunch of Knife Makers and they don't want scraps either.

It took me 4 months and thousands of phone calls to get to the point where I felt comfortable enough to work with the companies that are supplying the steels that we are putting into stock.

Most of the Carbon Steel is coming over from Germany. It is some of the cleanest stuff I've ever come across. All scale free and annealed soft as butter.There rolling practices are aces.

One of the mills run 70 ton smelts. We are able to source billets from them. If the chemistry I'm looking for fits then I have them roll it.

Another mill I found runs 5 to 8 ton custom smelts. Next years 1084FG will be produced there along with a smelt of W-2.:eek:

As far as CPM steels are concerned, Jaymeister, you should have no concerns. We are stocked with quite a few of the CPM steels and are building up inventories as we go.

I need to plug the Gentlemen who run Niagara Specialty Metals in Akron, NY. Bob Shabala, Pres., Tim Gelnett, V.P. and Jeff Rich, Head of Sales. These gentlemen and the workers at Niagara are as passionate about making steel as we are about making knives.

I'd say they took quite a risk sitting down with a 35 year veteran plumber who told them that he was going to open up a Knife Steel Service Center dedicated to the needs of Knife Makers. They have so overextended themselves in the case of putting up with my questions and concerns that I can easily call any 1 of them Uncle. They are there for us. That sits good with me.

Matt, The 1075 has .35 Mang. It should paint up nice. E-Mail me an address and I'll send you a piece.

Justin, the A-2 is going out today. I'll let you know the particulars

Page, thanks

Danbo.....you kill me!

Aldo Bruno
NJSB

njsteelbaron@gmail.com
njsteelbaron.com
 
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Aldo Bruno said:
Gentlemen,

I feel loved:D. Justin you nailed it. I so appreciate that fact. It is difficult to talk to a company looking to sell 5 to 70 ton loads about a few pounds of a steel that hasn't been produced in the country for 30+ years as in the case of W-2 or for an individual to give it the time it takes to scrounge up steels like S-2 or O-2.

I always saw it a little differently. I've had more steel companies tell me they would call me back with a quote that didn't follow through than you can imagine, and I'm talking to them about thousands of pounds. At times I've felt that they look at knife makers as the scourge of there customer base. A women once said that even a dog deserves the scraps from the table. Well, I'm not a dog, I'm a knife maker and I know a whole bunch of Knife Makers and they don't want scraps either.

It took me 4 months and thousands of phone calls to get to the point where I felt comfortable enough to work with the companies that are supplying the steels that we are putting into stock.

Most of the Carbon Steel is coming over from Germany. It is some of the cleanest stuff I've ever come across. All scale free and annealed soft as butter.There rolling practices are aces.

One of the mills run 70 ton smelts. We are able to source billets from them. If the chemistry I'm looking for fits then I have them roll it.

Another mill I found runs 5 to 8 ton custom smelts. Next years 1084FG will be produced there along with a smelt of W-2.:eek:

As far as CPM steels are concerned, Jaymeister, you should have no concerns. We are stocked with quite a few of the CPM steels and are building up inventories as we go.

I need to plug the Gentlemen who run Niagara Specialty Metals in Akron, NY. Bob Shabala, Pres., Tim Gelnett, V.P. and Jeff Rich, Head of Sales. These gentlemen and the workers at Niagara are as passionate about making steel as we are about making knives.

I'd say they took quite a risk sitting down with a 35 year veteran plumber who told them that he was going to open up a Knife Steel Service Center dedicated to the needs of Knife Makers. They have so overextended themselves in the case of putting up with my questions and concerns that I can easily call any 1 of them Uncle. They are there for us. That sits good with me.

Matt, The 1075 has .35 Mang. It should paint up nice. E-Mail me an address and I'll send you a piece.

Justin, the A-2 is going out today. I'll let you know the particulars

Page, thanks

Danbo.....you kill me!

Aldo Bruno
NJSB

njsteelbaron@gmail.com
njsteelbaron.com
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Aldo,

I have to say I'll definitely be buying my next steel from you. On a side note, I work in the aerospace business and we deal with quite a few steel, aluminum, and titanium suppliers. My company does very small orders, anywhere from less than a hundred pounds to a couple of tons. I would be more than happy to point you towards a few of them.
 
jaymeister99 said:
Aldo,

I have to say I'll definitely be buying my next steel from you. On a side note, I work in the aerospace business and we deal with quite a few steel, aluminum, and titanium suppliers. My company does very small orders, anywhere from less than a hundred pounds to a couple of tons. I would be more than happy to point you towards a few of them.
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Sounds like a partnership or two, coming up. :thumbup:
 
Danbo said:
Sounds like a partnership or two, coming up. :thumbup:
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Nope! :barf: Never do a partnership again!

Seriously, no strings attached. If Aldo got a few of these suppliers and could pass the low quantities on to us. Thats fine with me! :thumbup:
 
I don't make a lot of knives but when I do... I cal Aldo, The NJ Steel Baron. He delivered a metric sh*t ton of A2 for our Grind In at Bark River and believe you me he is the real deal.

I tell everyone on my website who will listen to buy their steel from Aldo.

You cannot ask for more than the 101% he gives our community.

As for the rest, let Aldo get all the headaches dealing with them, we can use and abuse Aldo and still get what we want when we want it!

I am Ron LaBella, and I endorse this message. (Along with Aldo, the NJ Steel Baron)
 
When I started looking for steel Admiral was just about all there was to get bulk quantities. I have spent innumerable hours sourcing steel and finding the same thing Aldo has found out. It is difficult to deal with most of these companies. They have no desire to work with someone ordering 1 or 2 sticks of material. Aldo has been a saving grace for this community. Though I purchased a BUNCH of W-2 from DH, I have and will be ordering more material from Aldo. Great guy to deal with and bends over backwards to get you what you need. Admiral will never see another order from me. Though I had not had any real problems from them the shipping was atrocious. Almost as much as the whole order, Fry steel was the same actually worse.

Kelly Couple is also a great source for us. He is great to deal with and has a few things Aldo does not, esp powder stuff. Between the 2 there is little I need to order from anyone else.
 
I had the great fortune of meeting this guy from Jersey at Batson's this past Spring and have felt blessed ever since. Not only has Aldo been great about supplying steel, but he has also become a good friend. Aldo is top notch in my book.

Admiral can kiss my ..........well, you get the message. I'm a new maker and have spent most of my cash on tools. I try to always get the most bang for my buck on all supplies. A few weeks ago I needed some 1095 for a project and ordered from Admiral (Aldo had not yet received his shipment in the size I needed). The bars I ordered were 96" but I received 48". I know this is small potatoes compared to some of the issues you guys have encountered, but it ticked me off. I had calculated my use of the steel to where I would get just the right number of blanks from the bar, only to have my number reduced because they decided to cut it in half.

When I called to ask them about it, they told me that they always cut the 96" bars in half to make it easier for shipping. I've been at others' shops when they have received shipments from Admiral and received 96" bars. I hate being lied to more than I hate wasting material.
 
Admiral has always had a fair reputation in many of the online circles where I do my reading.

If these practices are common i'm surprised it took this long for this level of critical review to come to light. Are mislead and mistreated customers not registering complaints with the FTC, Better Business, etc?

I don't like to hurt the reputation of a business that is struggling, but there certainly comes a point where the company must fix it's practices or fail, and it should not be from lack of feedback.
 
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canid said:
Admiral has always had a fair reputation in many of the online circles where I do my reading.

If these practices are common i'm surprised it took this long for this level of critical review to come to light. Are mislead and mistreated customers not registering complaints with the FTC, Better Business, etc?

I don't like to hurt the reputation of a business that is struggling, but there certainly comes a point where the company must fix it's practices or fail, and it should not be from lack of feedback.
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what your missing is that for one back in the day they were jsut about the only game in town

and not often do you get asked about how they work online (you get a guy talking about the shafting they got but n ot all the ppl that have dealt with them

i too have had my problems with them and if i can at all help it i will not ever order from them again (but mom did teach me if you have nothing good to say about something its best to keep your mouth shut )

im jsut glad aldo is doing the work he is now
 
canid ---It's nothing new... there have been folks with stories like this for a long time. In fact, so much so, that however many years ago, Admiral came onto Bladeforums and said they wanted knifemakers happy. They promised to keep a rep hanging out here as an online presence to address things... good and bad.

That lasted about 15 minutes.

I quit ordering from them many years ago as most orders I received were wrong. Some were simple problems like them sending me several 6' bars of steel that were meant for another customer rather than the 3' bars OF ANOTHER alloy that I ordered.

The worst though, was grinding several knives out of what was supposed to be ATS-34. Sent them off to Paul Bos and he called to tell me they acted sort of like 440C, but certainly weren't ATS-34. All of it went in the garbage.
 
If I'm not mistaken, it was Admiral that sent me precision ground A2(at least that's what I ordered), only to profile, grind, drill and send to Paul Bos, and have him send it back to me with a note that said, "not A2; it appears to be some kind of 300 series stainless" :mad:

I never really had much luck with them, anyway. Living at the time in Illinois, they always added on a substantial state tax, too.

I think they got my order correct 2 times out of a half dozen orders.
 
butcher_block said:
and not often do you get asked about how they work online (you get a guy talking about the shafting they got but n ot all the ppl that have dealt with them
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but i do. until lately most of what i've heard of them has been positive. i know i have to be careful of my interpretation before forming a conslusion, but one several things is going on. a few of those possibilities are that this is a sign of further degradation of their service, that the cumulative group of those who have had problems have become more vocal or that threads like this have for some other reason started attracting more attention within this group.

i too have had my problems with them and if i can at all help it i will not ever order from them again (but mom did teach me if you have nothing good to say about something its best to keep your mouth shut )
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that's a perfectly reasonable position, if my opinion is to be considered. i am not in a position to speak either way on the subject, so i mean to be objective about it. i'd neither like to endorse a company which might not be reliable nor participate in criticism outside of my experience.

i currently have plans to order steel from them or from another vendor in the near future.
 
I'll jump on the band wagon as well. I ordered 4 rounds of their 3/4" 52100 made a couple knives, tested them and they did just fine. Then I got one that wouldn't get hard(acted like mild steel). Cut off a test disc HT'd, the file ate right into it. In my shop all my steel gets marked several times as it comes out of the box. At that time is was also the only 3/4" stock I had.

I called the Rep at Admiral and he assured me there was no possible way that the 3/4" mild could have gotten mixed up with the carbon steels. He offered to have the stuff tested if I paid for it to be shipped back.

I think I got a couple good rounds of carbon steel and couple pieces of mild.

That was my last order!

Two thumbs up for Aldo's W-2.:thumbup::thumbup: Great service from a great guy.
 
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