Allen wrench steel?

Raymond Richard · Oct 27, 2004

I picked up an old 3/4" allen wrench on Monday. By what I can tell from the spark it looks like it could be low to medium carbon content. I know there's a link that might give me that information but I can't find it......

Mike Hull · Oct 27, 2004

Ray, maybe one of these can help you. I wasn't able to read them for content so I put all I had there.

http://www.anvilfire.com/FAQs/junkyard_steel.htm

http://home.flash.net/~dwwilson/ntba/archive/junksteel.html

http://www.sweethaven.com/academic/lessons/021100/00/lessonmain.asp?lesNum=1&modNum=4

Bruce Evans · Oct 27, 2004

Hey Ray,I believe that they are 1040,as that is what I have been told wrenches are made from.But I have a list that says wrenches are made from L6 and S2..So if the sparks are showing low to medium I would guess the 1040..
Bruce

Raymond Richard · Oct 28, 2004

Thanks Mike, I'll check into those links.

Bruce, 1040 is what I was thinking. I was hoping it would turn out better than that but for 2 bucks I guess I can't expect much more than that.

Mark Williams · Oct 28, 2004

Use cutoffs for fittings Ray

indian george · Oct 28, 2004

Ray: How is your boy Clinton doing????? We haven't heard much about him lately.

Raymond Richard · Oct 28, 2004

IG, Clinton was halfway threw the fence yesterday trying to get to one of his daughters when I spotted him. He's next door now after I got permission from the girls parrents. I thought I was going to have to do another shop addition to get ride of the busted barbed wire but I spotted him before he tried the 3 legged mount.....

indian george · Oct 28, 2004

Raymond Richard said:
IG, Clinton was halfway threw the fence yesterday trying to get to one of his daughters when I spotted him. He's next door now after I got permission from the girls parrents. I thought I was going to have to do another shop addition to get ride of the busted barbed wire but I spotted him before he tried the 3 legged mount.....

OH!!! BOY!! He acts just like his namesake.

Raymond Richard · Oct 28, 2004

Now if I could just get him to smoke cigars.........

stevomiller · Oct 28, 2004

I once spoke to an engineer from the Allen company: IIRC their keys are made of something that has .5% carbon, chromium, moly, and nickel. 8650?
They touted that their wrenches were made of better steel than the competitons (10 + yrs ago).

Stevo

Will52100 · Oct 28, 2004

Last time I used a large allen wrench in a damascus billet it was a pain to weld, acted like it had a lot of nickle or chrome in the alloy.

Todd Robbins · Oct 29, 2004

I saw some allen wrenches in a Tractor Supply catalog last year that were advertised as 6150, which is a chrome-vanadium steel, and they were about twice the price of the others in the catalog. 1040 sounds right for the cheaper ones.

Todd

Raymond Richard · Oct 29, 2004

When I get my shop back together I'll try making a knife out of it if I can find it then...

AwP · Oct 30, 2004

I made a knife out of a 17mm allen wrench and it turned out pretty good. The steel forged like butter, well not really, but easy compared to other steels. I made a large convex bolo from it, triple quenched twice in oil and the last time in water and got excellent hardness and seems to have decient edge holding though it's hard to be sure with a fat convex edge. I'm not sure if it really needed the water the last time, I was still learning the HT process and that was my best result by then by far. I finally understood what it means when a file "skates". Donno if it'd be good steel for a finer slicing knife, but for a chopper it's great assuming yours is the same steel as mine.

Allen wrench steel?

Moderator