Any Suggestions for Metallurgical Analysis

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MKarish

Joined
Jun 18, 2016
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So I found several hundred feet of 3/8" round stock in the recycling bin at work last week. I thought "Hey, what a great opportunity to make some tongs". So I cut a few sections off one of the sticks and brought it home to try out. Threw a piece in the forge and hammered it out to about 1/8" and quenched it in a jar of brine just to see if it had any carbon it it. Well, it does, and from the looks of it, it has a lot of carbon in it. It hardened up to the point where it easily skates a file, and when I ground a point into it I was able to actually dig into a piece of Starret Red Stripe power hacksaw blade. These blades are supposed to around 64RC, which would make me think I'm hitting something like 66 with an extremely basic HT.
Now if this was just a stick I'd probably just play with it and be done, but I have literally hundreds of feet/pounds of this steel pulled off to the side right now. Does any one have a recommendation on a company that will do an alloy analysis for a reasonable fee? If I can get the OK to take it home I would like to know what I have so I can use it and or make it available to anyone who's interested.
 
MKarish said:
So I found several hundred feet of 3/8" round stock in the recycling bin at work last week. I thought "Hey, what a great opportunity to make some tongs". So I cut a few sections off one of the sticks and brought it home to try out. Threw a piece in the forge and hammered it out to about 1/8" and quenched it in a jar of brine just to see if it had any carbon it it. Well, it does, and from the looks of it, it has a lot of carbon in it. It hardened up to the point where it easily skates a file, and when I ground a point into it I was able to actually dig into a piece of Starret Red Stripe power hacksaw blade. These blades are supposed to around 64RC, which would make me think I'm hitting something like 66 with an extremely basic HT.
Now if this was just a stick I'd probably just play with it and be done, but I have literally hundreds of feet/pounds of this steel pulled off to the side right now. Does any one have a recommendation on a company that will do an alloy analysis for a reasonable fee? If I can get the OK to take it home I would like to know what I have so I can use it and or make it available to anyone who's interested.
Click to expand...


Pay attention on 11min. 00 sec. They need five seconds to analyze steel :)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvC4M_JrJlw
 
I'm not familiar with that particular model, but most of them won't tell you the carbon content.
 
The smaller atoms are more difficult to analyze therefore need a better machine ! For some info on carbon content a spark test may be better
 
Email me. I have a company that does that type of analysis for me for a relatively low price.
 
Thank you guys. I called Peters following Natleks suggestion and their pricing is reasonable. I believe the guy I talked to said $35.00 per test. I am working under the assumption that this steel is alloyed. Hopefully this will be the case and the test will come back with a positive ID.
Spark and a crude hardening point to high carbon. I tried etching with ferric chloride and comparing the color change to 1084 I have and it was much slower to react, and took on much less black oxide. I'm going to flatten a piece out with his weekend with the intention of sending it out to them.
 
$35.00!!! Wow! I was quoted $250.00 in Canada for a single test.
 
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