Barrel steel

P

Protactical

Joined
Aug 24, 2003
Messages
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What kind of steel is there in M1 barrels, and what kind of useful stuff can one make out of it... other than guns. I wouldn't really care to ask if there wasn't that hole down the middle, I would just draw it out and try it for something. How difficult would it be to weld that back into a billet. Seems like it wouldn't be easy by hand without a power hammer or something. Seems like it would be too difficult to saw lengthwise with my very basic metal cutting bandsaw.
 
OK, Someone has to know this, we have people here making gun knives, so did I trip over something illegal to do? If so just yank the thread.
 
I still wondering what kind of steel an M1 barrel has. I bet it isnt high enough carbon steel to make a knife though. I know they make guns from 4140 but even that makes a poor knife. Im sure it can be forged and/or forge welded into something cool. Go for it and show us what you got.
 
Very likely to be 4140.Not enough carbon for a good knife but good for impact type things like 'hawks.
 
if you happen to have a minigun laying around somewhere ive seen that people made knives from those :thumbup:
 
George, I would split the barrel lenght wise, flatten the pieces,make a sandwich with something like O-1 for the core .
 
mete said:
George, I would split the barrel lenght wise, flatten the pieces,make a sandwich with something like O-1 for the core .
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And, slap a piece of 15N20 or L6 in there for a little color contrast. :)
 
How do you heat treat 4140? I thought if anything worked, it would require super quench, but I see that on the materials sheet it can be hardened more or less normaly, one just gets less points of hardness? I have seen a fair amount about hardening relative to arc welding vehicle frames but not so much from our tool making perspective. A local shop has some solid 4140 that might make a nice hammer.

Thanks for the replies so far, I will see if my little saw handles it lengthwise.
 
Cut em up 3'' or 4'' long, put them in a piece of thin wall sq tubbing with a bottom welded on, put nickle/steel powder in the bore of each piece and 1084powder around everything else, weld a lid on and start forging, make mosaic out of it or draw out, chop and stack for a layered billet, it would be cool :thumbup: Call it M1 damascus.
 
Yes 4140 makes good hammers also. Harden from 1550F, oil quench.You should get 56-58 Rc.
 
mete said:
Yes 4140 makes good hammers also. Harden from 1550F, oil quench.You should get 56-58 Rc.
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Ok, now I gotta ask a dumb question after mete's reply. If you are able to get 56-58 out of 4140, which is reputed to be a VERY tough steel, why wouldn't it make a good blade? 57 Rockwell out of a tough steel seems like it would be ideal to me. My guess is, 56-58 is an optimistic number for 4140.
 
I was going to ask where you get steel powder, but I caught myself. I'm not that tidy! Not at all.

Thanks all
 
I was wondering about the hammers out of 4140. My bucket of oil isn't all that large. If I put the hammer in the oil, and gave it a good quench, then pulled it out of the oil, and dropped it into a bucket of water, to get the risidual heat out, what would tend to happen?
 
Hardness is more a measure of strength of the steel than the wear resistance . Wear resistance is proportional to the carbon content.For example if we set blade steels in order of their wear resistance /edge retention - 4140, 5160, 1080, 52100.
 
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