Barstock Questions

T

thegeek574

Joined
Sep 3, 2010
Messages
2,460
Everyone,
I just got my order from Aldo, which i am extremely happy about, but i could not help but notice that the, for example, 1/4 inch sides of the barstock are rounded and not square. I am not sure if this is supposed to be the way it is, or if i have gotten unlucky twice in a row. also, aldo does not mess around when he packs steel. Mine was in a THICK cardboard tube with large wooden plugs glued in both ends and then duct taped. i ended up hacksawing a circle into the cardboard and breaking the tune in half.
thanks all,
Steven
 
Hot rolled steel will have heavy scale and that rounded edge.

Cold rolled steel will have sharp corners, consistent width and a brighter scale free finish.
 
the packing tube is NOT to be thrown away... !!! :)

has many valuable uses, for example I once cut a section out of the tube and used it for a line and handle to fly a dragon kite :D
 
don't worry, i'm saving that for if i ever ship a fixed blade. shoot, it would be good for sending blades out for HT.
 
The 1" 1084 that I got from Aldo a while back had round edges. The story that I heard was that it was steel that was left over from a big Schrade order after they went out of business. I have also heard that the stuff gets pitch black when you etch it. the 1 1/2" 1084 that Aldo had smelted has square edges.
 
thanks all. All the 1084 is nice and square, but the 5160 is, well, about as square as a basketball. its just a pain. thanks all.
 
I think all 5160 comes that way unless you have it milled or ground to specs. I find myself working with more precision ground steels lately as they save me time and belts.
 
If you are used to working with precision ground stock that some places (Admiral, for one) sells, then I can see how the rounded edges can be problematic. If you forge, it's no problem. If you do stock removal, then don't plan on using patterns that go right up to the edge of the bar.
 
OK, I should put my 2 cents worth in here. When we were having the "hot rolled as rolled" steel being made here in the states we were having it made into 1 1/2 bars, 1/4" thick. Very few were grinding this material and lots of ti was as is still used for making Damascus. The 1" round edge flat bar, if you have any left, was the 1st 1084 I came across in Newark, NJ about 6 years ago. If you have any left you either grabbed a few hundred pounds or you just don't make a lot of knives!

The new stock is coming from Germany, as many of you know and it arrived 15 3/4 " wide. We then have it processed into bars so we can accommodate with as many widths as possible. During the course of the last 2 years we have tried different edge treatments depending on the steel we were working on. The 1095, 1075 and 52100 were rolled with relatively square edges. The 1084 and W-2 were done with a little bit less pressure and some of it does have burrs on it. We are trying to come up with an edge treatment that will give a cleaner edge without adding any stress to the steel. The problem being is that every time you touch a piece of steel you raise the price. We don't like doing that and you don't like hearing it. The material is also annealed and easy to grind

We will endeavor to raise the bar on our bar as time goes on. Please remember, we are also knifemakers. It is from that vantage point that we look at the steel we deliver and we're kind of picky.

As for the UPS PROOF shipping tubes. When we pack a tube we usually have about a 1" of stuffing under the 3/4" wooden cap. Measure an inch from the top of the label side of the tube and cut. You'll hit stuffing.(I hope!)

We do appreciate any input you have. We are here to service the knifemaker and we want to do the best we can at it.

Thanks,
Aldo Bruno
 
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