can you identify the steel?

J.McDonald Knives

J.McDonald Knives

Basic Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2007
Messages
2,021
i dont have any pictures yet. my neighbor is the one who has the steel and its about 35 years old. it started out as a saw blade used to cut stainless steel pipe or bar stock. its a hack saw type of blade. he said its about 1/8" thick and about 1 1/2" wide. its got pretty good spring do it already. he was 15 or 16 at the time he worked on it during his lunch break. he said he went thru 8" grinder wheel rather quickly working on it. he wants to finish the knife he started. he told me he didnt know what the heck he was doing back then but he bought titanium drill bits for $15 each and tried to drill it but he snapped them with a hand drill and burnt the 3rd one with a drill press just trying to drill a hole in the steel. the steel would work on a piece of pipe all day and oil was being poured over the blade the whole time to keep it cool. back then the blade was worth thousands to buy brand new. he wants to make a fillet knife out of it and i told him i could help him with it. i figured it was some type of tool steel. when hes able to come back up here and has dug it out of his closet ill post pics of it for yall to see. hes really eager to finish it.
 
this one must be a tough one for yall. i forgot to mention that this metal has yet to rust on him after all these years.
 
well, when I was working on stainless steel every day, we used a rotating circular blade. they were listed as solid carbide blades for stainless they were hard as the dickens, and we were able to get over 100 cuts in 4" tube on a regular basis as long as there was a bit of grease on the blade. the hacksaw blades and bandsaw blades that we used were made from M-series steels.

Ken
 
how would i go about annealing m-series steels? by any chance would you happen to know which of the m-series it was?
 
Sounds like a Stellite power hacksaw blade. There are several Stellite alloys, 6b and 6k are both common. It's a cobalt alloy. It needs to be worked with diamond tools. There are a few knifemakers who use it. It is extremely wear resistant I don't know if even solid carbide drills would cut it. You said it was expensive and no rust on it. Stellite would fit both those criteria.

PS there is no annealing process for Stellite because it is not hardened.
 
Jacob,
If it is Stellite, it isn't steel. you don't anneal it, you don't heat treat it.
you just use a cutoff saw to cut a length, then burn throughat least twice the belts to grind the outline and the grinds.
If you measure the Rc it is in the low 40's I think. What makes it so durable is that it is loaded with carbide, or Cobalt (?) which makes it hold its cutting edge so well.
One more test you could do to narrow down to whether it is Stellite or Talonite is they are non-magnetic.

It can be drilled with solid carbide drill bits.

George Young in Kokomo, IN has made multiblade folders with Stellite or Talonite blades.....He is listed in the knifemakers' Guild Memeber list.
Rob Simonich used to sell Talonite (VERY similar to Stellite 6K...Stellite is Canadian and I think Talonite is American.)
Alpha Knife Supply (Chuck, Brenda, and Jessica Bybee) are the exclusive reps for Talonite in the US.) http://www.alphaknifesupply.com/
They might be able to point you toward finding out what the stuff is.

When I bought a bunch of Stellite 6K years ago, I went straight to Stellite Corp. I am not aware if there are any reps. for Stellite or not.
The have US Sales offices, IIRC, but I think I may have called the HQ in Canada...they might be able to help you ID if it is Stellite or not.

Sorry about all the IIRC, I thinks, but its been awhile since I have used or bought the materials..
Hope it helps,
 
Short answer, most likely you can't use it with your lack of experience and lack of larger equipment. Not an easy material to work with if it is a stellite blade.
Stacy
 
bladsmth said:
Short answer, most likely you can't use it with your lack of experience and lack of larger equipment. Not an easy material to work with if it is a stellite blade.
Stacy
Click to expand...

Say Stacy, could it be shaped using a36 grit grinding wheel, then going with less course wheels after that? I've got a few of those things, and the saw that goes with the blades.:confused:
 
i just remembered an important detail that might help yall help me find out what steel it is without me even seeing the blade. i asked him that when he was grinding on it if he got any hot spots and if he did if it became alot easier to grind on in that spot. he told me yes. he siad it would start to turn blue if he worked on one area too much and that it ground alot easier. with that bit of useful information what kind of metal or even steel do yall think it is?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top