Chevy Leaf Springs

Steven Roos

Steven Roos

Joined
Jun 29, 2002
Messages
4,131
Does anyone know the composition of Chevy's leaf springs? I have a friend who is going to give me an old set and I wonder what they are made of. Thanks!
 
They are very likely to be 5160 butIm not for sure. Whatever they are they should make a good knife. The heat-treat and temper may take some testing but its possible they are a good find.
 
Thanks. I'd be happy if they were 5160...:)

BTW, are there any issues with the strength of the steel after being under a load like that for so long?
 
Leaf springs make great steel for knives

but it dont work the other way around,

Knives make poor leaf springs for cars...
 
Hi Steven Roos, this is DaQo'tah again...

I was home from work today while some stuff got moved to the next job site, and I was looking at your topic here on the Blade Forums, thinking about what I was going to do today.

Then it hit me,,,,"Why Not Get a leaf Spring too?"

So I went dont to the car junkyard and for $10.00 I got a full leaf spring set. the thing now is a bolted 3 in 1 set of springs but I will cut the bolts and fire up my forge...I need to make the steel soft and straight first,,,,,so,,Im off to the shop!

let me know if you want to see any photos, I could set up a new page on my website?.
 
I've used some leaf springs with moderate results. I like coil springs best. By the time you hammer them out into a knife or sword blank you can find most of the defects.
I'm constantly reminded by Jim Fagan that steel is one of the lowest cost parts of the knife and I'm spending much too much time refining the shape and not enougy time making the knives. ie. What's your time worth?
Lynn
 
Lynn's right. Leaf spring can make a very fine knife. I have used it, and so far had very good experience. My wife bought me a set of leaf springs(off a truck judging from the size)several years ago and I havent used them up yet, so its all been the same batch. The draw back is that it is very labor intensive to cut up in usable pieces.
 
Well, I can't complain about free steel. If it takes a bit of work to use it, fine. It saves me money.

BTW, my first piece that I'm working now is made from a half-circle of coil-spring. It was a bear to shape, but it came out fine. (maybe a bit thin, but I'll see...)
 
Where 5160 steel has already been heat treated and hardened for its OCS function, if you like its hard, tough, springy, gently curved properties the way they are, (haven't built a forge yet) is there any great advantage to straightening it, and if so can you do it by simply bending it the way they do with katanas?
 
Well, I don't see any problem with bending it as long as there are no cracks.

My, this is an old thread, and boy have things changed since. Still got the leaf springs and now I've got my own forge! :cool:
 
Make some test blades up and test the heck out of them. I've had really good relsults from old Chevy truck springs. Buddy of mine races '50's PU's on dirt. He has to rebuild the suspension for the ovals and gives me racks of springs all the time. Don't use the areas next to the bolt/rivet holes or near the shackels as these are the major stress areas.
Buy or borrow a Port-a-band saw and use a good bi-metal blade. You can cut the springs up just fine without annealing into any dimensions you want and save yourself a lot of laborius hot cutting.
I've tried several different HT'g methodoligies and keep going back to Ed Fowler's to get the performance I want. 5160 is good big blade stuff.
 
I have just been using a 7" norton metal cutting abrasive wheel. This seems to work ok, takes about an hour to rough cut a blade. The other steel I have been using comes from A500 cold formed structural steel tubes and A 690 "high strength low alloy" HP steel piles for use in marine environments.

Online I read that "except for plain carbon steels that are "micro alloyed" with just vanadium, niobium, and/or titanium, most "low-alloy" steels are suitable as engineering quenched and tempered steels and are generally heat treated for engineering use. "

I have no idea what "micro alloyed" actually means, or whether it applies to HP shapes.

I also read that "Low-alloy steels with suitable alloy compositions have greater hardenability than structural carbon steel and, thus, can provide high strength and good toughness in thicker sections by heat treatment. Their alloy contents may also provide improved heat and corrosion resistance. However, as the alloy contents increase, alloy steels become more expensive and more difficult to weld."

Presumably this means the best approach to working them is stock removal.
 
rhrocker said:
Is there any particular "thickness" of coil spring that you look for?
Click to expand...

Rh, I have a bunch of sections from a coil off of an old Honda. They are just over .500" in diameter and are great for small hunters. I only buy known steel of good quality these days, but I did some extensive testing on those coil pieces a couple of years ago. For performance, they are some of the best blades I have ever made. I am pretty certain they are very good quality 5160 and at the high end of the carbon range.

For larger blades I would look for .750" and above.
 
The Chevy and Pontiac leaf springs are 5160.Worked at the Rockwell Leaf Spring plant in New Castle,Pa. in the mid '70's on the snub roll(heat the blanks in the furnace until white-orange hot and a cam eccentric tapers out the ends),great money as it was piecework,anywho,thats how I know it was 5160. :)
 
whittet, are you saying you are using A500 and A690m for blades???

Those are lower carbon (0.2-0.3%) steels suitable for structural steel but won't harden sufficiently for good quality blades.
 
hi everyone. new guy here i have recently decided too look into making a knife.and have noticed a lot of leaf spring talk so happen too notice a leaf spring my father had and was interested in how too go about making it into a knife. my question is do you start by cutting the shape out or do you heat it up and pound it into shape. also if there is a book i can get that would help a beginer like me get started. who knows it might become a hobie someday
thanks rick
 
Thanks for the good advice. I lack your experience but like to experiment. We can probably agree we both definitely like the OCS, but you could probably list a dozen other steels that make good knives.

While I don't know much about A690 except that it has high corrosion resistance and is hardened like a chisel to take the impact of a pile driver driving it into solid rock, as it happens I have some lying around. It seems to have about the same rockwell hardness as L6 and the hardening is apparently acheived by copper precipitation hardening as an alternative to carbon hardening.

Where high carbon strain hardening and solid solution hardening increase strength but adversly affect ductility, precipitation hardening apparently manages a stabilized balance. That's what I read about it online at any rate.

http://www.msm.cam.ac.uk/phase-trans/2002/shah/b.pdf

The A500 has a number of issues including the balance between hardness, toughness, ductility etc. Apparently the more martensite the more hardness but the less ductility. A500 is hardened by being worked cold which reduces its ductility. Since A 500 is used to form the k and x braces for seismic loads on structures, I suspect its being ductile as well as strong and tough is considered more important than its being hard. My test is, can I use it like an axe to cut and split my firewood without having damage to the edge.

http://www.desperadocycles.com/The_Lowdown_On_Tubing/Steel_Hardening_Methods.htm
 
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