Color coding of steels

Nowicki

Nowicki

Joined
Jan 18, 2003
Messages
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A friend of a friend gave me some hex stock. He works at a machine shop where he is making tools....puntches and chisels, He got a few pieces off the ends of the 10' stock he has been using, It has dark green paint on the end. I'm guessing it's O1 since he is making chisels but I don't know for sure. He didn't think it was important so he didn't keep the materials papers..Next time but I won't see him for a while. I forged a blade which turned out well but I'm not sure what temp to draw after the edge quench.
Any input????

Larry
 
Having worked in or owned machine shops all my life I have found that no two warehouses use the same color codes. I have read that there are some standards but from what I have seen no one goes by them.
Sorry for the bad answer to a good question.
 
That's what I figured. I'll edge quench and start drawing at 390 like I do for 5160 and go up and down from there untill I get what I want. Thought I'd get lucky but I'll do it the hard way.

Larry
 
The last ATS34 I got had green ends. I have 440C with green ends down there, too. Yellow, too. And no color at all. :D

Color coding is VERY inconsistent.
 
Here it is rough forged so far. If nothing else it will make a good letter opener.
 

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Couldn't stand the forge being hot and me not out there. Kids had to wait a little
for dinner. The edge quench went well. File skated off the edge. Scratched some of the scale off but did not bite into the steel. Drawing at 380 no special reason to start. I'll give it an hour and see what goes......Back to dinner.
 
The HT line showed up nice before it's cleaned up. I'll clean it up tomorrow and put an edge on it and do some hacking with it. We'll see if it rolls or chips out.
 

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Well it took a little longer for the pict and it's not great but.....
The guy said they got the steel from a place he called Turks. Anyone heard of them??? Or what their color code might be???
 

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OK guys...It took a while but I finally got the info on the steels. There seems to be 3 diferent kinds. 5160, 1070, and 6150. I know how to treat the first two but I'm not sure what the 6150 is or how to heat treat it??? Anybody know?

Thanks
 
If I'm not mistaken, I have some 6150 at home and it has green colors painted on it.
 
From what I've been told, 6150 is very similar to 5160. The exception is 6150 has a teeny bit less carbon and the addition of Vanadium. Heat treat would probably be about the same.
 
6150 is a chrome , vanadium steel with similar properties and similar HT to 5160.
 
Since you have already made a blade out of it, it may be worth the expence to get it tested by a PMI machine. You can call a local inspection company that is equipped with a texas texas nuke (thats what we call it where I work not sure the proper name). Most NDE companies are small outfits but you may try GE Inspection Services I believe they are nationwide. If you take it into their shop they may be able to do it for a resonable price.
 
I also have ATS34, 440C, and 416SS with green ends. I have some D2 and A2 with red ends. 1084 with a blue end. With all the technical info out there about various types of steel I've never figured out why the steel industry has never set guide lines as to color coding. I realize steel will vary from company to company, but they could at least put you in the ballpark with a standard coloring system.
 
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