Ditch Witch Tooth

R

Reb01

Joined
Feb 13, 2006
Messages
2
I was given a ditch witch tooth and was wondering if anyone has ever made a knife from one.

It is extremely high carbon. I'm looking to find out how to harden and heat treat it.

I started making one the other day at the Mason Dixon Steam show when the hurricane finally blew in and dropped the fly we were working in.

I asked this on a blacksmithing forum that has a section for bladesmiths, but no one could reply to it.

Reb

www.civilwarblacksmith.com
www.bgcmonline.org
 
Welcome to Bladeforums! :)

I'm going to move this to our Shop Talk subforum from this General Knife Discussion ...
 
I would imagine it would be made out of the same stuff plows are made out of, given that it has basically the same job... They are "usually" 1080, What you might do is find out the make and model it came off of and call the manufacturer and see if they would tell you. otherwise it's mystery steel. Good luck and post some pics when you get it done! :D :thumbup:
 
J.S. Carter said:
I would imagine it would be made out of the same stuff plows are made out of, given that it has basically the same job... They are "usually" 1080, What you might do is find out the make and model it came off of and call the manufacturer and see if they would tell you. otherwise it's mystery steel. Good luck and post some pics when you get it done! :D :thumbup:
Click to expand...

It may also be 4140, 4140L or something similar- I know that teeth on front-end loaders were made of that. Those would be too low-carbon to make a good knife.
 
Hello...

Hopefully I can be of some help here. I know very, very little about making knives, but I do know something about construction equipment (as the owner of my own underground company).

Heavy equipment buckets that have teeth (such as front end loader buckets, and/or backhoe/excavator digging buckets) require the teeth to be very tough. This makes them somewhat soft as well (comparitively). We rely on the shape of the teeth to funnel earth past while wearing away the tooth, rather than the material of the bucket. Every one of these teeth I've ever come across (I've changed literally thousands myself) are all cast. I have no idea the material...but I can't imagine it being suitible for making knives.

Smaller equipment (such as equipment made by Ditch Witch) often have push in teeth that are bimetal. The 'cutting end' of the tooth is a VERY hard carbide, while the body is of a much milder and more ductile material. It's unclear from your post exactly what kind of Ditch Witch equipment your tooth came off of, but if it's a trencher (which is most likely), it's probably a push in tooth, and I don't believe you could make a knife out of it.

I may very well be wrong, of course (see my first statement/disclaimer lol), but hopefully this gives you some more information to look up/research!

Cris
 
Welcome to the BF.
A good lesson to be had here is that Extremely High carbon could be not good for knives........Whats that ,he said?????:eek: I thought the more the better?????:confused:

Cast iron ranges from 2% to 5% carbon, but that makes it unsuitable for blades. It is not just the carbon ,but the way it gets bonded to the iron in the HT that makes a good blade. Above 1% carbon, and you start getting problems. They add alloy ingredients to take up the extra carbon in stainless steel. Some stainless steels have 2.5% carbon, and are technically stainless cast iron.

As to the ditch witch tooth, it could be many steels, from 444140 to S-7 ,to cast iron. The only way would be to find out the part number and maker and do some research.

A far better idea would be to get a stick of 1080 from Aldo Bruno, and learn on that. Using a known steel with a known metallurgy will get you the most from a knife project. $10 in steel will make a bunch of knives.:thumbup:

Again, welcome, and please ask as you have questions. I just looked at your profile and see you are a BGCM member.If you are an experienced blacksmith, most of the above is probably not new info, but may be of help to others.
Stacy
 
I posted on Iforge, and have yet to get an answer. I do know the metal works like tool steel and shows a nice amount of crows feet on the spark test. Knife is rough forged now, but need to have the tang lengthen just a little for the handle.

The fellow I got it from is a member of our blacksmithing guild and said it would be good for knifemaking. He learned alot from Bill Moran in the 30yrs he knew him, so I can put my trust in him that it is good.

Reb
 
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