Finding ship steel

S

sdodson

Joined
Jun 19, 2009
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7
Have a friend whose son is getting his first captains commission on a new US naval cruiser. Would like me to forge a knife out of ship steel to present to him at the ceremony, preferably a patterned welded one. Would be nice if it was a ship of some historical significance.

Anybody got any leads or some Bismarck steel laying around the shop.
 
I think Aldo might have some anchor chain wrought iron that would make beautiful bolsters or guard I'd forgeweld it to a piece of 1070 and make a blade with the 1070 as the edge, the wrought as the body of the blade, but if you don't do blades like that as a regular thing, don't try it, it's a pain

-Page
 
how much time do you have, my mom works for the navy and has access to some old ships that are bieng worked on to go to museums. ill call her over the weekend and see what i can come up with
 
Dodson

What ship, what port? I have access many Navy personnel, perhaps I can help.

Jim Arbuckle
 
Anchor chain would be very nice and very appropriate !!
Modern ship steel would not have much use as a knife .I assume hull plating would be something like HY-80 .Other parts may be the AR-400 series .Gun barrels might be 4140 ? Another metal might be one of the bronzes long used on ships.
 
called mom she might have some steel off the mast of the uss constitution (a us frigit built in the late 1700s) the oldest navy ship still in commission. not making any promises but i can try and grab it if u like. or the chain works well i have seen a few projects a farrier friend made with anchor chain they came out rather nice.
 
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That is just the type of thing I am looking for. I figured guys here would be able to help. Appreciate any effort.
 
if u want it ill try to get over there this weekend and see if i can get it. send me an email with contact info and ill see what i can do.
 
More info: Have until November when the ship is christened or whatever they call it and he takes over command.

Realize that this is probably not going to be a high performance knife, but it is to be ceremonial in nature. On the other hand I have been very successful welding Porsche timing chain to O1 and getting a pretty nice looking functional knife from the result.

The Constitution steel would really be fantastic if it is possible to get.

Thanks in advance.
 
Boy, I'm just listening in, but I think that could be a tremedous thing having some small piece of the U.S. Constitution in a knife for a navy man !!!!. About 60 yeares ago I made up a plastic model of that ship and painted every thing on it. It was just the MOST beautiful in shape and all those cannons made bit a real "man o' war" !!! Hey and I'm a Canadian. I sure hope you are able to get that piece of metal. Steve, your gift to sdodson in my opinion would be as big as his for the pesentation. Frank.
 
hey sdodson she couldent get any of the old stuff( its been sent te museums) all she has are a few of the cut offs from the new material that they used to retore her in 1995
and maybe some original smithed nails from the deck boards are you intrested in this
 
I've got wrought iron from an 1800s steamboat shipwreck from Lake Erie.... the F.H. Prince. In my reckless youth I used to pull spikes out of those things while scuba diving. It is no longer legal I believe....

Makes nice fittings...
 
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