So, the other day I was down at my blacksmith guild forge and using the guild spark test kit to explain a bit about steel identification to a young would-be knifemaker...really useful thing to have around even if it IS just a box full of little hunks of known steels.
So I was thinking. Would anybody here be interested in all chipping in together and trying to make up some kits from stuff we have laying around? If 10 people each had a foot long piece of a few known steels, we could cut them into 1" or so hunks, label or stamp them, and send them around to each other. Everybody would end up paying about the same in shipping, and we'd all end up with a possibly pretty nice spark testing kit. It would take some organization, and it may turn out to be best to have everything show up in one place and be assembled and re-sent, etc. but I bet we're smart enough to work that out. Even if we had to go the central hub route cost would be shipping for whatever you send + $8.80 for a USPS Flat rate box to return your completed kit.
I could provide samples of 1050, 1070, 1075, 1080 ( I think...gotta double check ), 1084, W1, O1, 304SS, A36 mild steel, 52100, 15N20 (if it's not too many people), 203E, and maybe some D2 (if the piece I have won't work for power hammer dies, or if there's extra after that).
What do people think?
-d
P.S. Odds are it would only be open to folks who could share something, otherwise it would just get too big and ungainly and we'd probably end up with a bunch of dissapointed folks who didn't have anything to send but signed up, etc.
So I was thinking. Would anybody here be interested in all chipping in together and trying to make up some kits from stuff we have laying around? If 10 people each had a foot long piece of a few known steels, we could cut them into 1" or so hunks, label or stamp them, and send them around to each other. Everybody would end up paying about the same in shipping, and we'd all end up with a possibly pretty nice spark testing kit. It would take some organization, and it may turn out to be best to have everything show up in one place and be assembled and re-sent, etc. but I bet we're smart enough to work that out. Even if we had to go the central hub route cost would be shipping for whatever you send + $8.80 for a USPS Flat rate box to return your completed kit.
I could provide samples of 1050, 1070, 1075, 1080 ( I think...gotta double check ), 1084, W1, O1, 304SS, A36 mild steel, 52100, 15N20 (if it's not too many people), 203E, and maybe some D2 (if the piece I have won't work for power hammer dies, or if there's extra after that).
What do people think?
-d
P.S. Odds are it would only be open to folks who could share something, otherwise it would just get too big and ungainly and we'd probably end up with a bunch of dissapointed folks who didn't have anything to send but signed up, etc.
