Hammer Mill beater for blade steel???

J

JosephSchultz511

Joined
Jun 22, 2022
Messages
12
So I came across some forged hammer mill beaters/hammers in the scrap at my work, and I was wondering if anyone knew if they would make a good blade steel? From what I can find, it’s some type of carbon steel, but I can’t find what steel is used. They are Genesis III forged hammer mill hammers.
 
I am going to make everyone mad.😂
A 2" wide x 48 " x 3/16" bar of 1075 from an known supplier is 40 dollars delivered.
That's. 90 cents a square inch.
So if you use 10 sq.in. to make a knife that's 9 bucks.
You will spend more than that in fuel breaking down so.e unknown steel into a usable shape.
Free ain't cheap.
 
Welcome Joseph.
Short answer - they are worth more as scrap steel that as blade steel. Load up the truck until you are afraid the axle will break and go to the scrap yard. Then buy knife steel from a knife supplier with that cash. There are places where they used to crush ore in giant tumblers where there are piles of rusty hammer balls.

Hammer mill balls and slugs are low carbon high alloy steel. Usually there is lots of chromium to make it tough. Some are even stainless steel.

The balls are usually hardened, but the degree of hardening isn't the same as a knife blade. If you take a Rc20 steel ball and harden it to Rc35 that is hardening a tumbler ball. We take Rc40 steel and make it Rc65, then temper it to Rc60. That is hardening a knife blade.
 
I was at the OKCA show way back 25 years ago, a guy drove to the show with a trunk full of mill balls to try and sell them to Ed Fowler, who was forging all of his knives out of ball bearings at that time.

Ed had to tell him that they were worthless so the guy dumped them in an empty lot and drove home.

Hoss
 
Thanks all for the input! I had a friend who knew one of the guys that make them, and he said that they are AISI 1541, in other words roughly .4% carbon. I’ve been making knives for about 4 1/2 years now, and I know to check the true composition of steels if possible, I was using my options to see what I could find out! Thanks y’all!
 
How big are they? might make good cannon shot. I've got a 1" bore. :D

5yJFdD4.jpg
 
First thing I though was CANNON!

Fun Story:
I used to go to Daniel Boon's Pasture Party every year. It was hosted by Daniel Boon IIV and his wife Judy at their farm and wonderful blacksmith shop in Louisa, VA. The civil war guys brought cannons to shoot at the opening, lunch, and closing. They just fired blank rounds with no ball/projectiles. One fellow had an ammo cart full of ogive shape projectiles he had been casting for his 3" cannon. They looked like giant Civil War mini-balls. He asked Dan if he could try a few rounds out during the lunch break. Behind the shop is a long and wide field with woods behind that for miles. He drew a bead on a large oak tree about 1/4-mile away and played with the windage and elevation adjustments, then lit the fuse. It went off with a big BANG ... and we all watched. After what seemed like a long time there was a puff at the tree. The time was probably only 5 seconds, but it seems a long time when standing there watching. We all yelled as we observed the direct hit on the first shot. At that distance we couldn't see any hole in the tree, but a fellow with a spotting scope said it was a perfect round hole. The cannoneer and a couple guys headed across the field to take a photo of the hole and see how far it went in. As they were hiking across the field, the tree slowly fell over into the pasture. The cannoneer returned with word that the hole into the tree was 3" but the back of the tree had been blown away. Dan calmly said, "Been thinkin' 'bout cuttin'down that tree anyway."
 
DevinT said:
I was at the OKCA show way back 25 years ago, a guy drove to the show with a trunk full of mill balls to try and sell them to Ed Fowler, who was forging all of his knives out of ball bearings at that time.

Ed had to tell him that they were worthless so the guy dumped them in an empty lot and drove home.

Hoss
Click to expand...
hahahaa....classic.
 
bladegrinder said:
How big are they? might make good cannon shot. I've got a 1" bore. :D

5yJFdD4.jpg
Click to expand...
Sadly these aren’t the balls, they’re from a corn mill, they’re the Genesis III forged hammer mill hammers, so if you look them up you’ll see what I mean, it’s like a chunk of flat bar stock with a hole in one end and sand paper grit on the other.
 
Interesting, I’ve never seen those before. Are those carbide particles on the ends of the bars?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top