Help with forging metal

J

jraney

Joined
Aug 6, 2010
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77
Hey folks i have a few q's for those who know. My dad and i have just finished my coal forge, so i started looking for some metal. i found a coil spring
and part of a cutting edge off of my dads motor grader. my questions are, 1st the coil spring i have heard was good for forging but is there anything i should know? like, can i cut it into peices with a cutting torch without messing it up in some way, do i anneal this metal before i try to shape it, and how do i go about the HT with this metal? now the cutting edge. to my knowledge this has to be a very hard steel simply becuase it is designed to withstand great abuse. also with this metal will the cutting torch mess things up, can this metal even be worked into something usefull, annealing, and HT. if anybody can help with this i would greatly appreciate it. i know some will say just to get a more workable steel, and if i must then i will but my dad has run a grader for nearly 25yrs so there are alot of these cutting edge peices around for me to use. so any help would be great. also i would like to use real coal but i have no clue where to get it so i will probably be using charcaol(not the brickettes) but the other stuff you can buy at walmart. thanks
 
I know this is not what you want to hear but... 5160 steel is very inexpensive (a 1.5"x0.25"x6' bar will run you about $40), lends itself very well to forging, and has a simple heat treat. If you really want to use the spring there are instructions on this site for making a knife from simple spring steel.
 
The coil spring is probably going to be OK. It can be cut into 12" sections and straightened and forged into knives. HT it like 5160 and you should be OK.....but you will never know exactly what it is. That is why Fleshwound suggested using a known steel. The grader blade could be many things, most not all that good for a knife. Keep it for making a hardie tool to fuller ( draw) steel out when forging, or a hardie cut off tool.
 
Jraney, I have some 5160 that is already in bar form. I can send some to you for the cost of shipping. I could put a few pieces in a box and you could have some usable steel in the not too distant future. PM me if you want some.

Matt
 
That was a very nice offer Matt.

I agree using a known steel will make things easier, but if you are set on using those steels then:

If using a cutting torch I recommend grinding off the area adjacent to the cut. It doesn't have to be much material, probably only 1/8-1/4" depending on how good of a cut it is. You may be able to skip this, but better safe than sorry. If you have an angle grinder you can cut through it pretty quick and you won't damage the steel.

You do not need to anneal prior to forging.

As for how to heat treat "this metal"....the problem is we don't know for sure what metal was used in the spring. Thus their suggestions to start with a known steel. A good starting point is to heat it to nonmagnetic, then go slightly hotter, then quench in low viscosity oil. Maybe start tempering at 400degrees and after testing the knife you can either raise or lower the temper temperature. With that said you can make decent blades from coil springs. We use them on occasion...but with every new spring we forge out a test knife to see how it performs prior to making knives for sale.

As for the grader steel. I haven't the slightest clue what the alloy content is so I wouldn't even know where to begin. Keep in mind just because a steel excels at the use is put to, doesn't mean it makes a good knife. It might, but then it might not.


My suggestion? If you just need to practice hammer blows go ahead and use the coil spring. If you want the best chance at making the best knife you can, then take Matt up on his offer.
 
hey thanks for the offer, but not to go against what any of you said but i think i will mainly just use this metal i have for practicing. i have never tried this before, so before i go and ruin something worth using i will just practice on the stuff i have. i really have no idea of how difficult this is goin to be as far as shaping and just all the other stuff that goes along with hammering a blade out of a chunk of steel. but like i said thanks for the offer. what about railroad spikes? same problem? if so no big deal just would like to know if there is any easily obtainable metal for cheap or free that i could make stuff with, railroad spikes seem to be everywhere.
 
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