Help With Steel AMS5643L 17-4 HR

H

hcambron

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Apr 14, 2005
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Can someone help identify a piece of steel that I picked up at a local junk yard. Handwritten on one end is "320569 Lockheed Burbank" and the following numbers are stamped several times along the side: 1/2 x 1 17-4 HR A&P AMS5643L Cyclops HT 166316. It is appx. 16 ft. long. Here is a picture: http://www.worldclassknives.com/spikes/steel.jpg.

I found some references to 17-4 PH on the internet but nothing on the HR.

And what about the references to Lockheed and Cyclops? Could it be from some secret Skunk Works project?

I have not idea how it ended up in a junk yard near Cartersville GA. There was only this one piece and it cost me a grand total of $8.
 
Judging by the description in Kit's link, I'd say the lockheed reference goes to the aircraft company. You probaly got one of their scraps :D
HR A & P.....Hot Rolled Annealed and Pickled :confused:

Probably no good for knife blades, but might be interesting for hardware.
 
HR A&P means hot rolled, annealed and pickled. Cyclops is the name of a steel company [sorry no skunks ], HT 166316 is the heat or batch number.A very nice steel but not much good for blades.
 
17-4 is a precipitation hardening stainless steel. It does not get hard enough to make a good knife blade. However, it does make nice guards etc.
 
Kit: Thanks for the link.

Mete: What is pickled? I've never heard of that. Actually, I was thinking that A&P meant Airframe and Powerplant, a reference to aircraft maintenance.

Chuck: Thanks. I read where Bruce Bump and Darrell Ralph like it for liners:http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=166015&highlight=17-4; http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108794&highlight=17-4 AND Rob Simonich liked to use it for springs http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158644&highlight=17-4.
 
You never ate cucumbers [ pickles] preserved in vinegar ? To pickle is to treat with acid . In steel this means usually hydrochloric acid to remove the oxide scale.
 
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