Home Depot Steel Bars

J

Jackpot

Joined
Sep 25, 2007
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2
Ok. so i'm new to this... REALLY NEW. and i was wondering if the steel flats from home depot are any good at all for knife making, what type of steel they are and what would be a better beginner steel me to start with.

Any help on this would be great.
 
The bars from hardware stores are mystery metals.

Got to flatground.com or admiral steels or any of the other online sources to get the exact steels that you need.

You don't want to go thru all the work to make a knife that wont work.
 
These bars would be low carbon. Not suitable for knifemaking except as guards, or other parts. Look up admiral steel, and get some 1084. It's cheap, or you could use a worn file. Find a Nicholson if you can, anneal it, and go from there.
 
or buy some 1084 from Mace and Aldo, good steel, good price, a whole lotta folks using the stuff, including me. Look on the knifemaking stuff for sale thread for 1084.

-Page
 
Believe the steel at the depot is 29A. The "A" being equal to anything. I second Mace and Aldo. With names like that who wouldn't you trust. LOL
 
ok thanks a bunch guys..

See, the problem is... being a totally rookie i made this nice looking knife out of some home depot junk. I wanna know if it's going to keep an edge at all. I'd show you guys a pic if i knew how to post one but whatever. i'll look for some better steel and start again. Thanks again for the advice.
 
Think of that as grinding practice and such. Order known steel and make a knife out of that and you will be happier.
 
They are not any good for knives but great for practice, I still use them on new designs to see how the grinds will be done. They are nice and cheap and easy to get so when you mess up through it into the recycle bin and move on. I did a bunch of these before I bought some good steel.

Good Luck
 
It's not going to be something you'll really be able to harden enough to take and keep a decent edge, but all is not lost. You now have a template to use when you get some known steel, and you got some good practice out of it.
 
Jackpot said:
ok thanks a bunch guys..

See, the problem is... being a totally rookie i made this nice looking knife out of some home depot junk. I wanna know if it's going to keep an edge at all. I'd show you guys a pic if i knew how to post one but whatever. i'll look for some better steel and start again. Thanks again for the advice.
Click to expand...


It will keep an edge better than a knife made out of 420hc!
 
Jackpot said:
ok thanks a bunch guys..

See, the problem is... being a totally rookie i made this nice looking knife out of some home depot junk. I wanna know if it's going to keep an edge at all. I'd show you guys a pic if i knew how to post one but whatever. i'll look for some better steel and start again. Thanks again for the advice.
Click to expand...

There are a couple of things that you can do to save the knife.
It won't be the knife of your life, but you may still perhaps get a serviceable blade out of it.
Try heat treating it and quenching in cold water.
Test it with a file, and see how it bites on the HTd blade and on a blank of the same steel to see if you got at least partial hardening.
If you didn't, mix salt in warm water till no more will dissolve (start with just 1 liter of water), then add a spoon of dishwasher soap and a teaspoon of the rinse additive (don't know its name in english).
Mix well.
Bring the blade to non-magnetic and quench in this stuff moving strongly the blade in it.
If it has at least 0.20 carbon in it, it will produce some martensite and can lead to a blade good enough to prepare sandwiches :)
DO NOT use this stuff on high carbon steel for any reason.
 
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