How to recognise steel ?

M

Maximil

Joined
Oct 17, 2004
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Hello,

A friend has a lot of stainless steel ( all dimensions). But there is a problem: he don't know anything about what type of stainless steel it is.
I would like to make a knife with it, but how to recognise what steel I need ?
Should I take the cleaner, the harder ? How to know that ?
Help me please, and excuse my poor language...
Maximil
 
The first thing is to separate the stainless steel into three basic types ;austenitic, ferritic and martensitic. That's done with a magnet , the austenitic types [ 300 series in American specifications ] is non-magnetic and cannot be hardened and therefore can't be used for blades. Ferritic and martensitic are magnetic but there isn't much ferritic used .Assume then that if it's magnetic it's martensitic.You could then take samples and try to heat treat it and see if it gets hard . What type of material is this ? strip, rod , tubing and what is it used for ?
 
Thanks.
It's a lot of plates of differents dimensions and depth. I don't know what is the initial utilisation of these plates.
I would like to make a little folding knive and a big and heavy knife (to use as a hatchet) as I've seen some of them on this forum.

Any advice ?
 
Maximil said:
Thanks.
It's a lot of plates of differents dimensions and depth. I don't know what is the initial utilisation of these plates.
I would like to make a little folding knive and a big and heavy knife (to use as a hatchet) as I've seen some of them on this forum.

Any advice ?
Click to expand...
Advise?
This is my input.
Purchase a piece of oil-hardening carbon steel and go from there.
This material is easy to work with and responds very well to "harden by eye" heat treating.
Respectfully, Toolmaker
 
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