Leaf Springs?

I

Ian Stevens

Joined
Dec 21, 1999
Messages
3
This is going to sound like a dopey question, but here goes. Are leaf springs worth the effort to straighten, cut, grind, etc.? I find myself in posession of a leaf spring from an army 21/2 ton truck, with no idea what to do with it. Any suggestions(other than pornographic in nature!) are appreciated.
 
Well if the springs were free, you might as well get some practice in. They are hard to work with - hard to straighten, hard to anneal, hard to drill, hard to grind etc...
when compared to new 5160 stock that can be picked up pretty cheap. It will also be flat and annealed..
 
Well, there are two trains of thought on this, The first is that as cheap as new stock steel is, why mess with recycled springs. It can be very disapointing to put a lot of work into a "practice" blade, have it turn out pretty nice (to your own eye at least) and have it fail miserably to harden or crack in heat treat because you saved a couple of bucks on steel.

Of course, there are lot's of knives made out of OCS running around out there, and I've heard several experienced makers talk about making knives out of springs, railroad spikes, drill stem, ect. so there must be something to the other side too. Even if new stock 5160 is only a dollar a running foot, if you dont have a spring shop nearby, and want to do something right now, it might as well be solid gold.

James

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Those who are willing to trade freedom for security deserve neither, and in the end, seldom retain them!
 
I've had fun with leaf springs, once I got my stamina up a bit better. When I first put one in the fire, I couldn't move it for anything. It was way more red hard than all of my books had mentioned, but that was because of all the stressing from being a leaf spring. Once it had been normalized it softened up. Just heat it up to red/orange and let it air cool. I really saw a difference after I had done that three times.

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Oz

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