Lucky Find!!!

[Willie71]

My brother in law was over much of this weekend welding up a grate to cover his 5' diameter fire pit and needed my shop to do it. He was going to make his own hinges out of 3/4" steel rod. I had some weld on hinges that were pre made, so I offered those to him. He asked me if I had any use for the rod, because he was just going to recycle it. I looked at it and saw a mark on the end. It is W1 tool steel!!! I see some forging in my future.

 

[coldsteelburns]

Veryyy nice score!! I would love to have some W1 round stock for forging.. how much (in length) did he give to ya? And what was he doing with or rather how did he acquire it for such a non-important (steel choice wise) job like hinges for a fire pit grate?! lol post a pic if ya can brother

-Paul
www.youtube.com/Lsubslimed

 

[Willie71]

Its about 3' long. He got it at Metal Superstores, as it was the right diameter for the tube he bought for the outside of the hinges. It was in the scrap bin because it was a blem, with some scratching on one side. They typically only stock O1, but will bring in other tool steels as available. He had a puzzled look on his face when he told me about how much more it was for this one piece compared to the other steels he bought. He commented they told him it was for "tools or something??" If it wasn't from metal superstores, and didn't have their color code and marking on it I would have been suspicious of what it was, but all the clues add up on this one. I'll get a pic later today.

 

[coldsteelburns]

Haha that's funny. It's funny how once "one" starts making knives, how we tend to (well I know I and a lot of others do) start appreciating any chuncks or any other pieces of steel/metal that we see whether it be in a junkyard, scrap bin, etc. or even on the side of the road in my case sometimes lol I still can't picture in my mind how one would make hinges from 3/4" rod...

-Paul
www.youtube.com/Lsubslimed