Mystery Steel ID: please help

[P.Brewster]

At my work we have hundreds of feet of 3/8" square stock that is some kind of tool steel or medium/high-carbon steel. It's up for grabs, and I'm wondering if I can use it (I make throwing shuriken, i.e. throwing spikes).

The material was provided by a customer who canceled the order and never collected their steel.

My co-workers recall that it was some kind of special steel, and this notion is confirmed by the complex sparks that are generated when it is ground.

Here are your clues:

-it has a mill finish (not precision ground).

-it is hard to grind. This suggests to me that it is either annealed, and very tough; or it's been tempered to a "half-hard" state... it can be filed, scratched with a razor blade, and cut with a bandsaw, etc.

-the material was intended to be used as a rack gear (as in rack-and-pinion).

Any ideas of what it is, or how I can figure out what it is? My co-worker's guess is 5160.

Thank you.

 

[burke531]

cut a piece off and send it somewhere and get a spectrum analysis.

 

[Will Leavitt]

Sounds neat, would make a neat smaller knife with a diamond integral guard or ferrule

 

[P.Brewster]

I suppose the steel cannot have a mill-finish, and also be pre-hardened... if it was hardened, it would have scale, etc.

Right?

 

[P.Brewster]

What do you think the price tag on an analysis might be?

 

[anvilring]

Amen.... what he said.

Especially if you can get ALL OF IT! Square bar forged "on the diamond"
(a 45o edge 'up') works like a champ.
With a good analysis, you could sell it to people like me! No really! There's a guy out in the Northwest; Kelly Cupples (sp?) who can get you an analysis for under $40. I've bought steel from him before and he did me an analysis on my CAT grader blades but I've lost his info: can anyone else help with that? Hell, I need it too!
m

 

[P.Brewster]

thanks,

I figured you forgers might get exited.

 

[burke531]

What type of steel was the grader blades? Kelly's number is 509-949-5231

 

[anvilring]

burke531; thanks for the #... they, the blades turned out to be all 1084. I have close to 1000 lbs of'em, like 8 to 10 blades maybe?
They're 1/2 inch thick but they forge well with a LG 25# hammer. I've been cutting them up lengthwise with a bandsaw.

m

 

[Phillip Patton]

Matt Doyle (mdoyle) will get you an analysis for free.

 

[AcridSaint]

Didn't know Kelly did analysis' - very cool. I like dealing with him, good people.

Not that I would turn down free either.

 

[burke531]

Anvilring, that is cool that they're something good. I always figured that they would be some kind of high manganese wear resistant steel.

 

[Gene Martin]

patriqq,

If it's up for grabs, grab it and run. Get an analysis when convenient, but you'll have it that way. if you hesitate, it may disappear.

Gene

 

[P.Brewster]

Thanks everyone