Mystery steel liners

[War on Packaging]

I know a lot of knife makers frown on using "mystery steel" for blades beacause the heat treatments are inconsistent, but what about liners (not for liner lock), bolsters and pocket clips (old hack saw blades)? As long as it is corrosion resistant enough is scrap steel good enough for these applications? What materials do you prefer and why?

 

[FunkCoaster]

For me, no. If you're making a $100+ knife, most people don't love the idea of inferior/unknown materials going into it.
If less than that, the choices are open, including brake rotors, old jewelry, most anything copper.

Sometimes people request specific things to be incorporated into the design, like coins, parts of motorcycles, etc, but those are known ahead of time.

I do repurpose a lot of junk stuff for tools, like old HSS jigsaw blades (bad gravers), broken bandsaw blades (cutting channels), broken drill bits (placeholder pins).

 

[War on Packaging]

Thank you for your advice. Where do you find copper? I have hammered pipes flat before (not very flat though), I often get old metal things from thrift shops.