NEw dude with a Q (lowes steel)

rustyboy

rustyboy

Joined
Jan 7, 2005
Messages
105
What type of steel is the flat stock you can get at place like lowes and home depot?

About me: Well i got into this knife thing on a whim. An now i'm hooked. MAde a few test knives out scrap back in september and since then i've been reading anything i can get my hands on. Waiting for some real steel to arrive then i can get going.
 
That will be 1018 steel,only good for guards and bolsters and buttcaps..Otherwise you could practice grinding it,or forging it into cool things for around the house,but not any good for blade steel..

Bruce
 
test any steel by looking at the sparks with a bench grinder if they are white/yellowish and fuzzy looking it will probly make a good knife. use leaf springs or files to start making knives. curiuos do you know about heat treating? do you grind or forge the blades?
 
Right now i'm just going at it with a grinder and files :) . An i've been reading anything I can get my hands on about heat treating, normalizing and quenching. I got 8 ft of 1/8"X 1" 1084 CRA coming so lets see what happens. ;)
 
ok, you can heat treat it yourself, or you can have it heat treated by a very wide variety of heat treaters hanging around the forums. try and take roger linger up on his heat treating offer before he stops for good.;0
 
I may just do that. ;) The only reason i probably wouldn't is money. An probably not cause he charges alot, but because i'm always broke. :)
 
Just FYI....Lowes rapes you on steel prices. Seriously! I was in there the other day getting electrical supplies to hook my motor up to my new grinder. I needed another couple feet of angle iron to make the motor cradle so I thought I'd go ahead and get some from them instead of the fabricating shop I usually deal with. They wanted $9 for a 3ft peice of 1/8"X1" angle. That would cost more like 2 dollars at the fabricating shop. 69 cents a lb if I remember right from the last time I bought it (no I didn't buy any from them). Thats for hot rolled structural/welding grade stuff though. Tool steel is more expensive, but can be found online pretty easily.
toolanddie.com has the best prices and everyone gives good feedback, but so far I've waited 2 weeks on an order from them and what finally showed up is wrong. So I'm not passing judgement on them until I see how they handle this :grumpy:
 
Rusty the heat treat is the “heart” of the blade.
A great looking knife is just that “great to look at”.

When it comes to using, a proper heat treat is what counts. I would hate to spend all that time grinding, filing and polishing a blade and knock a big hunk out of it the first time it was used. :eek:

Keep studying and you will come to the same conclusion.

Welcome to the opsession. ;)

Joe Foster
 
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