Oxy Acetylene damage??

merlin49

merlin49

Joined
Jul 1, 2007
Messages
23
I have some broken leaf springs from trucks and one from an old cat which I want to cut into billets for forging. I know that cutting with oxy acetylene damages the make up of the steel. I have tried cutting with a cut off wheel which just made the spring very hard and ate the wheel. The cat spring is about 1 inch thick. How much extra stock should I leave when making billets?
 
First, are you sure of the quality of the springs before you start? The steel is the cheapest part of a knife. For a $100 bucks I got 10 pieces of 5160 (spring steel) 50"x 1/4" x 1 3/4" delivered from a forum member. Burton can set you up with 5160 and Aldo sent me some 1095, $144 delivered for 6 pieces 50"x 3/8 x 1 1/2". But, anyway you are going to have to forge the cat spring, so, I wouldn't worry about the torch cut. By the time you hit it with the forge, hammer it and then grind it the bits on the edge will be blended in and you will need to leave a bit of meat on the edge for the HT and then grind that off. I wouldn't worry about it if you are using a big enough tip and don't mess around with the torch. Knock the slag and smooth a bit with a grinder and go for it.
 
Thanks for the info. It is just that I have this steel and thought that it would be best to play with while I am figuring things out. If I get to the point of making a Knife to sell I will have to go with a better grade of steel. For know I am just kind of getting a feel for things.
 
After cutting these heavy leaf springs with a torch removing about 1/8" should be fine. Good chance both the truck and the cat spring are 6150 if not 5160. Only bad thing about using springs of this size is the amount of time involved getting it down to a size that can be forged into a blade.
 
Is it all gone? LOL and he was wondering if he could sell it all. It has only been a couple months. Point is good steel can be had at a very reasonable price. I think its going to take Mace and Aldo a week or 2 to get rid of that pile of 1095 and it is good stuff.
 
i have used used springs, torch cut down the middle for most knives i have made. i just make sure the cut edge is the spine of the blade, and have never had any problems. i rough grind the slag off (shouldnt be much if any if you made a good cut) and go from there. from my experience, truck and jeep leaf springs are 5160. coil springs are 10XX of some kind. i really trust leaf springs and have never found one with a crack or any problems. especially if you arent selling them. but i have sold mine.
-Lou
 
ib2v4u said:
Is it all gone? LOL and he was wondering if he could sell it all. It has only been a couple months. Point is good steel can be had at a very reasonable price. I think its going to take Mace and Aldo a week or 2 to get rid of that pile of 1095 and it is good stuff.
Click to expand...

ya, it was gone before Christmas if I remember correctly.
 
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