Possible Steel Deal, Gauging Interest

O

OTK

Joined
Feb 10, 2010
Messages
389
Howdy,
I have seen a few guys here make cable damascus and it gave me an idea.

I work in the steel cord industry, and the incoming material from the mills is in the form of 5.5mm wire rod. We get the rod in 1070, 1080, and 1090 microalloyed with chromium...just a touch. I can get the typical chem analysis of the rod if the interest is there. It is possible I can get some...not sure yet.

The 1090 is either of German or Japanese manufacture. Both rods are excellent, but the Japanese is exceptional steel. This stuff can be drawn down to <.100mm, 1000Km at a time without fracturing.

So...before I go trying to buy a coil I thought I'd see the level of interest here.
 
That could be interesting for making twist damascus. 1070 and 1090 mixed and twisted tight, welded up, then hammered out. IIRC it takes 25 rods to make a basic bundle. 1-6-18

Could you make up the rods as a cable like this at your work place? It would be great to alternate the 1070/1090 rods in the bundle and twist on the cable machine. Then we could take a length and forge weld it up.
Even all 1090 would make a nice bundle ( and would be easier to set up).
 
Sorry guys, no cable here. This facility makes brass coated cords and cables for tires. The rod is drawn to say 2.0mm, heat treated and coated with brass then drawn to very fine diameter and twisted into cords.

The best possible would be the 2.0mm uncoated stuff. I thought there may be interest since it is tough to get Japanese steel.
 
I'm no expert. But, maybe someone else could chime in but I imagine 2mm should work fine. Even 5 mm mixed with it in a can and filled with powder? Hmmmmm.

Would you need to place a large order that would take a financial commitment?
 
Im sorry but I really dont see a practical use for 2mm wire it would be more work then it worth for most. That is just over 1/8 of an inch.I know if I need round stock for damascus I use drill rod it is pretty cheap. Now if the 2mm stock was super cheap like new old stock it might be worth it but new stock will be more then you think.

Brett
 
To Brian and Brett:

I'm not sure it would be practical either as I don't make Damascus. That said I've seen cycle chain and other creative uses of steel with suitable chemistry so I put the question out.

This is not cheap steel. If I want to pursue the deal I'll likely have to buy a mton. From the reaction so far that doesn't look to be the brightest move on my part. As I said I was more approaching this as a unique opportunity to get steel from literally the best mills in the world, not a chance at cheap material.

What is a median price / lb for 1080 or 1090?
 
It is the sort of thing that I would buy $100 of, but that might be years worth of round stock. In one type only, I would go with the Hitachi 1090.

I would make two foot long bundles of 25 or more strands, weld the ends solid, bring up to heat and twist as tight as possible, weld up, draw out, and fold several times. Might end up looking like tamahagane with a super active hada.
 
Tire bead wire is also in the 1080 range

It's a pita to cleanup, but you can get a bit to play with if you pick the wire out of a firepit after burning an old tire.
 
Bead wire is made from the same type of rod, but a much lower grade. More inclusions, impurities, grain boundary segregation etc.
 
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