Re-Smelting Grinder leftovers? (powder)

M

mgysgthath

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Dec 15, 2009
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Anyone ever tried to take the powder leftovers from knife grinding and melt them into a liquid and form new bar stock out of it? I can easily melt steel in a coal forge, so I was wondering about reusing the "Waste" from grinding. Especially grinding profiles. The reason I ask is I've seen damascus billets made from powder steel, and I'd guess this wouldn't be much different.
 
Well assuming I cleaned out my grinders dust trap (it catches it in a hinged bucket basically) before, it would be 99% metal and some belt grit probably. Which I presume will either sink or float during the smelting process. Or burn off, in the case of wood or glues.
 
I think if you went dumpster diving behind the local repair shops, you could pickup

Hundreds of pounds of chainsaw chains & machinery roller chains.
 
Well assuming I had a bucket full of 5160 powder, with very few impurities, I wouldn't really consider it wootz which was more defined by it's random characteristics.. and I already had a coal forge running which could melt it in a matter of minutes, is it theoretically possible? That's all I'm wondering. The reason I got on the line of thought is because when cutting blanks with a band saw (which I don't have at the moment), those extra scraps could be forge welded and made into something useful again. With powder it seems like it could be done, if even to use it in a mosaic damascus can possibly. Thanks for your input guys.
 
I think bandsaw filings would work.

Grindings? I doubt it.
Think off all those sparks, the iron and carbon burn to slag.

I suppose you could reduce that iron oxide back to iron, but then you may as well start with hundreds of pounds of sand ore.

http://www.darkcompany.ca/iron/
 
1234 I think you're right on the money there, I forgot to take into account the fact the steel is pretty fragged by the heat in the grinding process.
 
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