Scrap stainless suitable for blades?

G

grumpy_grinder

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Oct 2, 2015
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After doing some research there isn't a whole lot a person can do to determine the exact kind of steel of found remnant pieces of steel. I have access to free scrap pieces of stainless in different widths. I doubt these are tool quality steels. I'm just wondering if these scrap pieces would make suitable blades. I could maybe try to do a hardening test , heat it until a magnet doesn't stick them let it cool on free air? I'm going to be honest , I'm far from a metallurgist and I don't exactly know steel characteristics when it comes to heating and cooling of different types. Any information would help. I'm not into selling blades , and most likely will never. I'm just looking to practice and don't want to spend money on tool steel until I have a better idea what I'm doing and have my techniques down to a "T".

Cheers

Grumpy_grinder
 
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unknown steel is almost never worth the time
if its for sure a knife worthy steel and you can get a 500lb batch of it it may be worth workign out the HT
you are talking SS and the liklyhood that yu find a knife grade in mass in scrap is slimm
 
I've made some crude bait knives in junior high shop class. Unknown scrap. They won't win any awards but I still use them to cut up bait. Fun stuff and good mojo.
 
Butch is right again ! We have good suppliers who have the right steels in the right sizes allyou need is to figure out how to HT it.
 
If you don't know what kind of steel it is how do you expect to make a good blade. On the other hand just figure it will be junk , enjoy spending the making time and materials used and now since you know it's junk just throw it away. What would you want it for? It's going to be the worst piece of work you will ever make and not one you can hold up and say it's "just junk you know and I know that because I never even bothered to find out what type of steel the blade is made of. It could even be tin".
Zowee ! Are you really asking us who try to give you information on the steel when you can't even tell us what we should tell you about? Crazy man, Crazy.
Frank
 
Frank Niro said:
If you don't know what kind of steel it is how do you expect to make a good blade. On the other hand just figure it will be junk , enjoy spending the making time and materials used and now since you know it's junk just throw it away. What would you want it for? It's going to be the worst piece of work you will ever make and not one you can hold up and say it's "just junk you know and I know that because I never even bothered to find out what type of steel the blade is made of. It could even be tin".
Zowee ! Are you really asking us who try to give you information on the steel when you can't even tell us what we should tell you about? Crazy man, Crazy.
Frank
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No frank slow down a sec here and give my post another read. First of all I'm not looking to make a quality blade to sell or keep ... I'm more looking for practice material that might be able to form a half decent blade in the process of practicing. I'm asking if it would be worth my time try a couple of harden tests on a few pieces of scrap stainless. I'm just getting into this hobby and I'm in it for myself ... Not sales or show. I'm not ready to commit into buying too much at the moment. I figured a couple of free pieces of scrap stainless might be ideal to practice on if they might make a half decent blade to keep and use here and there once finished until the next piece is finished. What better way to learn then practice and learn from mistakes.For me to ask what kind of steel it is is absurd ... So back to my original post , is there some kind of small test I can do to see if some of this steel might be worth while or should I just stick to files for now ...
 
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Thanks butch , I'd like a bit more practice before butchering good quality tool grade steel.i'm using files for now , I get Nicholson's for free. I'm only on my second knife and haven't even finished my first. I don't exactly have a set methods or a dedicated work space yet ... My leather work takes up most of my room. I'm still in the learning phase for heat treating and metallurgy aspect of knife making.
 
Usually scrap stainless is of the 3xx series, not hardenable. For learning I would buy the cheapest sheet and start from there.
You'll learn how to grind, HT, and then if you finish the knife, you'll be able to use it and know what to change and what to improve.


Pablo
 
Buy some 1080 or 1084 carbon steel and practice with. Then if you surprise yourself and turn out a decent blade then you can harden it and keep it and it will make a great knife. Also it it doesn't turn out perfect you can still heat treat it and see how your heat treat is, snap it in half and look at the grain.
Just my thoughts.
 
PEU said:
Usually scrap stainless is of the 3xx series, not hardenable. For learning I would buy the cheapest sheet and start from there.
You'll learn how to grind, HT, and then if you finish the knife, you'll be able to use it and know what to change and what to improve.


Pablo
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thanks pablo
 
from a cost stand point buying 1080 or the like will be much better less all you plan on doing with the files is holing they are not case hardened and jsut tempeig them back then grinding a blade from them
soon as you even think about heat treating anything its better to jsut start with known steel
i made a hand full of file knives about 15 years ago and now have got back and destroyed all but 3 of them my early SS knives were 440c and HTed by the local tool and die and as ugly as they were at least they were mostly HTed right.
grinding annealed steel will use less belts so you will get more practice per belt using known cheap steel. then if you get a shape and grind you mostly like then go about having it HTed you will be so far ahead in the long run
 
Stainless and Carbon steels Heat Treat at very different temperatures....Carbon can be done and tested at non-magnetic (1080-1084 around 1450-1475 F) Stainless is quite a bit different and requires a much higher temperatures (1895-2150 F). Without the use of a High Temp furnace its likely you are wasting your time trying to harden that unknown Stainless Steel....if you are going to try and make a usable knife in the end its best to try some known Carbon steel or even an old file you will be able to heat treat at home. As Pablo mentioned if you are going to spend the time try to make something that in the end will actually be usable why waste your time and energy to just be disappointed. Take your time make something you might be proud of in the end. Good Luck
 
You could use the scraps for fittings and such... Sure, you really don't know what the type of stainless it is, but if you're not selling them that really doesn't matter too much anyway.
If it'll take a polish use it for butt caps, guards spacers and the like...
 
Go to Alpha Knife Supply. You can talk to Jessica she knows her way around. They \have small pieces of different metals available at very reasonable prices.1080 is a great starting choice.
Frank
 
Try sticking a magnet to it without heating. 3xx series steels are generally not magnetic at room temperature. If it sticks, and you have a fairly large supply of the same material, you can have it tested for about $50, to see what grade it is. 3xx series are generally not hardenable, except by cold rolling. You can use them for guards and such.
 
By the time you grind down(belts ~$4-7 ea.),handle material(~$5-10 ),pins,etc...Really imo total waste of time.
 
jsut remember proper steel and heat treated blade no matter how ugly is still a knife a blade that cant hold an edge is jsut a letter opener not matter how nice it looks
 
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