I have been given a bunch of pieces of steel (and have access to a lot more) but am not having much luck figuring out what they are.
A member of my family works at a paper mill nearby and has given me what are shear knives from the mill for cutting paper. Here is the info etched into them:
THE KINETIC CO.
NO. 4050-10.5
MM M-55 .060
These blades are retangular in shape, 10 1/2" (I assume the 10.5 above is the length) long, 1 5/16" wide and about 1/8" thick (I assume the .060 above is the thickness).
I called Kinetic (414-425-8221) and they were less than helpfull. They were very worried that I was going to steal theire secret formula and make millions, so they would not tell me much. They did say the blades are "made from a tool steel and are heat treated", they also said, when I asked them, that "you probably won't be able to anneal them". Not sure what he means by that...
So, any ideas as to what the steel may be? I thought it might be D2, as these blades must take quite a beating in the machines. Has anyone already run across these blades and figured out what they are?
Any tricks or ideas on how I can narrow down what the steel might be?
I have access to a lot of this stuff, and it is the right size for a
small kitchen knives, or for forging together, etc.
He also gave me some large (~18 dia) circular blades, that are etched D2, that are used to cut toilet paper and paper towel "logs" into the length you find them in the store. They are about 1/4" thick in the center, and taper all the way to the edge, so aren't much good for knives, maybe large pizza cutters (or maybe a broad ax). I may try to make some ulus out of them, but have plenty of bandsaw steel for now, and know how much work D2 to is to grind, etc. These blades spin very fast and are attached to an arm that itself spins. They cut through paper like butter. Not a machine I would want to fall into... When they get to dull or ground down (there is an automatic sharpener that sharpens them as they are in motion) they are removed, stacked in 55 gal barrels, sealed and sold as scrap.
Thanks,
Brome
A member of my family works at a paper mill nearby and has given me what are shear knives from the mill for cutting paper. Here is the info etched into them:
THE KINETIC CO.
NO. 4050-10.5
MM M-55 .060
These blades are retangular in shape, 10 1/2" (I assume the 10.5 above is the length) long, 1 5/16" wide and about 1/8" thick (I assume the .060 above is the thickness).
I called Kinetic (414-425-8221) and they were less than helpfull. They were very worried that I was going to steal theire secret formula and make millions, so they would not tell me much. They did say the blades are "made from a tool steel and are heat treated", they also said, when I asked them, that "you probably won't be able to anneal them". Not sure what he means by that...
So, any ideas as to what the steel may be? I thought it might be D2, as these blades must take quite a beating in the machines. Has anyone already run across these blades and figured out what they are?
Any tricks or ideas on how I can narrow down what the steel might be?
I have access to a lot of this stuff, and it is the right size for a
small kitchen knives, or for forging together, etc.
He also gave me some large (~18 dia) circular blades, that are etched D2, that are used to cut toilet paper and paper towel "logs" into the length you find them in the store. They are about 1/4" thick in the center, and taper all the way to the edge, so aren't much good for knives, maybe large pizza cutters (or maybe a broad ax). I may try to make some ulus out of them, but have plenty of bandsaw steel for now, and know how much work D2 to is to grind, etc. These blades spin very fast and are attached to an arm that itself spins. They cut through paper like butter. Not a machine I would want to fall into... When they get to dull or ground down (there is an automatic sharpener that sharpens them as they are in motion) they are removed, stacked in 55 gal barrels, sealed and sold as scrap.
Thanks,
Brome
