steel identification help

Fitzo,
When I asked about the ">" symbol, I was told that it was more or less a flag for the user to alert them of something WAY outside the normal range of specs for the garde that they are currently making. This could mean that there was a bad sample or that the tech should test again. He said that it did not mean that the reading was inaccurate, just out of the norm. We make seamless pipe for the oil industry. It is used as drill casing for drilling oil wells. So it is easy to see why a steel of this nature would get flagged.
I watched the testing and the tech ran the test 3 times, which is standard procedure. The numbers printed are the average of the 3 tests. All 3 test were nearly identical which he said was a tribute to accuracy of the test.
Hope this answers some of your questions. I think the important question has still to be answered: Should he try to make a knife from it and how would someone propose to HT it?:confused:
Matt
 
Thanks for the explanation, Matt. Every instrument manufacturer and every software is different. I just thought it worth mentioning to cover the bases.

I hope you get to find out the history on this metal; it is intruiging.

I wish I could help with HT suggestions, but this is way beyond my grasp. For me, it would be a series of experiments with small tabs, bracketing temps to narrow it down. He may not have that much steel. :(
 
Looking at the whole list - you had left out Boron for one .Despite the 'small ' amount that is a very significant amount and would raise the hardenability significantly ! They are doing more and more with additions of small amounts of alloying elements in steels today. I'd like very much to find who made it and why !
 
Wow, I didn't realize I was starting such a mess. Since you guys seem to be having fun with it I won't apologize too much.

I do want to thank Matt again for testing these pieces for me. This has been a great help to me sir!

Actually, the other steel I sent Matt was the sentimental one. This one came from a machine shop the was clearing out stock. A friend brought me this along with some slotting saw blades but, had no idea what it was. So I'm assuming it must be an industry steel of some source. I don't have much of it, maybe 6-8 8" bars but, I'd be glad to share Fitzo.
:D
 
I have spent several hours with Google this afternoon and can't find a danged thing steel that should have much more than 0.3% Cerium in it. It may be there for some purpose other than to contribute to it's "steel properties".

Mete, is it possible that it's intended as a special-purpose castable steel that would have some free graphite? Never really meant to be heat treated?

J., that is kind of you to offer, but this is beyond my meager abilites. :) That is one heckuva pretty knife in your signature, BTW.:thumbup:
 
I started out life at Timken where they made their graphitic tools steels which I did a lot of work with. They had about 2 % Si to get some of the carbon in the form of graphite..... Is there enough for experimenting ? I would start out heat treating it the same as A2 since it is similar.
 
HT'ing with an oven is out for me. All I use to date is my forge. I was thinking of pounding out a piece this weekend and seeing what happens.
:confused:

Fitzo, my skills are pretty meager also. I'm just too stubborn to quite. Thanks for the kind words on that bowie, too. Just sold her last month.
:thumbup:
 
mdoyle said:
Hi all,
I tested a piece of "mystery steel" 2 days ago for J. Neilson and I am having trouble matching the numbers from the analysis to any steel I have numbers for.There are some of the stainless steels I do not have numbers for, but I have quite a few and it doesn't come close to anything I have numbers for. A while back someone posted a GREAT chart here with almost any steel you can think of and its industry specs, but I didn't save it and sure can't find it now. I will post the numbers from the analysis and maybe someone can help out.

C 1.68%
Mn 0.66%
P 0.030%
S 0.008%
Si 0.57%
Ni 0.25%
Cr 3.72%
Mo 0.814%
V 0.72%
W 0.045%
Fe 84.86%

Thank you all in advance and if anyone knows the chart I'm referring to PLEASE send it my way.
Matt Doyle
Click to expand...

it looks alot like an old proprietory steel from bethleham called AH-T.... one of the very early air hardening tool steels.... it may air harden just fine from the 1550 range, or need to go up to the 1750 range..

good luck w/ it
skintback
 
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