Steel Supplier Alternative?

ddavelarsen

ddavelarsen

Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Messages
5,179
I've been buying my steel from Admiral, but have just about had it. The bars I received recently were not even close to straight, and the packaging itself was ludicrously difficult to open. The lady taking my order was surly and I still don't know how much they charged me in total... All in all, I'm not happy and life's too short.

Where do you all buy steel?

Thanks,
Dave
 
Dave,
www.mcmaster.com -They seem to want your business, receive orders from them faster and they've called me a couple of times when they had questions about my e-mails.

Bill
 
I just checked out that site and they want $114.11 for a 6' x 1 1/2" x 3/16" piece. Admiral gets $52.30 for the same size. For $9.51 less you can get 12' from Admiral. I've never had any problem with Admiral and for the price difference it's worth it to me to saw the end of the tube off. If anyone knows of a better source please post it, I'm all for saving money.
 
Yeh,Checked there site in dibelieve of the price thats for ats 34 Not precision ground,I get it cheaper here in Canada from downie knife supply.
 
You might want to try pacific steel. My system's down now and that's where I have the number but if you do a search here for them., I've posted the number several times. I've never had one minutes problem with them and their prices are like Admirals.
 
Admiral is ok, yes. But theres a reason that they are inexpensive (You don't get something for nothing.) They do not commit to supplying steel (at least to me) compliant to ASTM manufacture or AISI property specs. My heat results showed Chromium in my 1084. Dis' ain't right. Not according to my ASM Metals Handbook and library of ASTM specs at least. Now, I am not particularly concerned here. After all I'm using my freekin' eyeball and a hardware store magnet to determine transformation temp. I'm just making anyone who might be extreemly particular about it, aware of the possibility that this is how they save money.
McMaster Carr sends compliancy certs and heat results and their stuff is on the money. But I use admiral as well because it moves just as well under the hammer. To each his own.
 
SAW ??
Just take out the screws & pop
the cap out. Hell I even save the screws
they are just drywall screws:rolleyes:
 
For precision ground stainless I go with Sheffields. For regular steels or precision ground 01 I buy from Admiral.I've never had a problem with their service or shipping.I always get the order within a week and I like the shipping tubes because I use them for shipping blades to heat treat or knives to customers. If someone was rude to you or your steel was bent up when delivered, contact Terry Summer in the sales office, he will take care of it.
 
Maybe a tough package is a blessing.

Material I've received that was easy to open/unwrap, usually was before I got it.
 
Michael, have you tried MSC for O1? I find their prices to be well below Admiral for precision ground.

Fox
 
Here's one example...

This is the price per foot of 440C, 1/8 X 1 1/2 hot rolled and annealed. Don't forget that different places have different rates for shipping. Steel can be expensive to ship. This weighs .74 lbs/foot.

A 4 dollar range in price is quite a bit.

TKS $8.00
Koval $6.34/ft (listed as $9.50 for 18 inches in their catalog)
K&G $5.95
Jantz $9.95
Admiral $6.90/ft (listed as $10.35 for 18 inches in their catalog)
Sheffields $6.19/ft (listed as $ 9.25 for 18 inches in their catalog)

The moral of the story, shop around.

C Wilkins
 
the lady there is a bit of a schrew! so i just deal with terry summer's. they cut my blanks for my rhino chop, and steak/paring knives. one thing i am learning is the cost of the steel is considered after i have worked some. i have had ats-34 with really hard scale bark that was such a pain to clean up that it envoled too much labor. thats one of the things i like about BG-42 (from admiral) is that its so clean, hot rolled? . cleans up quickly
 
I think the moral of this thread is to shop each steel for its best price...not exactly the answer I was hoping for! :D

Thanks for the input.

Dave
 
I suggest you shop for steel based on getting the best service and material you can, and ignore price. In the final analysis, steel is cheap no matter where you buy it, but if you have to waste belts to clean up scale or get a knife completely done and find flaws in the steel, it is not a bargain. I buy exclusively from Crucible Steel in Arlington, TX. They have 154CM (currently better and cleaner than ATS-34), S30V, and CPM-3V, all of which I use, as well as a bunch of other steels at excellent prices if you buy in some quantity. All their steel is descaled and clean. They will also cut steel to specs. For example I buy steel in half sheets (24 x 36") and have it cut into 4" strips. I can easily handle the strips for sawing and get much better yields than I got with 1-1/2" or 2" bar stock.

Call Bruce DiVita: 800-365-1168

BTW, S30V is both cheaper and IMHO better than BG-42.
 
Dave
The reason I went with mcmaster was the quality, I would put 6-8 hrs forging , heat treating and sanding to a mirror finish, 5160 from admiral, just to have to junk the blade because it would be full of trash left from the rollers when hot rolled. I was getting cleaner and nicer looking blades from old leaf springs.
I had a piece of 52100 from admiral and compared it to mcmasters 52100, same size, forged and heat treated the same, mcmasters steel would perform all my tests with enough significant difference in edge holding and blade strength that its worth the extra money to me.
I like saving money, as much as the next guy, but not if its going to take away from the performance of my knives. Like it was stated before "to each his own" but even though a suppliers steel might have the same name and numbers, it doesn't mean its all equal.
I haven't compared any other of admirals steels with anyone elses, they might be of equal quality, but if you think all steels are equal, no matter how sells them, do some rope cutting and bend tests with your blades, you might be terribly surprised.
These opinions are my own, concluded from my experiences, we all have our own opinions of what we expect from a knife, but mine is to make the best and toughest blade I can. ;)

Bill
 
Bill,You have made a very good point,;many for the steel come from different manufactors ,,,and are therefore not necessary the same ,blade finish and performance vary,hence you get what you pay for..as for ats 34 i believe it is only made by Hatachi, if there are differences in t;his steel i sure would like to find out.
 
this is why ed fowler say's once you find a batch you like, buy as much as possible. there can be a diff, in ats-34 or any steel. i won't buy close outs or discounted for the most part.
 
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