Stupid question, Rebar?

T

theAntihero

Joined
Nov 11, 2011
Messages
743
Ive considered trying my hand at making some knives with a super primitive brake drum forge and as a concrete guy i have literally hundreds of scrap pieces of rebar about, any usefulness there? I know its fairly mild but im not even sure if its heat treated or not.

Otherwise ive got a couple old cars with bunches of leaf springs i planned on using.
 
theAntihero said:
Ive considered trying my hand at making some knives with a super primitive brake drum forge and as a concrete guy i have literally hundreds of scrap pieces of rebar about, any usefulness there? I know its fairly mild but im not even sure if its heat treated or not.

Otherwise ive got a couple old cars with bunches of leaf springs i planned on using.
Click to expand...

rebar is no good for knives but, for forging practice it will work. Leaf springs will give you much better results.
 
As chad2 said rebar is no good for a knife, not enough carbon. I have spark tested some and gotten good results doing so. I've made some tools with it and a spearhead. All fun projects and it was free except for the coal and time.
 
Once you've pounded the re-bar for practice, it could be reforged later for fitting up as guards, bolsters or small tools.
 
If you are interested in doing any architectural/artistic blacksmith work, you can do a number of interesting things with rebar. Here is an example I found a few months ago of a rebar snake themed fireplace poker. Admittedly, when I tried to make my own, it did not turn out so well. It was still good practice, though.
 
It's no good for knives, but you could make some tongs, decorative hooks, pokers, etc... from it. Definitely a good practice material.
 
I keep a pile of rebar scraps for when the children want to come out and work in the forge. They make pointy objects, hooks, and decorative shapes. It's pretty easy to forge, so the younger ones are able to see some success.
 
HomeBru said:
I keep a pile of rebar scraps for when the children want to come out and work in the forge. They make pointy objects, hooks, and decorative shapes. It's pretty easy to forge, so the younger ones are able to see some success.
Click to expand...

I hadnt thought about decorative things at all, that does sound fun.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top