Total noob question-metal testing anaylsis

[bmilla35]

Hey everyone!

I don't think I ever posted in this section, so please cut me some slack as I don't know much (if anything).

So, my Grandfather had a found impact on both my cousin and my life. Every summer, for a few days each week, our Grandparents would take us up to the family camp and we would do all sorts of fun projects/activities. Sadly, he died 16 years ago due to a rare blood-illness (and possibly Legionnaire's Disease, but that doesn't matter).

Now that we're getting older, and even realizing just HOW much he influenced our lives, we decided to try and commemorate him by making a knife utilizing materials from around the property. For the handle, we were hoping to use the head of a steel maul he crafted in the 70's. We also plan on finding a nice section of burl to be treated as a suitable handle material. Anyways, I have been around the forums and watched enough tv shows (aka Forged In Fire) to know that not all steel is suitable for a quality knife. I would love to have a sample tested, and was wondering if guys had any good hints on where to get it done.

My cousin has a friend who can run a sample through his company for free, but it only lists the elements involved and lists them in descending order by weight. I don't know if that's good enough, or if proportions are necessary.

Any help in the matter would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[skillgannon]

If he is using a PMI gun he will be able to tell you the percentage of alloy in the material. Depending on how many elements his unit can sense you may get a match to a known alloy. The down side is that he will not be able to see the carbon content . You may be able to make a good guess if there is enough alloy to point to a type of steel. Just add up what you can see and the missing percentile should be your carbon. That's a lot of ifs though. Simple steels are hard to match with PMI. Make sure that you clean the area well by grinding with clean abrasives. Don't use anything like a wire wheel or used abrasives because they will show up in the test. You might as well try it and see what you get. It might give you a starting point . If it doesn't work you can try spark testing or making test coupons and see if it will harden.

 

[bmilla35]

If he is using a PMI gun he will be able to tell you the percentage of alloy in the material. Depending on how many elements his unit can sense you may get a match to a known alloy. The down side is that he will not be able to see the carbon content . You may be able to make a good guess if there is enough alloy to point to a type of steel. Just add up what you can see and the missing percentile should be your carbon. That's a lot of ifs though. Simple steels are hard to match with PMI. Make sure that you clean the area well by grinding with clean abrasives. Don't use anything like a wire wheel or used abrasives because they will show up in the test. You might as well try it and see what you get. It might give you a starting point . If it doesn't work you can try spark testing or making test coupons and see if it will harden.

Thanks for your response. I never would have thought about using clean abrasives, etc.

I agree that it can't hurt to see what the free test tells us. I realize this is a strange circumstance, but for those that wouldn't buy steel with a known composition from a reputable company, is the spark test the next step? Have others sent steel out for testing?