unusual spring steel???

atakach

atakach

Joined
Jan 17, 2008
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need some expert advice.(if any of us really are experts)haha
i got this spring when i was rebuilding coke ovens. it came off the spring loaded latch that held the doors on the ovens.while exposed to some pretty high heat i dont thing they really get hot enough to draw any temper from the spring but its possible its some sort of high heat steel.
here's the thing , i had trouble hot cutting this spring so i burt off about six inches of it and went to pounding. very hard steel to get to move even at a yellow heat. then after i had forged a blade from it i slamed it while almost yellow hot into my slack tub and when i pulled it out i put it in the vise and smacked it with a hammer. the hammer bounced off, i ended up quenching it three more times like this and all i could do is bend it over it wont break.

what is it?? spark test reveals some carbon content.

www.takachforge.com
 
4140?? if you quenched at yellow and no cracks then I would expect low to low med carbon. It may have moly in it for added strength.
 
inconel? High chrome high nickel alloy. extremely red hard. Often used in furnaces and nuke power plants. Maybe not as I am not sure it will cut with a torch if thats what you meant by burnt. Always used a plasma on it. Very spendy metal.
 
Inconel, not for a blade. It is too hard to work IMHO for fixtures although it is an unusual material. It is very expensive and would be better to recycle it and get the $$ for it. If you have an electric HT oven the coils are made from it. I am pretty sure you have steel. How hard did it get when you quenched it?? dose a "sharp" as in new, file skate or cut. Have you done any tempering? Also no matter what type it is quenching at a yellow heat created very large grains. It should be normalized and then annealed. Then re HT at proper temps. This might give you an idea of the value as a knife steel. If in doubt about a steel, forge a small section then HT it and see if it will snap off in the Full Hard state. Then look at the grain structure. It should be a dull gray with no large sand like structure. If there is any large grains or it bends rather than breaks even if quenched in brine then it will not make a serviceable knife blade.
 
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