What Kind of Steel Could This Be?

T

T.O. Rye

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Feb 9, 2014
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I recently found an old saw blade at my local hardware store that was supposedly used to cut aluminum when it was in use, it appeared to be slightly under a quarter inch thick and about 2-2.5 feet wide with fairly large cutting teeth. Any ideas what type of steel this might be?
 
Could be virtually anything really. Is there any rust on it and are the teeth simply sharpened or are they carbide? If it's large enough and free, you could look at maybe having a piece tested.
 
It didn't appear to have any rust on it, so it might be some variety of stainless steel. I couldn't see the teeth closely enough to tell for sure if they were carbide or not, but they looked like plain steel as best as I could tell. Could it be some type of alloy steel like L6?
 
Since it is not rusted I would venture that it may be A German DIN2003 steel that is quite common for saw blades. It is 80% carbon, 8% chromium (which accounts for the stainless quality) and a mixture of assorted elements such as silica, pot ash, etc.... . To further expound, it makes excellent knife blades, properly tempered have incredible edge retention.
 
griz1918 said:
Since it is not rusted I would venture that it may be A German DIN2003 steel that is quite common for saw blades. It is 80% carbon, 8% chromium (which accounts for the stainless quality) and a mixture of assorted elements such as silica, pot ash, etc.... . To further expound, it makes excellent knife blades, properly tempered have incredible edge retention.
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I think your decimal point is a couple digits off on that one.

12345678910 said:
$ 0.10 / pound steel
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What he said.

I am still new to this myself and I started just the same as you trying to search out anything I could salvage to make a knife blade out of. Please, just buy some good known knife steel. Even if you can get scrap for free, buying steel will be cheaper. Even if you do come across good high carbon steel in salvage, the cost to anneal it or to cut/shape it hard will be more than what the new steel would have cost you. This is before you even consider the time wasted.

Good luck,
Chris
 
I wouldn't expect much for quality but it wouldn't be a waste to make something out of it to practice grinding, plunges, etc. However if you plan to make knives and learn HT then as others have said, buy some known steel.
 
I don't want that saw blade steel because it's cost effective, I fully understand that the highest quality knives come from high quality steels. I just enjoy repurposing things like this saw blade and making them into useful tools. Would it be easier to just buy a known steel like D2 or 1095? Of course it would, but I like the challenge of working with scrap steel. Not to mention if I want to know exactly what type of steel it is, I can just have a piece of it tested.
Just to be clear I do appreciate all the comments, and I merely want to use this unknown steel to hone my skill at blade making to the point that I can start making knives that are good enough to sell. If/when I do start making knives well enough to sell them, then I will only use known steels that can be reliably heat treated every time. On that note, what steel do yall consider to be the best balance between toughness and sharpness?
 
SALOLAN Are you implying that I am a digit off in my 80%. I am referring to 80% of a total of 100%
 
I understand the thought of recycling something, but you say that being cost effective is not a big deal, and you say you want to hone your skills at making a knife. If you do not know how to properly heat treat the steel because it is unknown how are you going to know what you made is even near quality? Grinding it out is one thing, making it look like a knife is one thing, but if the steel is to brittle or to soft and will not hold an edge or bends/breaks with a little pressure how do you expect to hone your skills? If you're going for a prison shiv then go for but if you want to make a knife than just spend $20 and get some 1080, 1084, etc.

You can practice grinding on some cheap mild steel you can buy at any shop, or find just about any where for free, or wood/fiberglass even, if thats all you're going for.
 
Yeah I suppose you're right. In fact I've started looking at buying some L6 steel from Admiral Steels.
 
griz1918 said:
SALOLAN Are you implying that I am a digit off in my 80%. I am referring to 80% of a total of 100%
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Something that is 80% carbon would look much more like charcoal or graphite than steel. jobasha11 is correct in saying that you meant .8% (yes, less than 1%) which makes your 80% two digits off on the decimal point. Steels that are about .66%-.99% are considered high carbon.

Chris
 
griz1918, You must have looked at blacksmithing. It was/is really common to refer to 80 points of carbon which means 0.8% carbon. The addition of chromium or other alloys will mean that you will need to heat treat starting at a higher temperature for the soak. i.e. you will need to treat it as a stainless.

If it was a simple 10xx steel, eutectoid, then it would be a lot easier. If you decide to try it then get a piece of it analyzed first. And, don't pay some outrageous price for it.
 
It is almost certainly, almost entirely composed of iron. Other than that, it's anybody's guess.
 
Get a piece of it and have it analyzed. If it's good to go, then get all you want. If it's not, then you're just out the cost of the analysis. Mystery steel is only a mystery until you figure out what it is :)
 
I agree with James...it is almost certainly 90% ,or near about, iron. I would describe it as "scrap" steel.

To reinforce the correct mix in steel - 1095 is .95% carbon and 99% iron. The other .05% is alloy content. Most stainless steels are between .5% and 1.5% carbon, 80-85% iron, and 15-20% alloying. It is not a stainless steel unless it has more than 12% chromium.
 
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