What Kind of Steel?

[AKHammonds]

A quick one. When I go to my local steel supplier and buy "mild steel" what am I most likley to get???

Thanks
Allen

 

[Fletch Helical]

Nothing you can make a knife out of if that's what your wondering. It's likely 1018 and doesn't have enough carbon in it to harden.

 

[AKHammonds]

Yes, I knew it did not have enough carbon to may a knife, just wanted to know the number.....

Thanks

 

[12345678910]

A36

1018 if you are lucky

 

[SCMknives]

more likely A36....I've heard if you etch the "mild steel" from Home depot you can see bolts and stuff....maybe a myth, but I thought it was funny.

 

[hellgap]

mostlikely 1018

 

[Kevin R. Cashen]

A36, the stuff would have to be very old to be 1018 as they wouldn't waste a real alloy steel on that cheap structural stuff. If one wants 1018 they must go to a steel supplier and specifically ask for it and, as always, be certain to get the chemistry on it; this is what I have done to get actual 1018 for metallurgical testing.

A36 is much like rebar in that it is kind of like hot dog steel and you don't really want to know what goes into it because anything can. People need to be much more aware of how steel alloys are made for their applications and how this does not always translate over into other applications. For rebar all they give a flying flip about is tensile strength, so they dump whatever junk they have into the cauldron and see what the resulting mess tensile tests at, if it meets the minimum it works for that application. So it can have any amount of anything in it as long as it meets that minimum.

Some folks are going to have to check their blood pressure after reading this but the same is becoming more true of 5160 all the time Its cleanliness and heat treating properties are becoming to unpredictable, and I am getting to where I no longer want any of the stuff near my shop. All it has to do is meet the bare mimimum for springs, which offers very little for properties of cutting tools.

A36 is much the same, and they will dump anything into it to get the volume as long as it meets the minimum specs for structural work, which doesn't resemble blade applications in any way shape or form. As for the urban myths about finding old screws bolts and other things inside of A36... well many years ago before I was a full time knifemaker I spent long days cutting steel in a yard of a structural ironworks shop and I ran a lot of this stuff through a huge band saw. One would have to start the feed very carefully because when the blade first made contact it could cut like butter, or it could strip all the teeth off. The ones that tore up the blades often had interesting surprises inside. And yes we did see outlines of old threaded objects occasionally; apparently there are some drawbacks to the direct melting process that electro-arc furnaces made possible.