What Type of Steel does Lowes & Home Depot Sale?

[Superlions123]

I notice there is racks of steel at Lowes & Home depot, Tractor supply, some is marked Hot rolled & very few Cold rolled, but what type is it? 1095, 5160, what type?

I quess it is for welding racks & whatever?

 

[J.McDonald Knives]

Most likely it is nothing more than A36 which is used for welding. It is very low carbon and won't make a good knife. Order from some place like Admiral Steel, Crucible, Pops Knife Supply, Jantz Knife Supply and Texas Knife Supply. They have knife making steels. Also check out www.refractory.elliscustomknifeworks.com for a few links and for supplies.

 

[mete]

Either A36 or 1018 -not for knives. This does have uses though - make a stand for your grinder or drill press.

 

[SteelSlaver]

For the cost of the steel at a hardware store you can go to a real steel yard and buy a 20' length of the same material and as stated it is all "mild" steel. Most yards charge you to cut it down. My pickup has a rack and I can handle the 20" pieces. But the smaller stuff will bend in half if you can't haul it and even if you waste a bit it is still a way way better deal. Mild steel sells by the lb in these places and is currently around 70 cents a lb for most shapes (up from under 30 a few years ago) To figure the weight of steel remember this simple fact. a 12" by 12" piece of 1/4" thick steel weights 10 lbs. With that you can figure out the weight of almost any piece by figuring out how many sq. inches and then doing the math on the thickness. By the way aluminum is right at about 1/3 the weight of steel. The difference beween cold rolled and hot is that when the material is being shaped it is either finished hot or cold. If cold it will be a bit smoother and harder (work hardened not blade type hard)