Working Short Pieces of Tool Steel

[woodtick]

A buddy of mine who works in a welding/machine shop gave me 2 small pcs of tool steel like the one in the picture that I want to use to make some kitchen knives.



My problem is how to handle these small pieces before they're drawed to a workable length that can be handled with tongs.
The easy solution that I could come up with was getting some flat bar or rod welded to them for handles.
But what about annealing, if I get the handles welded on after it is annealed will the electic welding ruin the annealling process,
or if I get them welded on before will the heat from annealing weaken the welded joints?

Anybody have any ideas to throw at me!

[HWooldridge]

Weld on a piece of mild steel for the handle and do most of the forging, then cut off the bar and the welded area. It will work just fine.

[Tyler Murch]

Why does it need to be annealed? It doesn't! I'm not sure why some people do so, but there's no need. Just normalize a few times before hardening.

[SteveA]

Seems to me he's talking about the state of the material *now* when he says it's annealed. I know the specs for 4140, for example, strongly recommend doing any electric welding in the annealed state. If it is 4140, by the way, not an ideal knife material. Or, if he is talking about annealing after welding, no, annealing or normalizing won't hurt the weld.

If it was me, I'd do just what the others suggested and weld on a piece to handle the stuff until I could forge it out into a bar.

Steve

[Chris Pook]

heat it up to a dull red and mig weld the handle on while its still hot, should help keep the handle on there longer before it cracks off.

[ThomasPowers]

I'd just grab it with a pair of tongs that will hold it on the sides and use reign clips to get a good grip and forge it down. I don't see the problem with using tongs---could you explain?

Now if you want fun try forging down lare ball bearings...

Thomas

[Nolano]

Well, thomas, from the looks of it, that piece is maybe 3-4 inches long. I dont know about anyone else, but at that point tongs start to become annoying, and for something that short, it would be much easier to weld a handle on.

[Glenn]

BP1004 Woop Tongs by Uri Hofi

Cut the steel to length (in this case 5/8 x14" to hold 2"square bar). Steel for the tongs is 1045.





Woop tongs holding a 2x2" piece of steel.


Thanks to Uri Hofi for BP1004 Woop Tongs.

[woodtick]

The steel is not annealed yet.

The guy that gave me the pieces picked them up as leftovers from a job. He didn't have the paperwork to know the ##### of the steel, he just said that "it was a tool steel and it was hard enough that it could not be machined without annealling." (his exact words).
They are painted lime green on the ends, but I guess that don't mean too much since different companies have their own system of marking.
If it's any good for making knives, I have no idea!

The pieces are 2 1/2 x 1 1/2 x 1

[lefthand forge]

Hi woodtick. annealed or not an arc welder or forge wont care. As Chris Pook said heat to dull red and weld a porter bar on. By the way try to make sure that the material is nice and flat on the anvil when you hit it or the leverage created will tear your weld apart pretty quick no matter how good it was. If you have access to a grinder of some kind you might consider spark testing your material before wasting a lot of time forging down a block that size by hand. Also don't forget to leave yourself enough extra material to do some quench testing before trying to heat treat a blade of mystery steel.


Hope this helps
John