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I Forge Iron

Heavy equipment part Alloy ID


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I picked up probably a dozen pins from the quarry I got my anvils from. I assume they are for holding on bucket teeth or something along those lines. There are some shown in the picture below. on the ground to the right.

IMG_0577.thumb.jpg.6e5b545d9ab4f6ade8e6b

all I really know is they are HARD! It takes a lot of effort to move the material around. I'm assuming some sort of high carbon steel. but I really don't know for sure. Any suggestions? Quarrydog I'm counting on you here.

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im almost 100% sure they would be a chrome molly alloy making them hard and wear resistant. i guess it would make a good knife being wear resistant.

in reality carbon is used but i think you will find things like chrome, nickel and molybdenum have much more effect on the steel then carbon.

the problem with carbon in applications today ( in my opinion) is it relys on heat treatment/ tempering to give it the quality's you want. it is easier to just make an alloy that don't need to be temped. It also means that unlike carbon steel it is more permanent. Hardened carbon steel can become annealed for example if exposed to heat.

so anyway i think they would be a chrome moly alloy

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They have some sort of retention grove on them. but it's not as pronounced as those cat ones. May be why they were discarded.

I'd be interested in trying to make a knife out of them, but there is no  way I'm doing that without a power hammer.

Tough is probably the word I'm looking for. The material just doesn't want to move. I'm not sure when I'll get a forge fired up again, but when I do I'll let you know what effects it has.

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  • 2 weeks later...

if you could find out the tensile strength grade of the pins it would help.

If it is class 12.9 it will be an alloy steel

If it is class 10.9 there is a choice of three options medium carbon steel, medium carbon alloy steel and low carbon boron steel. you should be able to spark test and compare a medium carbon steel and a low carbon boron steel with bits of known steel from your scrap pile. its a cross between educated guess and process of elimination. I daresay you already know its not medium carbon from experience.

as for what alloy it might be to meet 12.9 spec, it is not designed to wear or resist abrasion or corrosion so all of those are out of the picture and it is a throw away one use item. the manufacturer is going to keep the costs down, that eliminates all the fancy expensive stuff. There is not a lot of options left.

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