beat

Al was used for "killing" the steel.

What do the codes on rebar represent? What are the percentages of carbon and maganese?


I'm aware that it is a medium to low carbon steel with some amount of maganese and that it isn't the ideal material for blades, but I've found rebar to harden up nearly as well as spring steel. I heard from an old timer that maganese improves its' ability to harden. Is this true?

My heat treating process:

*coal-forge heated and forged with a nearly sharp bevel. (slight case hardening from carborizing coal fire and pounding into edge?)
*normalize/hot filing, 1 or 2 times.
*heat edge to critical temp and quench in light oil (water seems to get it too brittle)
*rainbow temper with spine in the blue/purple range, and edge yellow

Thanks for any shared knowledge or suggestions.