Being new to this craft I am interested in making some of the tools I will use in the near and far future. While I do not wretch at the concept of buying steel from metal suppliers, I also am in an advantageous spot to hit scrap yards and flea markets.
In reading many of the posts here and elsewhere I see that type of steel is important, as is the method of quenching, hardening, (treatment).
Is there a post, link, or thread/sticky somewhere that I may have missed that roughly matches up grades of steel with their original manufacturing applications, and what recycled/reforged application that steel would then be good for.
Such as: "car axles are X grade, so you could make a _______ out of one"
I have taken note of and downloaded the heat treatment app.
Also, a couple years back at auction I grabbed, along with some 50 cent digging/pry bars, a 5' length of 1 1/2" hex stock with a round, maybe 1 1/8" tenon on one end. What would that be used for. This was in southeastern Pennsylvania farm country.
~grisaille