Dave English

I forgot to add, "when tempered." Good carbon steel, like spring steel, can be slick to an ordinary file if it's been tempered for carving wood. I have to use special stones on my small wood carving tools I made from garage door springs, files can slide off without doing much work. I have a car spring punch that's too hard for a file. As for lawn mower blades, the problem for us to figure out if they normalized a good carbon steel or used a low carbon mild steel for the blade or is something inbetween. As the site I found said, all forms of steel, from mild to tool steel, can be found used in the blades, another site said something about being careful not to lose the temper when sharpening with certain high speed tools. I figure the price of the lawn mower may indicate the quality of the blades, a $49.95 mower is sure to have a mild steel blade, but start investigating the steel quality in the $200 range and above.

I tried to find out what rotary blades are made of and after a while I got the answer, tool steel, carbon steel and mild steel, or just about anything so it's the spark test or even trying out tempering. I know my Snapper blade could be sharpened with a file, so it must have been something like 30 points (30% of 1%). I'm sure it wasn't tempered, if it was 80 point carbon, it wouldn't sharpen with a file and at that rate of carbon, it would spark and chip a lot under the type of impacks the typical lawn mowers run into.

Looks like we are on the same page of newbies to the forum, welcome to you. Sounds like you are new to blacksmithing. I don't live in Georgia, but my family bought their first land there in 1790 in the Gibson area of NE Georgia south of Augusta. I'm in California, spoiled by the good weather almost all my life. My book list is limited, but to understand steel and how to temper types of steel properly, I recommend getting a copy of "Country Blacksmith" by Charles McRaven off of one of the online book stores like Powells or Amazon. It should cost about $15-$20 used, it's out of print. To view styles of knives, I was able to buy "Levine's Guide to Knives and their Values" published in 1985 and 1989 for $6 at a book sale. It's main value now is reference of all the types of knives around the world and of the American knife makers section, it's a paper back but large and 480 pages. Online will be more.

I've had about two years of experiance in blacksmithing. I'm taking classes at the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum in Vista, California, where we enjoy about fifteen forges and anvils. I had a couple of classes at the Grape Day Park in Escondido, but gave it up for the larger Vista site. I may yet join them too because of all the old-timers there. My start in blacksmithing came about when I was doing a wood carving demonstration at Heritage Park in Oceanside, right near the San Louis Rey Mission, when I noticed that there was an empty blacksmith shop, so I talked my way into being the blacksmith. I get in there only once in a while, but when it's open, I'm there. I get school groups coming by once a year, 4th-6th graders, and with my background in prospecting I can entertain and inform the kids about blacksmithing, mining in California and our local gems in Pala. I've published twice in the slick b&w newsletter/magazine for the California Blacksmith Asso., one story each in the last two bimonthy issues. I'm one working forge shy of working at home, I figure this economic downturn is a great time to learn the art of blacksmithing so I'll be ready for when things get better.