Woody

I don't recommend it, mild steel does not have enough carbon in it to be hardened sufficiently for a knife blade. A lot of people use a plain high carbon steel like 1095 and a nickel steel like 15N20 or L-6 for damascus. This gives a lot of contrast when etched.

Many things affect steel prices like all other materials. 1. Supply and Demand. With the world economy the way it is, demand is down in most places. Prices have come down considerably in the last year or so. Still if you are bididng a project, current pricing is esential and placing a time limit on the bid price is crutial. Prices can change enough in a short period of time to make a project much less profitable. 2. Proximity to the source, transportation costs are a major factor in the price of anything these days. 3. Where it was produced. Several years ago I priced some steel for a project my daughter in Texas was considering. I called several suppliers and one told me that if I wanted to use steel from Pakistan it would be cheaper than stuff produced here. 4. Competition is also a factor, those who live in more populated areas with many sources of supply are more likely to get a break on prices than those who live in rural areas with only one or two sources. You are wise to shop around. A couple phone calls can save you a lot of money. Another thing to consider is if the steel is stored inside or out. I bought some channel that was stored outside from a different supplier than I normally use. This stuff was so rusty it took me several days to clean it up so that I could use it. My normal supplier was out of what I needed and couldn't get the material by the time I needed it. Time is money.

don't know nett, some virus programs read embedded codes as virus no matter what the code is. Norton once read the embedded header on MS word documents at a virus. All the header consisted of was the name of the company I worked for at the time. Incidently the only time I got a virus was when I was running Norton, it didn't recognize it when it came in, found it but couldn't deal with it in a scan, and it cost me $150 with the geek squad to get rid of it. McAfee wasn't much better, all it did was make things run slow. I have "The Shield Delux" now seems to be a great program, scans everything including web sites before it will connect.

I just checked it no virus, your virus program must be reading some of the junk that runs at the top of the page on the free site as virus.

AM ain't no virus on either page, don't know what your virus blocker mis read but they do that some times.

I did a google search on torsion bar "steel composition" got tons of hits. Even got a patent which gave the analysis of some. From the analysis, except for some vanadium in the torsion bar, the composition is very similar to 5160. I have made several knives out of the torsion bar from a Toyota and it hardens nicely and holds a fine edge. Woody

The instructions for constructing said sword are here" Hanson Custom Knives - A Bravenet.com Hosted Site Hanson Custom Knives - A Bravenet.com Hosted Site

Nice Ramp Jr. my prayers are still with both of you. Tell Cookie hi for me, hope she gets to come home soon

how big are the disks. You can make nice flowers out of them.

I was in Bill's shop in the early 70s and he was making pattern welded blades then, he showed me a "Persian Fighter" with a Fiddleback Maple handle and scabbard with silver wire inlays he has just finished.

principal metals does not list 1084 but they list forging temperatures for 1075 and 1095 as follows so I would think that if you kept 1084 within the ranges listed everything would be fine since the forging range is very similar for both steels and 1084 would fall between the two. 1075: Forge at 2200 F down to 1700 F. It is important to do an annealing operation after forging. 1095: Forging may be done at 2150 F down to 1750 F. Before forging the steel should be given a full anneal at 1650 F and slow cool so as to homogenize the alloy prior to forging.

Remember the longer the hoses the more gas you will loose when turn off the tanks and bleed the hoses after use. If you do not turn off the tanks and bleed the hoses, acetylene can deterioriate the hose after time and cause it to leak. The leak is usually found when the first person thru the door in the morning hits the light switch which ignites a room full of flammable gas.

"i just ground a groove and welded a very strudy handle onto it, it will cut a stone. or more precise, blast it into a thousand piece when it hit, and no damaga to the blade," I have a 10 lb sledge hammer that will do the same thing but it don't cut the rock

I have a list of the usual type of steels found in various pieces of junkyard steels, ie. springs, axles etc and I have a chart that shows the compositions of many types of steel if you send me youe email addrese via the private message feature on this forum I will email it to you. It is in MS Word Format Woody

Glenn, Can you do that again and take pictures I would like to see that :)

Another word of caution if you use antifreeze remember that antifreeze is a combustable liquid and further the vapors are not all that good for you "Vapor inhalation is generally not a problem unless heated or misted. Exposure to vapors over an extended time period has caused throat irritation and headache. May cause nausea, vomiting, dizziness and drowsiness. Pulmonary edema and central nervous system depression may also develop. When heated or misted, has produced rapid, involuntary eye movement and coma."

A while back I posted this link and it got made into a sticky, but with the updates it seems to have been dropped so I thought I would post it again. It is very useful information and will help to dispell some of the myths, alchemy and mis-information that abounds in knifemaking circles. http://www.feine-klingen.de/PDFs/verhoeven.pdf

Last Friday, anyone who logged into chat was routed directly into Knife Chat, some of these people didn't want to go to Knife Chat. Route all chatters into the main chat room and let the ones that want to go to Knife Chat get there by themselves.

A vis it to Jr.s shop, and basement are an education in themselves. The things you see there will leave you awe struck.

Nice Work Finnr

It works for me, must be something wrong with your computer. You could always do it the old fashioned way and type principalmetals.com into your browser bar and hit the enter key.

pearlite is a type of insulation material similar to vermiculite. It is very fine and spherical in shape like little perals, hence the name.

all my gillotine tools are super quenched mild steel, they have been holding up for years.

Thermite welding is done under very controlled conditions by people who know what they are doing. If you must persist in this endevoir, please clear everybody out of the immediate area that way if you become a candidate for a Darwin Award you don't have a group rate and take a bunch of people with you.

1. Know what type of steel you are dealing with either by purchasing new stock, or by consulting a junkyard steel list like the one on this site which will give you a fairly good idea of the steel type if the original use of the steel can be identified, ie. car leaf spring etc. 2. Go here Principal Metals click on property data, then on the type of steel from the drop down menu, ie tool steel, alloy steel, then from the drop down menu pick the type of steel that you have, ie 1085, 5160, A-2, D-2 etc. The information for that particular steel will come up telling you forging temperatures, annealing temperatures and tempering temperatures. Be advised that the tempering temperatures will be given as a range of temperatures with the lower temperature resulting in the hardest with the steel becoming progressively softer as the temperature increases.