Sorry if I'm sure this has been discussed here a myriad of times but with all my research I still can't find any answers to my questions. I've seen and read about Smith's in third world contries repurpose steel to make knives, tools etc. But you never hear about their products that they have made failing. On this and every other forum you are told to steer clear of repurposeing steel such as leaf and coil springs because of spring fatigue introducing micro fractures resulting in future failures of your products. What I'd like to know is if anybody has repurposed steel and actually had a failure? Was the failure pre existing or because of something the Smith caused? And if this is just an old wives tale we tell because this is what we where taught?