I was just wondering if concrete rebar was worth working to make tools or knifes or anything???

Mutt

there are better steels, better suited for different jobs, ive used it as drifts and punches on small stuff and it needs constant touching up, if you have nothing else, go with it. i normally use a lot of it for iron work and jigs.

and tongs....and it comes in party size for spring dies.....got a couple of 40mm and bigger dia.

Edited September 5, 200916 yr by double_edge2

i saw a great piece of fencework recently made entirely of rebar i wish i had taken a photo it was in a jungle kind of enclosure in a zoo and it looked great in amongst the vines and plants. I made a mental note of "a good use for rebar" :)

I would humbly suggest using regular iron and steel bars over rebar. I started out using rebar from scrap bins. It took forever to reforge the ridges down so that the ridges would not become inclusions.

Unfortunately Rebar is made to a mechanical specification and the chemistry can be almost anything. Chemical copmposition from bar to bar can be very inconsistent.

nitewatchman

Rebar makes an interesting design if you twist it tightly, but the steel itself is not that great to do anything with, mild steel is better amd more consistant to make things and other types of steel make better tools. If you get it for nothing or really cheap it is ok to learn with.
Doug

While not the best for tools, it does work for lots of things. I've just finished making bottle openers out of it. I also made some really good tent pegs. The ridges helped them hold. It can be inconsistent, but I've had issues with regular hot rolled steel too. As long as you pay attention to your heats and such, and accept that you may have some failed projects, it's fun to see what the twists can become.

I have made great barn door handles, the texture adds to the look and grip.

makes nice snakes !

I have a piece that I use for a cold punch that I made on the grinder years ago as an "emergency" piece. It gets used a few times a month and still works on stone wood, metal, etc... it must have been a fluke piece.

I've worked a fair amount of rebar with few problems, make sure its got good color. A good way to educate the public on the process of forging and the elasticity of steel is to forge something on the end of a stick of rebar and leave the rest intact. This is effective on finished work as well by taking a found object slightly out of context while keeping a reference point to the original material.

Thanks for the input. maybe I will make some punches out of the bigger sizes. I have ruined several "good" chizels working on hot iron. If the tools are homemade from rebar then ...... nothing is lost but a free tool.

Mutt

I forgot to mention... don't quench it without tempering way back/....... it has enough carbon to get brittle.. and then the quenched end breaks off in your hand at the water line.... but it does make ok tools...

In general the larger sizes are made to a specification. I forget off had what the specification details are but it is rolled in at regular interval. The general thought is that if you don't have to forge out the ridges and you main stress is tension as in a wrench. or some similar then rebar is useful. I've made big wrenches out of it that lasted years.

Be warned there are some pieces of it, high manganese I suspect, that refuse to be forge welded in the ordinary way.

I use a lot of Chinese rebar for forging. So do all the local smiths. It works well if you know what you are doing and the texture can be useful for providing grip. I got some that had been rolled through badly worn rollers so it has very little texture left. I use that as the reins on my 10 minute tongs and it works very well. Some welds better than others.

It is very useful for reinforcing concrete by the way.

i made a harder tool years ago and it still works for cutting hot steel today Cheep and always laying around

What's a harder tool? Never heard of one. Or do you mean harder than another type of steel properly heat treated?

Mild steel can be used for things that do not need to bee very hard.

I believe he means hardy tool it fits in the hardy hole of the anvil.there are different kinds of hardy tools but he is refering to a hot cutter

Oh, a HARDY tool. I know what that is, but he referred to it as a harder tool. Thought it was some new kind of tool I'd never heard of.

If you want to use "good" rebar, look for the markings that tell you the grade. Rebar is kind of all over the place with regards to carbon content. If you find a piece that has a "W" on it, that means its weldable, and therefore more of an alloy steel. These would be decent for tools. I talked to a blacksmith that told me he made a chisel out of rebar, and it turned out to be one of his best chisels. Usually the larger stuff is an alloy, so it can be welded. Like #8 bar and above. By the way the numbers are in eighths of an inch, a #8 is one inch. The weldable rebar is similar to tool steel in its working properties, pretty tough stuff.