FAG roller bearings

[Zuk33]

At my work we"ve recently been tearing down some mud pumps and rebuilding them leaving us with some very large rollers from FAG and National bearings as scrap, probably in the two to three pound range. My question is what type of steel are these rollers likely to be and what would be good applications for them if they are worth my time? Thank you.

[NRunals]

I've heard it said that they are 52100, but I don't actually know.

[jimmy seale]

well,i hear that the actual bearings are 52100 but the races can be case hardened. but that's hear say i nad a drawknife out of a outer race of a compound bearing and it worked well. but it is a bear cat to work. but don't let that discourage you, some ways to tell (from my experience)if cracked,it will crack across the race,or it may chip if driven out. or if you have to wash it out you will have to blow it in two,anyway i hope this helps ya out,jimmy

[bob sutton]

i was told by an engineer from temkin bearing that rollers that are barrel shaped are 52100. if they are straight or cone shaped they are most likely case hardened.

[NickWheeler]

It's not as simple as we'd like. I ended up with about 700 lb. worth of bearing steel from my last job. I was even told by a Timken rep that the bearings were 52100. Just to be on the safe side, I had it all tested, and NONE of it was 52100. It was a weird exotic alloy that works great for bearings, but not very well for knives.

They make super cool paper weights though

I had some SKF bearings tested, and they were all case hardened. I'm not saying that ALL of them are, but all of the ones I had tested were.

[jason0012]

The case hardened ones have a lot of nickle in them usually and do have some carbon. I have welded them into damascus before and find they gave really good contrast. They are casehardened pretty deep and after being folded a few times are pretty homogenous. I'm not sure I would use a case hardened bearing for a knife by its self though. It seems like Wayne Goddard did a good article on identifying bearing steels a good many years ago. I think the article is in one of his books.