Bjorn Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 Thanks for all the advice about my tanto. I just finished the habaki. I made it out of a half inch round bar of what I thought was copper. In the forge, I heated up real fast and conducted down the legnth really quickly. It wasn't as soft as I expected, but moved under the hammer a bit differently. When I got around to sanding the piece down, patches of silver began to apear on the surface. by the time I was done It was almost entirely silver in shean. It hasn't rusted at all despite being in contact with water so I'm pretty shure it Isint iron. I took the origional bar and filled down in the bar, after about an eigth inch the same silver colour apeared. So I think the bar is coated in copper but I have no clue what the inside is made of. I think the bar was used as a lightning rod ground bar. If you have any I idea what the unknown metal is I would like to know. Thanks -Bjorn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakwoodforge Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 The grounding rods around here are usualy just copper coated manure-alloy-steel, like rebar. The copper increases the conductivity and retards rust underground. When In doubt try using a magnet to test, most steels are magnetic at room temerature. Jens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted October 5, 2006 Author Share Posted October 5, 2006 Well, the piece is magnetic, so it might be steel, but the not rusting thing, could it posibly have a stainless quality? and if etched would a pattern show? just an idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakwoodforge Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 Stainless ? I doubt it, It probably has just enough melted Mitsubishi cars, soda cans and and other scrap metals to not flash rust right away. I wouldn't bother looking for special patterns in a chunk of scrap like that. If a metal object is magnetic at room temp it is for sure an Iron based alloy or atleast steel based remelted scrap. If you need copper for your project, there are many online retailers as well as cutlery supply stores that carry various sizes of copper. I'd also check with your local scrap yards as well, I have a bunch of 1/4 inch thick copper buss bars from scrapped electrical breaker boxes that I aquired for next to nothing. Hope this helps Jens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy k Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 Bjorn - There are some poor grades of stainless steel the "are" magnetic, but it's hard to say exactly what you have there. Restraunt countertops are a good example of that - most claim they are 16 ga. S/S - and yes they are but on the cheaper countertops you can toss a refigerator magnet on them and it will stop as soon as it hits - "Magnetic". The more spendy ones "lots better quality stainless" will not affect a magnet and it will slide across the whole countertop without stopping from a magnetic pull. All I can say about your mystery steel. JK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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