I found a set of large shear baldes at a junk yard a few years ago and have used it for power hammer dies, and various other tools. I annealed the material in a fire brick enclosure using charcoal as fuel. After annealing it cuts and machines well. When I heated and quenched the dies in oil they didn't get supper hard . Heat treated them in my wife's oven.

Anybody know what the alloy might be.

If you have any drop pieces try hardening in water and see what happens........Unless you're happy with the dies as they are.

,,,, Heat treated them in my wife's oven.

what do you mean in the oven? tempering in the oven is fine, but they dont get hot enough for the hardening.

I agree it "looks" like a shear blade, but that doesn't mean that it is. Shear blades of this type are usually S-5 tool steel although I've seen other materials used like 1095.

In fussing with junk yard steel: If you want it heat treated and do not know wot it is, you can do this..heat to non magnetic and let cool in air. test with a file, file should skate meaning it is hard. if the file cuts then try oil. if the file cuts then try water. if the file still cuts like it did on the other tests you can search for a way to use this steel for something else.

I agree it "looks" like a shear blade, but that doesn't mean that it is. Shear blades of this type are usually S-5 tool steel although I've seen other materials used like 1095.

As much as I would like to think that it is S5, I would think it more likely to be 1095 because I do not believe that the primative annealing means that I used would have produced a machinable result with the S5. As McBruce suggests I need to find or trim off a sample to test. It will be a few days before I will be able to get to that task.

When I found them, they were near the shear that had new matching blades freshly installed. An example of being the right place at the right time.