A local commercial garage door guy has given me two sets of springs. I have a smaller set, that rod is about 1/4 inch and the second set is pretty close to 3/8 inch........I probably have thirty feet of each if I uncoiled it. My question is, when forging this 3/8 rod out, is there enough material to pound out small knives? I guess I am asking, approximately how wide can I expect for this to come out, if I get it down to, say, 1/8 inch?

It's all about volume so do the math. 3/8 rod has a cross-sectional volume of .110 cubic inch but it's not absolute because you lose some to scale. 1/8 x 3/4 has a CSV of .094 cu.inch so you can probably get close to that width.

Very cool! Thanks.....that's roughly what I figured, just by looking at it. I see corkscrews, bottle openers, small knives and stuff in these springs!

Well, here's the math.....(if you want to be exact)

Cylinder (Rod)

Volume = length x Area of circle (pi times diameter squared all divided by four)
length 1 inch
diameter 0.375 inches
Volume 0.110391 cubic inches

For a rectangular solid, Volume = length times width times height

So, to figure out the width, the formula becomes

Width = Volume divided by the Length times the Height

Width = .110391/(1*.125)
Width => 0.883125 inches which is a little bit more than 7/8 of an inch wide

Very cool! Thanks.....that's roughly what I figured, just by looking at it. I see corkscrews, bottle openers, small knives and stuff in these springs!

Weird...two posts......oh well....thanks for the help guys. I have read that it is possible that springs like these could be 5160 or a similar steel, decent for blades.....any truth to this? I am sure it should be fine for cheese knives, openers, cork screws and misc. Stuff.....right?

Get a nicely rounded crosspeen and lean to pull the steel out to the side.

springs like that also make good repousee tools and small carving tools for wood and bone.

I've used 1/4" garage door spring as the basis of fire steels (flint strikers) for years and have been told by buckskinners that mine are better sparking than most.

Sparkily,
George M.

I am sure it should be fine for cheese knives, .....right?

parmesan or brie?

Havarti !!

The quarter inch makes nice scratch awls with maybe a twist in the body and a rattail for hanging. We harden the business end in oil and temper to a dark straw.