Cracked Rebar

[kyotie11]

I am making a knife with some old rebar and a tiny crack has appeared is there anything I can do to fix it? It is kind of hard to see in the photo.

[jmccustomknives]

Ah, rebar the blacksmiths worst nightmare.   Does it go all the way?  If so, scrap it and start over with something other than rebar.  The only way to find out is grind into it. 

[Frosty]

Sure, it's easy to fix such a simple problem, toss this attempt to the lesson shelf and use proper blade steel or even just mild for practice. Do remember what happened though so you don't make the same mistake again. This is the purpose of the lesson shelf, drawer, corner, etc. so you can go back and see where you started, see how far you've come or sometimes find how you did THAT.

 

Not all "failures" are useless or even bad beyond the lesson thing. Sometimes a thing doesn't do what you want it to BUT it turns out to be PERFECT for something you want to do on a different project or material. Just because something didn't work this time doesn't mean it won't later.

 

Rebar is one of those things that isn't very consistent, so long as it meets minimum specs it can be rebar, sometimes it's mild, sometimes it's HC, sometimes it's . . . WHAT THE!!!?

 

Frosty the Lucky.

[Jim Coke]

Greetings Kyotie,

 

RE  meaning it was something before....  Recycled.... Reworked ....Remodeled....   Bar meaning where you go when your done messing with junk metal..

 

AHHHH the lessons we learn..

 

Lesson learned keep up the good work.

 

Jim

[Rich Hale]

I like to consider an item like this tuition,,,,,,I paid with time and effort to learn something,,,,,

Wot is said above is note worthy for you.

And if you wish to know more there are knifemaking lessons here in the forum,,,,have fun!

[Steve Sells]

now ya know why we tell people to avoid rebar in the knife chat lessons.

[ThomasPowers]

Looks like you would profit from working on your basic smithing skills too.  Good hammer control can save you HOURS of filing; well worth developing before you move on to blades.

[gearhartironwerks]

Rebar can be used decoratively, or as handles for damascus billets. Other than that, it's pretty much worthless and you're wasting your time on blades. If you're into scrapping, find some spring steel as your chances of coming up with a usable piece are much greater. Search online for 5160 blades from spring steel. Please follow up with what you do.

Thanks for posting.

John

[EGreen]

Re stands for " re-inforcing" . and as we all know it's main use is for re-enforcing concrete. about 45 years ago you use to see a lot of chisels made from it. but it had a higher carbon content than now