So, as soon as some of my power tools come in (belt sander, angle grinder, ect) come in im headed to a "pull-a-part" which is a popular scrapyard,

 

My question is, what parts of a car have quality (or high carbon) steel?

 

Most useful parts of it would include what?

Why not just buy some new steel, used auto parts cost money and are not known alloys so proper heat treatment will be by trial and error.  Between your time and cash outlay you will be ahead of the game buying some new steel.  That being said the best stuff are axles, leaf springs, coil springs, torsion bars and steering linkages.  Keep in mind you may expend all of this effort only to get material that is unsuitable to forge what you want to make. 

coil springs are good knife material in my opinion. You can Heat the spring up to a bright orange , put a pipe in a vise, slip the spring on the pipe, grab one end with pliers and walk the other way. This will straighten out the medal.

My mechanic used to just give me coil springs and leaf springs and other odds and ends whenever I wanted them, he is good about that, a real nice guy. One time he had so much steel parts piled up I took it to the scrap metal dealer for him after I had cherry picked all the good stuff out of the pile and passed some of it on to some friends of mine for tools and knives. Most of the time you don't need to buy steel, it's out there for FREE, you just gotta look for it and ask real nice and it's yours.

coil springs are good knife material in my opinion. You can Heat the spring up to a bright orange , put a pipe in a vise, slip the spring on the pipe, grab one end with pliers and walk the other way. This will straighten out the medal.

I guess you read that in a book somewhere.  Try that with an automotive spring if you can do that I suggest you get into strong man competitions.

know actually i saw it done by a verey experienced man. he used a spring off a old gmc truck

I prefer leaf springs off trucks.  Little easier to work with.  Most springs are going to be some version of 5160 although I was told by a gentleman who worked for a steel mill that they produced 50100 for GM that was used in the leaf springs of the trucks (late 80's).  I haven't yet gotten my hands on any to find out.  Happy hunting.

I guess you read that in a book somewhere.  Try that with an automotive spring if you can do that I suggest you get into strong man competitions.

 

I've never seen anyone do it by hand on an automotive coil, tried it on a motorcycle spring once and ended forging a ring in one end and hitched the anchored hot coil to my pickup. THAT worked a treat.

 

Wheel spindles are good steel too.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

torsion bars make good tooling

I have uses suspension coil springs to make basic punch, center punches and cold chisels and  slitting chisels and basic punches.... IF you  tempered item properly after heating and hammering (shaping) they are excellent tools you can make....

Dale

Good Morning M31

 

To straighten out a coil spring. It is a lot easier to heat the complete coil spring in a propane forge to at least orange/yellow. Using two tongs drop it over a verticle solid pipe/post, Using two sets of very good tongs, one person pulls like crazy, another person controls the motion of the coil spring on the pipe (which is being held firmly). One coil spring is about 10-15 feet long. Every year I show my class how to pull a coil spring, it is an eye opener.

 

Neil

Other option is not try and uncoil spring but to cut off length needed and heat and hammer till its in shape needed...

 

In pic  bar on left is spring stock (approx 1/2 of a coil)

Next is center punch

Cold chisel

Slitting chisel

"Eye" punch (center is hollow for eye in "horse head" art hoof pics)

6 inch ruler

 

 

 

Dale

In addition to steel, autos have lots of useful things. Blower motor are a biggy, Electric window motors and mechanisms can be handy things. Power steering pumps can power interesting gadgets. electric door lock and hood/trunk lid releases are good. A person could use the charging system and body metal to make themselves a wind generator. That's probably stretching it a bit eh?

 

One bit of metal I haven't seen mentioned are hood and trunk lid springs. I prefer the old school flat coil springs, the stuff is perfect for carving knives and layers in pattern welds.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Springs (leaf, coil, hood, door, valve, seat,  trunk) , torsion bars, flat torsion plates out of early VW suspensions, floor shifters, valves, pedals, shifter linkage, tie rods, center links, sway bars, steering shafts, headliner bows, push rods, and more were pulled from all the cars I sent to the wreckers.

Springs (leaf, coil, hood, door, valve, seat,  trunk) , torsion bars, flat torsion plates out of early VW suspensions, floor shifters, valves, pedals, shifter linkage, tie rods, center links, sway bars, steering shafts, headliner bows, push rods, and more were pulled from all the cars I sent to the wreckers.

Yes all of this is good useable steel but you need to know what you are dealing with.  It can be very frustrating to forge a tool from mystery steel and have it be too soft and not hold an edge or have it crack in hardening.  For a beginner who may only get a few hours of forging time a week how would it feel to forge a blade from a spring and have be full of cracks because you did not know the steel needed to be oil quenched.  Or use a steel that did not have enough carbon to make a good cold chisel capable of cutting iron. 

I make most of my hot tools out of old tire irons. Twenty five cents at garage sales and THEY ARE ALREADY STRAIGHT!! Ever try to break one while standing on it to get a lug nut loose?? Pretty tough stuff.

^{Timothy , I was just answering the question of what car parts are good to get.  Obviously one whould test a sample for hardenability before going through with a project that required it, even with new steel.  As to cracks,I haven't had that issue yet.  One advantage car parts can have over new steel is that most of mine was free, and provided ample practice pieces to work with. Practicing basic forging with new tool steels can get expensive quick.  If one is making an item that is to be relied on for survival, or some other must work everytime situation than new known steels should be used, but for basics, or do nothing items, mystery metals are fine in my book.}

^{Timothy , I was just answering the question of what car parts are good to get.  Obviously one whould test a sample for hardenability before going through with a project that required it, even with new steel.  As to cracks,I haven't had that issue yet.  One advantage car parts can have over new steel is that most of mine was free, and provided ample practice pieces to work with. Practicing basic forging with new tool steels can get expensive quick.  If one is making an item that is to be relied on for survival, or some other must work everytime situation than new known steels should be used, but for basics, or do nothing items, mystery metals are fine in my book.}

I have used more than my share of salvaged material there is nothing wrong with it.  But as a beginner using scrap to make tools I really struggled with heat treating and selecting the right kind steel to do the job.  For example most springs are made from steel that is best oil quenched quench it in water and all of your hard work will be full of cracks.  Axles are good for hammers, swages and fullers but are bad for hot cuts or slitting chisels because they have no red hardness.  Or how about forging a cold chisel from coil spring that just wont hold a good edge no matter how you temper it it either chips or dulls very quickly.   

I think a lot of us have struggled with the "scrapyard tool steel" issue. When I was starting out I had no money, and I used coil springs, etc for my tools. They functioned fairly well and I was able to have some fun using it, but as time went on I used "store bought" tool steel. Much easier to work with a known entity and known heat treat. Basically, if you've got some extra dough, buy the good stuff, if you don't scrap stuff will work-somewhat... I did like uncoiling coil springs-took a long heat, dropped it over a pipe and pulled-unwinds quite easily-kind of like toilet paper coming off a roll.

For tools like a hot cut or slit punch made from scrapyard steel, is it necessary to heat treat & temper considering the usage is putting it in contact with hot steel which could ruin the temper?  This weekend I made a slit punch from some scrap that spark tested as high carbon.  I normalized it, but I didn't HT and immediately put it to work.  It seemed to work fine and I was cooling it in water every 3-4 hit.  When finished slitting a RR spike for a hawk the punch didn't seem any worse for the wear.

 

As the steel's unknown my concern would be improperly HT something and potentially making something that could send shrapnel when struck.  I guess that's still a possibility if it was something that air hardened.

For tools like a hot cut or slit punch made from scrapyard steel, is it necessary to heat treat & temper considering the usage is putting it in contact with hot steel which could ruin the temper?  This weekend I made a slit punch from some scrap that spark tested as high carbon.  I normalized it, but I didn't HT and immediately put it to work.  It seemed to work fine and I was cooling it in water every 3-4 hit.  When finished slitting a RR spike for a hawk the punch didn't seem any worse for the wear.

 

As the steel's unknown my concern would be improperly HT something and potentially making something that could send shrapnel when struck.  I guess that's still a possibility if it was something that air hardened.

Depends on the kind of junk yard steel.  Spring steel with Cr in it yes but other steels wont preform that well in the same role.  Your only saving 3 to 5 bucks if you bought enough h13 to make the same tool.

Being an artist and not necessarily a tool maker I got to use a lot more of the car. Sometimes I would just reform parts of the cars to suit to what I wanted to make my "statement", that way I didn't need to overly worry about if it was a good steel for "tool" making only if it was suitable esthetically and it always was and if not I made it that way. Cars and most machinery are wonderful sources of sculptural shapes.

GoodHow 'bout a chunk of camshaft or crank? Ring and pinion gears? Exhaust-intake valves? Are extremely hard steels more tedious to work or crack easier during the forging? I'm a mechanic and all around tinkerer but interested in knife forging as a hobby. 

Cams and cranks are mostly cast iron.

As to valves, sodium filled exhaust valves used to be a rarity in auto engines. The only ones I knew of were in a the big 60's GMC V6 engines; 305/351/401/478 and 702 Twin Six 12 cylinders. But I read recently where Dodge is using them again.

I've never heard of cams or crankshafts being cast, they're closed die forged. Lots of hits in a web search. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj8leWsB4w4

Frosty The Lucky.