Is it like 4140?

What about the different grades of rods? Do they matter?

What about contamination and how to mitgate?

Thanks all

Here is a (grungy)chart I have,The ''we'' on the heading refers to 'us'............ hope this helps.

Some special high strength non API grades do get into the 4340 category, but how would you identify it in a used rod?. The API grades are low to medium carbon (35 points at best) I doubt that they would be much good for tools.

It's ok for drifts and such but for punching and cutting not so much.

To begin in blacksmithing, I had lots of sucker rod available and made lots of punches, and chisels.  It doesn't hold up for very long and to hard use, but I had punches and chisels to use and could make more if needed. So, if it is available to you, go ahead and enjoy making tools to use.  Later on in your blacksmith travels you might try other longer lasting steels.  Good luck.   

Not a bad choice for tongs, and other quick anvil tools

Tongs, drifts, fullers; things where the higher than mild steel C content helps but are not buried in hot steel where the low alloy content of general sucker rod does not provide high temp hardness, so no slitting chisels, punches, etc.

Here are a couple of major industry manufacturers/distributors of sucker rods.  You will find specs, both general and technical, on steel types.  You might have to mine deeper on each site and download some pdf files/catalogs for detailed info.  Most complete sucker rods or those with the male pin intact will have some stamps or markings showing what type of rod or steel it is.

 

http://www.weatherford.com/Products/Production/SuckerRods/

 

http://www.tenaris.com/en/products/suckerrods.aspx

 

Also, a google search on "sucker rods" will give you a lot of info.

Thanks everyone.  In a nutshell, it is a bit better than mild steel for making drifts and such--more for practicing the skill of tool making and get some use out of them before they are distorted by hot steel.

 

Tong material sounds like a bargain.

 

 

Anyone know any place near Albuquerque to find sucker rod?

I find mine at the local scrap yard near my house in Lemitar NM.  Also I see it for sale to make fences from---might find a fence builder that has short scraps.  Last time I visited the scrapyard they had some very large sucker rod 1"+  to big for my elbow!

We had our big demo about a month ago.  We had Mark Aspery for a second time.  He used sucker rod to make a lot of tooling to include cutting tools.

So what is the best way to heat treat sucker rod tools  I have seen a lot of tools made from sucker rod, so what run a cycle to normalize/ anniel the steel, then bring to critical temp and quench in oil?  what kind of oil is best?  oil comes in different weights and types.  For instance, cooking oil is thin, some say that is best, others say used motor oil, others still would say something else?  I have noticed on You tube, they say oil, but never go into detail, and when you want the best possible heat treat on a tool or blade, you would want the best quenching oil for the steel, or does it matter? 

 

I am asking this here, cause it is sucker rod i am most curious about, since i have a good number of sucker rod and plan on using them to make a lot of my tools...

Treating the tool is just as important as anything on tools, so i am trying to figure it out

Generally, you should not use motor oil, new or used, for quenching hot steel because the various sdditives and metals in it can be toxic when vaporized.  Maybe not a problem in a well ventilated shop or outside but why take a risk that you don't have to.  I consider most vetable oils to be pretty much interchangable.  In fact, I use the cheapest generic vegetable oil that I can find (Wally World).

There are expensive quenching oils but unless you are doing really high quality knives and are carefully controlling every possible variable in the heat treating process IMO they are not worth the expense.  You are treating tools made of sucker rod.  So, right off the bat you are taking a risk on composition.  It will probably be alright but you don't know the exact alloy of that particular poece of sucker rod.

I suggest that you just get cheap cooking oil and test a few small pieces, both quenching and tempering and see if they turn out the way you want them to.  If they don't try experimenting with the process.  Basically, if it gets hard when quenched then adjust the tempering process.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Larrin Thomas of Knife Steel Nerds has a great article about quenching oils, which I heartily recommend along with the accompanying video. It gets into a lot of technical detail, but the tl;dr version is that:

1. Canola is too slow a quenchant to get the maximum hardness from most knife steels
2. Motor oil is an even slower quenchant than canola.
3. If budget is a factor, Parks AAA is a decent option. It's a medium-fast oil that's about half again as expensive as canola, but about 2/3 the price of Parks 50.

Now, Dr. Thomas is focused on the metallurgy of knifemaking and is therefore working with much thinner cross-sections than one finds in hammers and other blacksmith tooling. For those thicker pieces, a slower coolant may reduce the risk of cracking, and achieving peak hardness isn't as much of an issue.

I don't make knives, but do make my smithing tools.  For sucker rods (variable as they may be) I have been using peanut oil.  I have not tried water yet, not needing anything really hard,  but will try it as soon as the weather warms so I can get back out to the forge!  Anyone tried a comparison of say, peanut oil and water?

If you want to know THE best quenchant you MUST use a consistent steel. You are using junkyard steel of a type that changes analysis by manufacturer and batch. If you want to make high quality tool from sucker rod you'll need to evaluate each stick and determine the correct heat treat cycles and quenchant for each stick. A stick is also known in the trades as a "joint."

The best realistic results would be for moderate use tools, say pry bars, pick, etc. Things that need to be resilient and tough rather than hard like a knife. 

Frosty The Lucky.

And remember they use more than ONE alloy for sucker rods!

Also you might just try a water quench. I've not had any problem with water.

I have seen water quenched sucker rod chisels break and I have seen some bend. Echoing Mr. Powers, the differences in steel vary a lot in sucker rods. (There are at least 4 different specifications per Norris rods that I am aware of) I usually look for the markings on the square ends and group them together - at least I can get consistent performance from the group. 
if the rods are too old to see the markings there is typically enough material for a test piece.