Yesterday I was at the local scrap yard when a bin of new cable ends came in.  The stuff was 7 strand twist metal and was being scrapped by a construction company doing some bridgework north of here new Lake Shasta.  Each strand is 3/16 inch diameter and the total diameter is just over 1/2 inch.  I bought some and brought it home with the information more was going to be scrapped next week if I wanted more. The company uses it as a reinforcement in the concrete construction of the bridge.  From what I could find online it contains carbon but no specs.  Apparently it is used when they install pre-stressed concrete and the metal is not supposed to stretch much under a load.  Can anyone provide an opinion on its suitability for forging (coal forge) and if it can be forged do you have suggestions on the types of applications.  

First order of buisnes is to determine if it is galvanised, if so you need to pickle it to remove the coating, second would be to take a strand and do some testing, heat and quench, water, oil and air to see if it hardens. take a heat and fold it in to and see if it will weld, at this point you have about all you need to know. 

 

Its not galvanized, Almost appears to be stainless but that may be because it is new.  Thanks Charles.

 

If its stainles or chrome aloy it will be dang near impossible to forge weld, but if the strands are lare enugh it will still be useful stock

I gave a length to a friend of mine and he was able to forge weld it without much difficulty so that was good news.  Now to go find more.

 

Sounds like you have stuff for some cable Damascus. Have you ever done  it? It is  fun and pretty stuff to boot.is the material greased up or clean? I prefer the greasy stuff as the pattern shows better IMHO.

 

Not greasy at all or rusted.  Just clean but not stainless.  I have forge welded but not made damascus or pattern welded much.

 

Without knowing how much carbon is there it's a guess at how well it will work. Give it a go and see what you get before you buy more.

 

I generally pass on anything less than 9/16" in total diameter for knifemaking.  When the individual wires weld up a decarborized zone forms.  It comes out to .010 of the total diameter of the wires decarborize.  That means that if you have wires that are .25 almost half the carbon is lost during the welding process.  Given that cable will be from .65-.90 depending on grade you could end up with something that barely hardens to something that won't hold and edge at best.  I however do use cable like that for more artistic endeavors.