what steel is in mower teeth?

[broncstomper]

I have a supply of teeth off of a sickle bar mower and was wondering how i could find out what kind of steel they are made from. Was thinking of trying to make knives from them.????

[larrynjr]

There are posts in the BP's on steel content of various objects. I don't know for sure what mower blades are but being "blades" should be more than high enough carbon content to temper properly for knives or machetes.

[saintjohnbarleycorn]

you could do a spark test on them, I would imagine high carbon, if old and an alloy if new, but they are kind of short for knives aren't they?

[Jmercier]

New tool steel is cheap enough, if you're going to make a blade, do it right and get a known steel that you know exactly how to heat treat. Save the mystery metal for other tools and the like where heat treat isnt as important.

[LDW]

I am not sure about mower teeth but mower blades are regulated by the ansi standards and they require them not to be hard enough to break so if someone hits an object it does not break and go flying. I dont guess that means they are not high carbon steel but I cannot imagine them wasting the money.

[R Funk]

I have gone to my local Farm Fleet store (similar to Tractor Supply) and looked thru the catalog for plowshares, chisel points etc. In the back they listed the steel that the item was made from (~1070 if I remember correctly) But please check if it is important. It may be on the internet sites of the mfgs.

Look thru the catalog for mower parts in your local ag store and it may contain that information for mower sections, as they are called. However not all manufacturers will use the same steel.

I would guess that the steel may be any where between 1050 to 1090.

However if you want to put a lot of effort into the knives, buying steel may be money very spent.

On a side issue, Section Rivets for sickle mores are in all these ag stores as a ready and easy source for rivets. They are a little on the small side for many blacksmithing applications.

[Ten Hammers]

Sickle bar sections are handy for several things. Nail to a ceiling joist. Put a ball of twine on the joist above and thread the twine through a hole in the ceiling. Pull twine and cut on the section ( last ball of binder twine lasted 10 years here ). They also make great paint scrapers when welded to a piece of small pipe. Like Ruben says section rivets are handy too. Most stuff these days is rotary ( and bolted ) but for the time being sections and rivets are still available here. I will check the book locally, thanks Ruben.

[jayco]

Here's another use for mowing machine sections.......
My uncle worked for the dept. of Forestry in Ky in the 1960's.
The common tool used to fight forest fires was one of these things with a 'sprouting hoe' handle in it.
Commonly called 'fire rakes'.......a sprouting hoe eye riveted to a section of mowing machine sickle.

[Brian C.]

I used one of those fire rakes more times than I wanted to. Hard work raking a line down to bare soil while climbing these hills, it is'nt much fun on level ground. :)