price403 Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 I have access to a large quantity of railroad rail steel shavings from a band saw. A friend who works maintenance for a short line railroad company brought me a 30 gallon drum almost full to the top of these shavings. His boss gave him the shavings to do with as he pleased, so he gave them to me. I told him I'd forge him a knife or something if I was successful at turning them into usable ingots. The rails were cut on an old military surplus band saw that runs dry, so there is very little cutting fluid or other oil contamination in the shavings. I'm wondering if all of the air trapped in the empty space between filings would be a problem. Could this cause a lot of oxidation or entrapped bubbles when melting the steel? I was thinking about using this material along with some charcoal powder to make some Wootz-like steel ingots. Has anyone on here experimented with crucible steel from filings instead of from pieces of iron and steel? Also, should I add lime or any other components to the crucible charge along with steel and carbon? I know I'll have to add some crushed glass to the top to act as a flux, but I'm unsure of what else to add. I'm looking for a target carbon content of 1.5% to 1.9%. The rail steel has a carbon content of around .8%, along with ~1% manganese and ~1% silica if I remember correctly. I also have small quantities of other high carbon and stainless steel shavings from my knife making shop. I cut annealed billets into knife blanks on my own band saw and I try to clean up the shavings when I switch to cutting a different type of steel. Mine do have cutting fluid contamination so I think I'd have to put them in a steel container and heat them up substantially to remove the oil contamination. Any help or advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 Besides crucible steel; have you thought of using some for can welding liike in mosaic damascus? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
price403 Posted July 31, 2016 Author Share Posted July 31, 2016 19 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said: Besides crucible steel; have you thought of using some for can welding liike in mosaic damascus? I tried to reply to this but it failed the first time. Hopefully this won't be a repeat post. lol I hadn't thought of that. I've welded chainsaw chain in a can so I know how to do it. Do you think it will be easy to forge the shavings it into a billet? They're fairly fine so I'd be slightly worried about getting all of the air pockets out since I don't have a power hammer or a forge press in my shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 My vote if for can welded pattern or mosaic billets. I believe RR rail is around 85pts. or 0.85% carbon, call it in the same carbon range as 1085. Lots of potential with a little experimentation. Driving the air out will happen as you forge the can down, a little oil in the shavings will take care of oxidization and fluxing. No, no "welding flux". I've been selectively keeping cuttings from both my band saw and drill press for years with this idea in mind. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
price403 Posted July 31, 2016 Author Share Posted July 31, 2016 It looks like I'll be can welding some shavings pretty soon. How much would you think I should weld up at a time? I was thinking that 2-3 lbs should be manageable sine I don't have a power hammer or forge press yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 1, 2016 Share Posted August 1, 2016 Size is dependent on your forge and help (or your arm). 3# sounds LARGE to me I'd start small and work up as I got the skills down---you can always weld two of them together later. In fact folding and welding is a good way to work out voids. I once welded up some chainmail and thought I was hot stuff till I went to Quad-State that year and met a fellow that had welded up lathe swarf! He had taken a multi pound coffee can and stuffed it full of swarf and compressed it under a press to get the starting unit and then forge welded it; interesting pattern... BTW a source of higher carbon material to mix with your stuff would be brake lathe shavings; the drum brakes are often meehanite cast iron and so over 2% C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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