looking for steel

[mattjayne9090]

Ok, i'm a beginner and i am having alot of trouble finding some steel to work with. i am mainly trying to find some 1060, but i'm not having any luck!

could someone please help me out!

thank you,
matt

[Glenn]

Mattjayne
Go to the top of the forum page and click on user cp
click on edit profile
go to the bottom of the page, enter your location and save.

We would like to know where in the world your located.

[oakwoodforge]

You can find the info for Kelly Cupples steel Here
Ellis Custom Knifeworks
He carries 1065 as well as some other good stuff, really a top notch guy to deal with too.

Hope this helps

Jens

[nitro]

like I posted under leaf and coil springs, ask body shops that do suspention lift for the ones that they take off. The spring are 1095 and 5160. You can also look at junk yard for them for cheap

[Rich Hale]

This makes me wonder...A person new at this craft needs to learn a lot about how steel moves under a hammer at different heats. That can be best done by using the least expensive steel you can locate. To me that means scrap steel...rebar, is an example of scrap steel that is used everywhere and odds and ends are cheap or free. There is a list in the bp section that gives you and idea of what steels are used for and what the items are made of. Like above note about springs. Don't get me wrong we all start somewhere and a lot of folks have started at the top or in the middle and that worked out great for them. Buts the odds are you will learn faster if you put in some shop time on basics and there is a lot of information on this site about that. Like on the opening page under getting started. Enjoy.

[Phil Dwyer]

I'm not sure where you're at (did you see Glenn's post on how to add that info to your profile so we can know?) but can tell you what I do around here, in fact wherever I go. I'm always on the look out for steel. The other day I found two rail-like structures thrown over an embankment on the side of the road. There were a few rods of bent up rebar too. Sometimes I find folks discarding old "wrought iron" railings, like stair railings or burglar bars. Unfortunately most of the stuff turns out to be hollow, but sometimes I get lucky. I even have friends sometimes bringing me odds and ends. You really just about never know what you might find. If you have a metal/steel dealer in your area it might be worth while buying a few length of different size stock. It's not too expensive and can be kind of nice to work with something that all you have to do is hack off a piece and stuff in the fire. If you're dead-set on tool steel, in addition to coil and leaf springs, check local flea markets and swap meets for old chisels and files. Good luck!

[mattjayne9090]

yeah, i checked out "ellis custom knifework" and i'm really impressed!

thanks oakwood!

[Dan Crabtree]

Yes, you could learn how steel moves by using scrap metal. The only difference is that your high carbon steels that you would use for blades are harder to forge, meaning it takes more force to move the metal than for example mild steel. It took me quite a few tries before I could forge a blade accuratly but you can do it with a little practice.

[ThomasPowers]

In general it's NOT a good idea to go from zero to knifemaking without learning the basics of forging first. You can get very discouraged messing up blade after blade trying to learn what succeeding making S hooks can teach you. I was forging two spits recently from 1/4"x1/2" stock---bevelling them with the hammer for about 3' along the edges---so about 12' of hammering out a good bevel practice *and* a couple of nice usable pieces even if I had made a couple of misstrikes.

1060 steel sounds like you want to try differential hardening too---hamons? If so the alloy steels will be a lot harder to get good results with and the simple steels can be quite hard to find. Learn on the easy to find stuff and when you can reliably make blades worthy of the extra effort look into the proper steels for them.