sarcasm Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 Hi all! I have recently been able to obtain some A2 tool steel that I was hoping to forge into a small knife. Has anyone used this steel before? If so what kind of specs does this steel have? HT in Oil? Water? Brine? anything else that would be useful would be much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 Welcome aboard Sarcasm, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the Iforge gang live within visiting distance. I was going to rib you about finding the sarcasm in your first post till I read it. You're kidding right? Have you Googled A2 steel and looked at the specs? At least find out what the: "A", "O", "W", "S", "H", etc. letter designations mean. No, don't look ALL the letter designations up, just the one you're interested in but they all mean something important to know about the steel type. Please don't get mad but I'm going to let YOU do a little research, you really don't want to be dependent of a bunch of strangers on the internet for stuff you can do for yourself do you? I'm not casting you on your own for the hard stuff, this sort of basic info is easy to find and will save you a lot of time asking and sorting through replies by guys who don't know any more than you do. Honest, I'm actually doing you a favor. Once you take a look at the specs I think you'll consider putting that steel on the shelf till you've developed the necessary knowledge and skills to use it. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 Definitely not a beginner steel as it can harden on the anvil while you are working it and if you have not read the tales of woe and the gnashing of teeth that has occurred when someone hits a hardened but un-tempered piece of steel with a hammer; well they are buried here, often with lots of words XXXXXXX'd out for some reason... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarcasm Posted July 18, 2017 Author Share Posted July 18, 2017 I was just wondering if there was any experience related suggestions and thoughts that I wouldn't be able to just simply google. Thank you for taking the time to answer a noobie's questions though. I obtained the steel through a machine shop I work at. It was a piece that had been in storage for a while so when I went to clean things out my boss told me I could keep anything that wasn't aluminum, copper, brass, stainless etc. So i figured 'what the hay?" might as well take some free steel. Also do you have a reliable website that has a lot of information about different steel specs? Something easier to read than digging through old forum threads? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasent Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 A2 Tool Steel is a versatile, air-hardening tool steel that is characterized by good toughness and excellent dimensional stability in heat treatment. A2 is intermediate in wear resistance between O1 oil-hardening tool steel and D2 high-carbon, high-chromium tool steel. A2 provides an effective combination of strength and toughness, tool performance, price, and a wide variety of product forms. APPLICATIONS: Punches and dies, chuck jaws, cutting tools for woodworking, tooling for plastic injection, dowel pins, hammers, industrial knives, and gage Mod note; edited Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will W. Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 Sarcasm Go into the heat treating, general discussion section. There's a pinned topic about a heat treating app that is available. Not only is it about heat treating, but also about specs of dozens of alloys. I have the app, and it's awesome. Aside from that, reading through old threads is a good way to go as well. That app may tell you almost everything you want to know about almost any steel, but the forum threads will let you learn from the mistakes of others (so you don't have to make those mistakes,) figure out better ways to tackle common problems, or simply give you good ideas for projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarcasm Posted July 19, 2017 Author Share Posted July 19, 2017 14 hours ago, Will W. said: Sarcasm Go into the heat treating, general discussion section. There's a pinned topic about a heat treating app that is available. Not only is it about heat treating, but also about specs of dozens of alloys. I have the app, and it's awesome. Aside from that, reading through old threads is a good way to go as well. That app may tell you almost everything you want to know about almost any steel, but the forum threads will let you learn from the mistakes of others (so you don't have to make those mistakes,) figure out better ways to tackle common problems, or simply give you good ideas for projects. do you have a more specific name for that app? I have found many different apps on this site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Quint- Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 Not sure if this is the one they're referring to, but this is one that I have. Seems fairly decent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will W. Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 Quint That is exactly the one I was talking about. I love it, personally, it's no bull, just straight information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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