Is all thread carbon steel

[insiderian]

I am trying to find steel to begin knife forging with, but i have no local supplier of carbon steel (01, 5160, 1095 etc). I would order it but it is really expensive and i don't have a job. I was wondering is all thread that you would buy at Home Depot, Menards, lowes or where ever carbon steel.

[jmccustomknives]

No.  There are different grades, but none are blade quality.

 

[ausfire]

Store-bought all-thread wouldn't make good knives, but its softness makes it useful for making snakes. It's easily upset for the head mass and the threads compress to make scales. But as jmc said, definitely not blade material.

Maybe you could find some tool steel to practise your knife making - old chisels, planer blades, files, that sort of thing.

[Will W.]

Agreed, Lowes and Home depot don't sell anything worth making a blade out of  

If you can't afford blade steel, I agree that salvaging old tools is the best way to go. 

I've made lots of blades from old crowbars, wrenches (not chrome plated!!!) chisels, coil springs, leaf springs, and axles of varying sizes. Check local scrap yards, machine shops,  and auto repair shops (especially the ones that do lots of lift kits, they usually have springs.) Many of these places may even give you the steel for free, just to reduce their own scrap pile. As has been said here before, bringing coffee and/or donuts and being polite may make you some friends.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Ian, 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 don't want to sound harsh but if you can't afford to buy knife steel you can't afford to forge knives. Right now you're grasping at straws when it's not necessary if you had the skills sets to forge knives in the first place. Think about it, you're asking about AllThread! Did it occur to you to Google the stuff and see what it's made of? 

Do you have experience blacksmithing? If so start making simple marketable items, sell them and set yourself up. By time you've earned enough to afford the: tools, equipment and materials to make acceptable blades, you'll have the basic skills at the anvil to be reasonably successful at it.

I'm not trying to discourage you, I want to save you a lot of heartaches and mistakes. I sincerely want you to become a good bladesmith, I'm not one but I sure LOVE looking at the eye candy blade pictures that get posted here. Some of the stunningly beautiful blades shown today are made by guys who had to work HARD to ruin a RR spike a few years ago. 

Stick around, we're pulling for you.

Frosty The Lucky.

[WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith]

Frosty is harsh, but correct.

When I have students that the first thing they want to make I tell them to come to my shop for all day once or twice a month and after a year, and you have learned how to move metal, then maybe, we will see about forging a knife.

Now back to your original question, but not the answer you were looking for:  All thread that you can get at a big box store or a hardware store is not a high carbon steel (btw, all steel is "carbon steel".  The carbon is what makes it steel.).  There are high carbon steel all threads but you would have to get them from a specialty supplier.  

Wayne

[ThomasPowers]

Since it seems you are in America based on the stores listed; (over 100 countries participate here so telling you where to find free high carbon steel in South Africa or Finland might not be much help, right????)   Automotive coil springs are *usually* a good alloy to forge knives from and easily found for free or scrap rate (20 cents a pound at my favorite scrapyard)   However be prepared to ruin every single blade you make for quite a while if you don't know the basics of blacksmithing---very frustrating to be throwing away the time, effort  and money when you could be learning by making things you could sell from the first day!