Howdy folks 

Pretty new here, I have been doing lots of reading and poking around here and it's a great forum. 

Now, I have an old chainsaw blade that was left here at the house I now own and I am wondering if it is usable blade steel. 

Yesterday I cut a small piece off and threw it in my forge and quenched it in veg oil and it hardened. I then snapped it and it was tough. 

Here are some pictures. The blade is 33 inches long and about 1/4 thick.

The grain structure looks like it has mild steel on the outside, like a chainsaw san mia 

SO do you think I have do blade steel or do I have some scrap? 

Thanks  

Just a technicality, that's the chainsaw bar. I would say if it hardened and snapped it will make blades, if you can figure out the right heat treat/temper.

Me being a retired from the forest industry should know that it's a bar but most on the intertube call them blades LOL 

It will harden I was just curious about the grain structure of what looks like mild steel but I think I will give it a shot and see what happens it's just my time and it's all therapy for me. 

Edited February 1, 20215 yr by Mod30
Remove excessive quote.

If it's tough to break after heat and quench in water then it sounds more like a medium carbon steel, If so large blades and lower tempering temps are suggested.

I did the heat quench break test on a couple of sewer snakes lately and they all tested out HC and so are going into billets for pattern welding.  I like to start with 20 layers rather than 3 or 5.

I am going to chop off a chunk and hammer it out and see what I can make out of it, I would like to make something out of the whole thing but I don't think my skill level is there yet 

I think I need to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx finish setting up my shop and worry about projects and steel composition later