I am sure everyone probally already knows this but when your first gettiing into this addiction of knife making, you seem to never find enough material, even if its taking over your yard. I have a pile of knife making steel that is almost unimaginable that I have found at junk yard and scrap yards but the best finds so far have all come from pawn shops! I scored almost 300 old nicholson bastard file this past week from various pawn shops in my area and it only cost me 50.00!!!, I could have had a ton more but they didnt have a name on them, so to any new comers that look for good knife making steel remember to check out the pawn shops!!!!,Godbless,Charlie

Must remember that when I am really broke. I can pawn all my files/rasps :)

Thanks for the tip! I'll have to remember that. Now let's see.........I pass how many pawn shops on the way home?


Mitch

There's a pawn shop near where I live that has files, rasps, odd wrenches,battered hammers, etc in the back of the shop.

I'm guessing that some folks pawn entire tool boxes full of tools(maybe whole truckloads), and never come back to reclaim them.

The rasps ,screw drivers, etc, are priced separately and sometimes can be had reasonably.

I`d never thought about the pawn shop. We have 2 pawn shops in town . I gotta check em out soon LOL.

Eh, not to sound really dumb, but a what's a pawn shop again??? lol

You have an item (rasps), and no cash. Pawn shop will take your rasps, and loan you cash (which you have to pay back in X days, etc.). Pay the cash back within the time period, you get your rasps back. Fail to do so, and Charlie buys your rasps after Pawn Shop puts them out for sale (as they are their property now)

You also pay a rather large amount of interest to get bach what ever it is that you pawned.
Finnr

Edited November 5, 200817 yr by Finnr
spelling of course

Hehe, I have a rather large collection of 10" and 12" files that I have used at work and are no longer in any shape to file on 15N20 bandsaw blade steel. The only problem I have found is that I forged out two rather nice camp knives out of them and they wouldn't harden. :mad: Could have been case hardened steel, or I could have heated them too many times and burned out all of the carbon. Usually Simonds files are pretty good, right?

You can't "burn out all the carbon" What you have is probably 3rd world made files that are case hardened. There are a lot of them around these days. Easiest way to tell is to grind off a small spot then try to file that spot. If the file cuts it, it was case hardened mild steel and you ground through the case hardening.

That's kinda what I thought. Today I was handling a used up file in my shop and it had a bur on it up near the tang. I used another file to remove said bur. It took it off easily. I took note of the lack of resistance to the new file. So, yeah, I imagine it's mild steel. Big let-down though, because I have a bunch of them. I do have two really old files that are about 1/4" to 5/16" thick. I'd imagine they've got some good steel to them.
As for the other trash files, I can always load them onto the truck with some scrap and sell them to the scrapyard then buy some good steel with the money. When life hands you lemons . . . ?

Pawnshops,,auto salvage,,steel scrap yards,,,Oh yea. I died and went to heaven. To bad some of the guys at mtorcycle salvage yards seem to be so high on junk steel prices.

File tangs are generally not hardened or tempered way back to soft even on first rate files.

BTW the old Black Diamond files---the ones that don't say nicholson on them were 1.2% carbon and so make a dandy carbon doner for pattern welded billets.

Thomas, both of your statements are worth keeping in mind. I may try to light the ole forge tomorrow- if I get my anvil in place- and play around with a couple of the newer files to see what I can do. I need to try to anneal a cleaver that I cut out of a circular saw blade today (MAN that thing is HARD!). Umm, I think I'm on the verge of hijacking this thread. SO, how 'bout that pawn shop steel?

I have mentioned previously that Indian and Chinese files look like real files but simply do not work like real files. I believe they were intended to be decoys. I have placed several of them in my scrap bin in hopes they will attract a few real files.

I have mentioned previously that Indian and Chinese files look like real files but simply do not work like real files. I believe they were intended to be decoys. I have placed several of them in my scrap bin in hopes they will attract a few real files.

That won't work. You have to line them up, single file, in a cut, or maybe a fine draw to attract any filelings.

Frosty