January 23, 200917 yr My son works at an auto recycling center(junk yard) he has brought me several Torsion bars from Chevy and Ford trucks...they have hex ends and ar about 1 1/8 in diameter and about 5 feet long. My question is what are they made of. looking at Junk yard steel list such as BP0002 Junk Yard and Rail Road Steels (all the list that come up on the web are the same as this one). it does not list Torsion bars.
January 23, 200917 yr I don't know what they are made of, but when I was at Batsons 20th Blade Symposium last year there was a fellow that had won the cutting contest a couple years earlier using a knife he had made from a torsion bar off of an old Astro van.
January 23, 200917 yr well i dont know what exactly but years ago i made a sword blade from one .... sent it in with some friends blades to be hardened and tempered and it didnt harden up as much as the 5160 blades ... was only a rockwell of 52 instead of 57 ... no big deal but wasnt the same . the torsion bar was out of a old crysler (60s era) so that might make a difference... ide make chizels and punches out of it!
January 23, 200917 yr From memory Harries and Heer (Basic Blacksmithing) consider it a plain medium-carbon steel. Sounds like you're gonna get sick of making hammers before you run out of rods!
January 23, 200917 yr Yep, Hammers and drifts, good old tough shock impact resisting, maybe also pry bars.
January 27, 200917 yr I've made a bunch of hand adzes from torsion bars and never had any complaints on not holding an edge. Also used leaf spring--picture in the gallery. Older torsion bars seem to be better.
January 27, 200917 yr FWIW, many '60s & '70s Mopars will not handle a bigger engine without changing the torsion bars, they'll break. Coil spring cars don't usually have a problem other than maybe ride height. I'm not sure what that might mean about the steel... I have a few t-bars laying around but haven't done anything with them yet. Good Luck!
January 28, 200917 yr I did a google search on torsion bar "steel composition" got tons of hits. Even got a patent which gave the analysis of some. From the analysis, except for some vanadium in the torsion bar, the composition is very similar to 5160. I have made several knives out of the torsion bar from a Toyota and it hardens nicely and holds a fine edge. Woody
February 2, 200917 yr Author The reason I posted is I had looked at Steel Composition and all that was showing was sayin for "springs" not torsion bars. I did find a note at one of the blacksmith sites that torsion bars were considered TOOL STEEL ...some people say spring steel is tool steel others say not so....Torsion bars are not spring steel like 5160...
February 3, 200917 yr Do a google search on torsion bar "steel composition" you can get the complete analysis from one of the many hits there. Then go to principalmetals.com and look under tool steel, see if 5160 is listed there or check Machinery's Handbook and see what it says about 5160.
February 3, 200917 yr that one problem, with using (not always so) common names, rather than standard designations. Spring steel is not 'A' steel, its a term for a family of steel with like properties.Likewise tool steel is not 'A' steel but another family of steels. Both these groups do have over lapping members. As for your softer sword, that may be only because ii was treated with his batch of swords. The temps were set for his steel, and may not have been correct temps for hardening and/or tempering temps for that steel you used. It may be fine for swords IF you identify the correct temps.
February 8, 200917 yr Author man O man... that is some tough stuff . I started a hardy cut of tool beat on the end necking it down for 45 minutes that wore me out.
February 8, 200917 yr Vanadium gives resistance to twists and shearing... "torsion" they should be good for turning forks, scrolling wrenches, and lots of other tooling type uses. If I remember correctly (always a dubious option;-) one of the guy's who is artist in residence; it was either David at Pennland, or Peter at??? Anyway he was selling nascar torsion bars because they are great steel and they use them once or twice and ditch them for safety reasons. He even had spec sheets on them, with working and heat treat info on them. He was making al kinds of tooling out of them, hot cuts, drifts, what ever... Just so you know S7 doesn't make a very good turning fork;-) I would try the torsion bars, because of the vanadium in the alloy
February 8, 200917 yr Author I was out again this afternoon at the forge ...finally got it to fit my hardy hole. it will only move at yellow heat it stops moving and its back in the fire...I've got the blade drown to about 5/8 " and I'm beat...that stuff is tough
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