newbie leafspring question

[panzertank27]

i was wondering if i could anneal or normalize a foot of 2 inch leaf spring in my wood stove if i crank up the heat. i want to cut it with a grinder cutoff saw and its way too hard it took me 1 hour to cut the foot off of the main leaf and thats only 2 inches.im going to build my charcoal forge soon but bc of my stupid design (which i refuse to change bcim stubborn and it took me a long time to come to the decision.. blah blah blah....) anyways i cant pour my refractory cement until i get 3 days of 10 degrees or more and the forge is in my un heated garage, and i got a 3 year old and 3 month old at home so not much time on my hands... but if i could anneal it (evenhalf at a time) i could work on it much easier.

ps. i probably already ruined it cuz i got excited last night and when it was red hot i took it out and beat it straight, took me 3 heats about 25 hammers per heat but its straight, but i probably wrecked the moleculer structer or something.
so thanks for my opertunity to ask a 'quick' question...

[Steve Sells]

red hot,? not hot enough for good forging, but it was hot enough to soften it, What did you use to get it that hot ?

Edited March 5, 2009 by steve sells

[hammerkid]

Also what you cutting it with? I cut leaf spring all the time with abravise cutting wheels on grinders and my 14" chop saw , it dont take long.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard, glad to have ya.

Annealing spring steel before taking a hot saw to it is kind of superflous. The heat from the blade will soften it ahead of the cut regardless. Overheating the steel by trying to hog a hot saw blade (composition cutoff blade) tends to load the blade and stop it cutting. You can glaze it by cutting too slowly too.

I've cut leaf spring off a vehicle with a hacksaw, and drilled it with high speed bits no problem. The stuff isn't very hard at a spring temper.

If you'll click "User CP" at the top of the page and edit your profile to show your location folk living close can let you know about get togethers, tool deals and lend you some hands on help.

Frosty

[panzertank27]

i used charcoal (homemade) and hand bellow and lots of elbow grease.
im using a mastercraft 4 inch grinder to cut with cheap discs(does it matter if cheap or expensive discs???)
oh yeah of course if im grinding it im heating it up where i cut, sometimes the obvious eludes me.
also i just finished trying to anneal it by gettin it all red hot(ok orange hot) when a magnet failed to stick i left it for another few mins then took of coals and left it in the ash. i just want it softer to work on with files after rough grinder cut. i dont know too much about steel as im a carpenter by trade but im reading lots and thanks for all yer help..... im makin a bowie type knife for my first ( ive redone handles on many of my knives but thats the extent of my experience... ty

[Woody]

People make knives out of railroad spikes which are mild steel unless they are the HC ones then they have .30% carbon and the tout their edge holding ability. 4340 has .10% more carbon than a HC rr spike and some additional alloy metals chrome and moly I think but I am not sure and I am on the road right now without access to my reference material. 4340 will make a knife it may not hold an edge as well as some of the high carbon steels. I have made a Katana out of 4140 and although I havent done a lot of cutting with it, it is very sharp and I clamped the tip in the vise, grabbed the handle and bent it to a 45 degree angle and it sprung back to it's original shape.

Make a knife out of it, see what it does and learn from the experience.