Scrap metal for black smithing and knife making 

Thanks Thoms I'm also looking forward to doing it. I've used mystery steel in the past to make novelty knives or practice, but I've never given them a comparable test vs each other.

Yes, I never thought of the bar but I can add them to the make list. For all of you viewers out there I'm open to suggestions if I can get my hands on it I'll see what I can do.

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jimmie montgomery another viewer mentioned ar-400. Again another advanced steel so in general chipper blades are best left alone.

Thank you Shane, that's a bit of a hint for mystery steel. Figure out what the item is made for you might be-able to figure out its use. In this case an industrial high speed planer that does hundreds of thousands of board feet run in a shift (Even more) while being fed huge knots, rocks and anything else that grew into the trees. Its not the cabinetmakers precision planer with high carbon blades. So since the edge retention wont be good I think I know what I'll attempt with it, forge it into the edge of axes and tomahawks.

Liem Duong when they say 1050 or 1080 these are basic carbon steels so 1050 has about 0.5% carbon 1080 0.8% etc. Anything with about 0.4% carbon and up can be hardened. Thats what they say at least

It's extremely high carbon, and extremely hard. I've had trouble drilling it, and then getting it tempered when I finished fabrication. Yes, it's better than common angle iron, and usually free for the taking on trash day if you drive around your neighborhood before the trash truck runs.

If you really want to use scrap for practice use leaf springs. It’s usually free, produces some unique looking knives. I have another video specifically about leaf spring knives. Then once your skill goes up, move on to 80crv20 steel. Heat treats easy and it’s a very good steel for tactical knives, bush craft knives, tomahawks etc. even though it’s a high carbon steel it has some stainless steel properties.

A broom stick would likely be just mild steel made up of recycled garbage. But it would be possible but it just wouldn't be worth it. Plus getting flux inside the tube would be a pain.

tristan barnett this one intrigued me once before. I might still have the one I salvaged, but I may have chopped it up for the angle iron. I stopped saving it when someone told be it’s in the 1030 range. So it would make a good machete or parang. If I can get one I’ll forge up a parang and test it on some willows.

@@Metalandstuff464 thank you I hope you can do a video for me the reason I ask is a wild back that's what I made my first knife out of was a piece of iron bed frame I had lying around that was six years ago and to this day it still holds a fine Edge

I hadn't thought of it, but now that you mention it I'll see what I can do. There seems to be two types of metal on them, the base and the track. The top I heard can be hardened but its a work hardened steel. The base a cut off saw wont touch, even a torch has troubles cutting them. So I'll get a piece cut out and test it as well.

The rail anticreeper for the tracks are a good steel too.

Rail road tracks is about the same as 1080. Great knife steel

I've made a tomahawk drift and a hot cut both have held up good. This one I want to test with an edge but yes, cut to length like a piece of round rod and pound like hell, yes lol. I'm saving up for a 30 ton press to work this out on into a blade or sucker a friend into using a sledge for a couple days on it.

Kenny Clement if it’s not cracked or has a lot of stress fractures the steel is in a 1050 range give or take a few grades. Really good for axes. Swords if your willing to invest the time into a sword. Thing about coil springs, axles and such, is they soak hits. Takes an unreal amount of effort to move that kind of steel. I made a tomahawk drift out of an axle end once. It took 3-4 hours of solid work just to tapper and shape one end 8” long.

Baxter and stuff I’m not very familiar with steel in a safe. My best guess would be thick mild steel. But it’s probably an alloy that will resist heat (cutting torch). I’ve also seen safes with a layer of ceramic on them for fire rating too. This sounds like it’s one of those steels that would cost more than buying known knife steel.

I know more of the North American market. I have a partial feel for the market in Asia area on steel but not enough to point you in any direction. With online steel the prices I'm use to is between $1.50 an inch up to $4.00/Inch I'm guessing its similar to there. The reason Canada is this way is because we don't produce steel like the US and we pay a lot on shipping. Your best bet is to find a local source if possible, or this is where my business mind kicks in. Track down a leaf spring or similar scrap for a knife, make one or two sell them and use the money to invest in better steel and move on from there. I recently had the pleasure to visit Ona's knife shop in Philippines and that's what their using for their Balisongs.

Thanks I'll have a look into that

Try leaf , coil springs , old files , all can be found at give away prices

Hollow Grind, there are two suppliers that I know of in Australia. Gameco/Artisan supplies or Tharwa Valley Forge. TVF only has 1075 (I have made a knife out of it. It works great but they cut it with a plasma cutter which seems to edge harden the strips. So don't get theirs if you plan to shape it with hacksaws/files I tried and they wouldn't bite in. Works great if you want to forge or use grinders. Gameco has everything (but not always in stock all the time) I have used their 1084 and it works great made two knives and a fire steel.

Hollow Grind look online for Australian suppliers especially knife making supplies. If you see 5160, 1070, 1084, 1095 or O1 get them if you're using a forge for the heat treat. Stay away from railroad spikes as they are usually low carbon. Also railroad rails are 1084 and believe it or not old bed frame angle iron is 1080 or thereabouts. There are also files and band saw blades if you are forging at high heat. Also call a local steel supplier and see if the carry 1060 rebar or higher. If you order some steel that is laser cut and the edges are hardened you can put the parts in your forge and heat until non-magnetic and let slow cool, my brother used to shut his forge off and let the parts cool in the forge, then the parts are annealed and soft. You have to do this if you forge, it's called equalizing.

The brake drums are in there there for future forges, but these are rotors off a large truck. The brake drum is best, due to the hole size (fits a pipe floor flange). While a rotor will work it will require modifications, and you need larger ones. A good size is something as deep as your fingers or 4"-6". The reason its in there is because this was a video about useful scrap for grinder builds, forge builds etc, not just blade material. I hope the video helped you out alittle :)

I've been hesitant to tackle it myself. I also suspect their stainless of some sort, or at least very high chromium content. Because I had one sitting in damp to wet gravel for two years and all its done is taken on some rust spots, not become a plate of rust like carbon steel would have. Since I saw your post though I've been eyeing my two blades up and thinking I'm going to go for the challenge of it once I finish this contract knife I'm working on.

Since I made this comment I've done more research. By searching "chipper knives" instead of "chipper blades," I've found more info. Although I have not found the specific elements, the manufacturers call it alloyed steal witch usually means high chromium content as you suggested. I'm confident now that it is some sort of stainless. I'm not ready to take that on atm. If you find a way to heat treat it that doesn't involve expensive equipment, please let me know. ☺

Chipper blades are typically D2 tool steel which is no rookie steel to forge. 11% chrome does that.

Tendorff The Tender the reason grade 8 bolts are in there is more of a myth busting steel. I'm working my way through them and once I get a consistent test for them other than just Rockwell files I'll post a video of there performances. It got in there because I found some people were suggesting, but I'm suspicious of it's true performance

Alright thank you its good to know, Ill mark those off my list

Michael Lockhart yes, even as low as 400 degrees I think. When your welding it looks like a puff of sick green smoke and when you just burn it in a forge it looks grey in colour. Another thing not many people think about is previous coatings of industrial paints and stabilizers. Such as anticorrosion chemicals in bridge rebar where they soak it in a green paint that crystallizes into the metal and concrete. The joys of mystery metal.

Stainless chrome inconel monel all release chromium which is horrible for you

Zinc from galvanized steel

I knew a woman who used them for art work. I did some research back then and if I remember they were mild steel. BUT as novelty knives horse owners or collectors may like a high polished blade made from one. The upside is no wood working on the handle. But for edge holding it would be in zone of rebar.

@@Metalandstuff464 thanks Jason

This is actually a good point and I've tried to point this out in other videos. Unless you have a forge to normalize it, anneal it and then start working the blade, free mystery steel becomes almost as expensive as identified steel. But knife makers I'd say your better off buying 1084 flat stock and get right into it. If you want to blade smith then I don't recommend it, I made 15 - 20 blanks that wasn't worth making handles for and some not even worth profiling. So for me, because 1084 steel 3/16 x 1-1/2" is worth $1.30/inch. I would have about $350 worth of quality, 1084 rusting away behind the garage, instead of $10 in rebar and free leaf springs :) On a side note, the coil springs, leaf springs and axles I've used to make myself tools such as tomahawk drifts, punches, hot cuts and some other tools. Plus I gained a lot of needed experience on the forge and anvil.

The biggest problem with scrap steel is to determine the actual steel. If u don't know what the stuff is, at best u won't get the most out of it. High carbon 10.., 5... or even 8... Steels are dirt cheap from the right retailers, also comes annealed and nicely shaped. So why bother?

I am going to have to respectfully disagree with that statement. For over 100k years humans used essentially glass to make knives and even Otzi had a simple copper ax. From a practical and historical perspective metal is metal; if you understand and familiarize yourself with the steel you have then trace metals and carbon content make little difference. Soft metals will require more attention to make and keep sharp, hard metals take more time to sharpen and generally stay sharper longer. I use known steel and scrap steel for my knives and I have skinned and gutted animals with both with no noticeable difference in quality or performance. I try to stick to higher carbon steels like 5160, 1095, 1080, etc primarily because I like the balance of soft and hard. If you can sharpen a knife you don't need fancy metal. The caveat is that I anneal and normalize my steel and spark test for a carbon estimate. People who argue over the superiority of knife steel are the same type of rigid as shooters who argue over calibers. It is utter nonsense. There are certainly luxuries that come with each grade and type of metal, but I don't believe my leaf spring knife is a turd compared to a 300$ 1095 steel Tracker knife. I have both and I like them both, the difference is a weekend of work if I lose my scrap knife and a 300$ bill if I lose the expensive fancy knife. I once spent 6 hours trying to find a carbon V steel knife I lost in the mountains and now I leave the fancy at home and take the workhorse.