ta2edfreak
Member
Now that I have your attention, please hear me out. I don't use leaf springs or lawnmower blades or anything like that to make knives. I have made a small one out of a coil spring but just as play with my new forge. My question is why can't someone use leaf springs or coil springs to make a knife? Im not talking about annealing them, bending straight and using stock reduction to make it. I know about micro fractures and cracks, memory retention and such. However, if I normalize the steel a couple of times, then bring it up to welding heat and lightly tap all over as if I was making damascus or layered steel, would this close all those micro cracks?
There have been a couple of threads that talk about steel having memory until you get past critical temp. Considering that forge welding temp is well above critical, would this not effectively erase that memory? I have no intention of using found steel for knives but i would appreciate it if someone could discuss whether this method has value or not. Do the cracks close up? Does the memory erase? Whether the steel is actually good for a knife or not is irrelevant, you can tell people all day that it isn't good for them but they will do it anyway, and they have just enough info to be dangerous. However if you can explain to them metalurgically, it might get through.
There have been a couple of threads that talk about steel having memory until you get past critical temp. Considering that forge welding temp is well above critical, would this not effectively erase that memory? I have no intention of using found steel for knives but i would appreciate it if someone could discuss whether this method has value or not. Do the cracks close up? Does the memory erase? Whether the steel is actually good for a knife or not is irrelevant, you can tell people all day that it isn't good for them but they will do it anyway, and they have just enough info to be dangerous. However if you can explain to them metalurgically, it might get through.