[TheForge] Re: Steel Sources for Weapons

Wed Feb 5 20:53:00 2003

> The front end tortion bars of the old VW Beetles (available at every
> junk yard in the world) are straight, flat pieces of tool/spring
> steel.

IIRC, these are about 1/8"x1/2" and 1/8"x3/4".  You can clam one in a
vise and bend it nearly double.  When you let go it'll just whip back
and forth (taking your nose with it if you don't stay clear.)

Heat one up, cool it and *then* clamp it in a vise: you can break it
off with one hand.  Very hard and brittle, probably great stuff for a
laminated or pattern-welded blade.  I once made a Damascus ring using
m/s and VW front torsion bar.  In order to be able to file it, I put
it in the coals of my wood stove at suppertime and raked it out of the
cold ashes in the morning.

Oh, and the rear VW torsion bars make pretty tough hardies, too.  I
still have my very first hardy made (rather unskillfully :-) from this
stuff.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada 

[email protected]            
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/