[TheForge] untapped resource?

[Bob Ehrenberger]

Daniel,

I have, and use old lawn mower blades.  The problem with them is you never
know what they are made of, if you have 10 blades you may have 10 different
alloies.  Also like other used steel they may have hidden flaws (from
hitting rocks and stumps) that don't show up until after you have put a lot
of work into a piece.

If you are making knives to sell, the new steel is cheep when compaired to
your time. If you are making knives for your own use, it's a good source of
useable steel just don't be too disapointed if the blade fails.

I made a hive tool from used steel years ago and it has worked out well.
It's always a gamble.

The longer I do this (blacksmithing) the less I mess with salvage material.

Robert Ehrenberger
Shelbyville, Mo.
eforge at centurytel.net

---Original Message----
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 22:21:21 -0500
From: "Daniel Kretchmar" <dan at irontreeworks.com>
Subject: [TheForge] untapped resource?

Hey all,
      The other day, while I was driving home from work, it suddenly occured
to me that lawn mower blades are good steel...obvious I know....but I
stopped at a lawn mower store and asked if I could have the old blades that
...
clip
...
I did a grinding spark test and also heated and quenched and then shattered
one so I know its at least 1080. I flattened and annealed one and just
finished grinding out a Usuba ocho (japanese vegatable cleaver).  It seems
like the metal is great!  The two stores I called said that I could have as
many as I wanted as often as I wanted........


Sooooo.....Why have I never heard people talk about this resource before?
Have I just not noticed?  Is the metal toxic and contains something that
will kill anyone uses it? :)

Dan
www.irontreeworks.com