I came upon some scrap steel the other day which appear to be old mower blades. (big ones from an industrial type mower, not your garden variety)
They should prove useful once the forge is up and running. I decided it was a good opportunity to try to test for different steel types using the indicator of sparks off the grinding wheel.
As well as the blade steel, I tested angle iron steel, galvanised water pipe and know tool steel in the form of some old tin snips.
The results seemed to indicate that the blades are hardened, high carbon steel, whilst the angle and pipe are mild steel only.
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- Steel from found blade (high carbon, hardened?)
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- Steel from L section scrap (mild steel)
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- Galvanised water pipe (mild steel)
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- Tin snip tool (hardened, high carbon)
It wasn’t as obvious as I had hoped, having read the theory in my Blacksmithing text.
Maybe there’s an expert out there?
Hopefully I’ll be posting on the construction of my forge soon!
Brian.
