Steel good for smithing?

[RedMF40]

I picked up this load yesterday on a whim, happened to be walking by when the lot came up for sale. Total cost after tax and auction fee: $5.83.
I want the more structural and robust pieces for various welding projects or just to have around in case. For the curved (harrows?) are they of any value in blacksmithing, once heated and straightened out? I imagine it's some kind of spring steel. I'd like to recoup my $5.83 if at all possible and not just scrap them. I personally have no use for them. Thanks for any thoughts.
Gerrit

 

[leroy in ne]

I picked up this load yesterday on a whim, happened to be walking by when the lot came up for sale. Total cost after tax and auction fee: $5.83.
I want the more structural and robust pieces for various welding projects or just to have around in case. For the curved (harrows?) are they of any value in blacksmithing, once heated and straightened out? I imagine it's some kind of spring steel. I'd like to recoup my $5.83 if at all possible and not just scrap them. I personally have no use for them. Thanks for any thoughts.
Gerrit

Hadn't thought about it and mine went in the scrap trailer. They might be of interest to someone who makes knifes.

 

[Watthour]

There appears to be a mix of low carbon cold-rolled (1018, etc.), hot-rolled forms (1040), and likely some higher carbon/chrome-moly "spring" steel (4140 or better), and a handful of castings.

If you have 100 lbs. there (and it appears that you have way more than that) you could easily break even by scrapping it - Unless you drove 300 miles to acquire it.

The low carbon stuff could be useful for general fabrication projects. The spring steel could also be recycled into projects but will lose some of its tensile properties once heated for forming or welding, unless it is heat treated afterward. That's not very easy to accomplish in the field, or at least not with predictable results. The quench and anneal are tough to control outside of a furnace with atmosphere gasses.

 

[Fawteen]

I use them for yard art.

 

[Eric in IL]

In the seventies we had a local blacksmith that forged leaf springs on to the blades of our five foot rotary cutter. They held up great.

 

[Richard G.]

I picked up this load yesterday on a whim, happened to be walking by when the lot came up for sale. Total cost after tax and auction fee: $5.83.
I want the more structural and robust pieces for various welding projects or just to have around in case. For the curved (harrows?) are they of any value in blacksmithing, once heated and straightened out? I imagine it's some kind of spring steel. I'd like to recoup my $5.83 if at all possible and not just scrap them. I personally have no use for them. Thanks for any thoughts.
Gerrit

I wish I had that harrow on the end.

 

[RedMF40]

Hadn't thought about it and mine went in the scrap trailer. They might be of interest to someone who makes knifes.

There's a local blacksmith who makes knives and swords. I'll see if he has any interest.

 

[RedMF40]

There appears to be a mix of low carbon cold-rolled (1018, etc.), hot-rolled forms (1040), and likely some higher carbon/chrome-moly "spring" steel (4140 or better), and a handful of castings.

If you have 100 lbs. there (and it appears that you have way more than that) you could easily break even by scrapping it - Unless you drove 300 miles to acquire it.

The low carbon stuff could be useful for general fabrication projects. The spring steel could also be recycled into projects but will lose some of its tensile properties once heated for forming or welding, unless it is heat treated afterward. That's not very easy to accomplish in the field, or at least not with predictable results. The quench and anneal are tough to control outside of a furnace with atmosphere gasses.

The auction was about 15 minutes from my house so have little time invested in this. I know I can use the other straight pieces for various projects or just to have around. I thought maybe the curved ones would be of interest to an experienced blacksmith. Thanks for the info. Gerrit

 

[RedMF40]

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I use them for yard art.

Those are really nice pieces. I may have to steal some of those ideas.

 

[Fawteen]

Those are really nice pieces. I may have to steal some of those ideas.

Feel free!

 

[Ultradog MN]

I picked up this load yesterday on a whim, happened to be walking by when the lot came up for sale. Total cost after tax and auction fee: $5.83.
I want the more structural and robust pieces for various welding projects or just to have around in case. For the curved (harrows?) are they of any value in blacksmithing, once heated and straightened out? I imagine it's some kind of spring steel. I'd like to recoup my $5.83 if at all possible and not just scrap them. I personally have no use for them. Thanks for any thoughts.
Gerrit

I wish I could find what looks like a useable spring tooth like that.
Want to double your money?
A spike tooth would be okay too.

 

[NoDakInMN]

There's a local blacksmith who makes knives and swords. I'll see if he has any interest.

That would be your best bet. Personally, those of us who do more ornamental work prefer mild steel but will use coil springs to make tooling such as punches or chisels as the round stock works better for that than flat stock.

 

[Steven Allen]

Wish I loved closer to you: I'd love to have one of those to use.

 

[RedMF40]

That would be your best bet. Personally, those of us who do more ornamental work prefer mild steel but will use coil springs to make tooling such as punches or chisels as the round stock works better for that than flat stock.

I’ll see what he says. He knows a lot about different metals. Any idea what age these are? Not heavily rusted so I don’t think they are ancient.

 

[Non-farmer]

I wish I could find what looks like a useable spring tooth like that.

How badly do you want one? I've got one of those things (I think I was told it's a rake?) out in the weeds.

 

[Ultradog MN]

How badly do you want one? I've got one of those things (I think I was told it's a rake?) out in the weeds.

Where are you located?

 

[RedMF40]

I wish I could find what looks like a useable spring tooth like that.
Want to double your money?
A spike tooth would be okay too.

Haha that’s pretty tempting. Imagining all I could do with $11.66 in my pocket. They both needed work, plenty of farmers at the sale and they wanted no part of it. I live on “Rocky Top” here so they’d probably just bounce around and throw rocks at me.

 

[Non-farmer]

Where are you located?

A couple hours north of Detroit. I'm thinking it's a long drive for you