t post

[bfullmer]

Cleaning up fence row and found a tree root around a fence post so I thought just cut it off with cordless sawzall it took the teeth off a brand new blade- is it hard steel or junk blade ???

 

[Bob]

Steel posts are typically hard to saw, dunno the term for the type of hardened steel.

 

[old]

Yes they are some type of harden steel. I remember years ago my dad wanted to drill hole in the tope of T posts so he could string some sting threw them and found he could not even begin to drill holes in them. I ended up blowing holes in them for him with my torch

 

[Dusty MI]

If you had been able to cut the post off, think about what if you ran over the stub a couple of years down the road.

 

[midtnman]

Was told once a lot of t post were made by recycling old railroad rails. Would be interesting to know the source.

 

[from the hill]

Hand held angle grinder with a metal cutoff wheel works good. Only need to cut half way and the post will bend and brake.

 

[guido]

Hello bob

I would guess case hardened?, as it is usually all it is needed for that application,

Guido.

 

[Rick in Iowa]

yes most of them are made from old railroad rails.in 1985 I hauled a load of old rails into a mill in Chicago area.unloaded one side of plant and went around to other side and loaded new posts.said they slice them then run them through forming machine.

 

[newhollandnut]

Why not just use the sawzall to cut the tree root?

 

[Stephen Newell]

T-Posts are pretty hard but a bi-metal blade should have done it.

 

[Steve@Advance]

The mistake most made using a Sawzall on steel is running it too fast.

The high speed capability should only be used on softer materials. Cutting steel should be done at about half speed. Even at that, raking the teeth backward through the cut is hard on a blade, but nothing can be done about that.

 

[Lucid]

They are definitely hard. I use them for cucumber trellis and pound them in with a maul. Have a few that have splits amd yet to fracture away!

 

[DR. EVIL]

They are "Green steel", un-annealed, not heat-treated in any way after being quickly cooled from forming. The quick cooling leaves the grain structure unrefined like would be seen in any annealed or quench & tempered steel. Concrete rebar is the same situation. Quickly takes the teeth off a saw blade, have to be ground in two with an abrasive disk.

T-posts are cut via a special shear right out of the hot former machine while still glowing red hot. Company I worked for investigated making replacement shear blades for Northwestern Steel & Wire. Northwestern Steel & Wire was located in Sterling, Ill. At one time had three 400 ton electric furnaces for making steel in operation, largest furnaces in use in the US. They made wire for nails and screws, rebar, steel fence posts, barb wire and woven fence wire. Place employed just over 4000 in their heyday. Place closed in 2001.

 

[Russ from MN]

Every spring the frost pushes one up in the blacktop county road in front of our house. I called the county the first time and they stopped with a grinder and cut it off. Since then I just take a sledge hammer and drive it down, it usually splits and breaks up, very hard and brittle.

 

[pete black]

Train rails, Google it.

 

[jeffcat]

Some of those fence posts from the 60s were incredibly hard. Also some of the barbed wire was very tough too. You could wear a pair of fence plyers out.