"FILE" steel

[Frank J Warner]

My father was a lifelong machinist. When he died I got most of the contents of his workshop. Tools, of course, but also lots of raw materials, too (stainless, bronze, brass, aluminum, drill rod, some exotic stuff and lots of tool steel).

Among all this were several pieces of steel that he'd labeled with a Magic Marker, "FILE."

It's obvious that these were once large machinist's bastards. Most are 15" long, 1-1/4" wide, and 1/4" thick, but the cutting edges have been 99% surface ground away, leaving a smooth, nearly flawless billet of steel behind showing little or no sign of oxidization. The steel shimmers in the light.

I have no idea of the original maker of these files, and no way to spark test the steel. I'd guess most of them are 30 years old or more.

Short of digging up my old man and asking him, what's the safest guess I can make about the type of steel these files were made from? Guesswork aside, is there any way to tell for certain?

-FJW

[Jamey Saunders]

According to the chart at this site (http://www.flash.net/~dwwilson/ntba/...junksteel.html) it's probably W-2. Could be something else, though. That chart's not an absolute reference, but more like a list of best guesses and "most probably"-ies.

If you have enough of the files to do some testing, make a couple of test blades and devise a HT method. Test the blades. If you can get a decent HT, and the blades perform properly, it really doesn't matter what the steel is, IMHO.

[Ray Rogers]

Manufacturers of files use a lot of different steels. Most manufacturers don't use the same steel all the time, they buy what's available or what has the best price at the moment as long as it meets the specs they need. I have heard that Nicholson consistantly uses 1095 but they are the only file maker the (reportedly) stays with one type of steel. Since you can't idenify the maker that's not much help.

Short of sending each piece out for chemical analysis there is no way to know what steel they are except to say it's some sort of carbon steel. As such, it all can be annealed and heat treated with pretty much the same process so knowing what it is precisely isn't really necessary. Hopefully, your dad knew that some files were made of cheaper steels and were only case hardened and he didn't save any of those. Such files will not make good knives.

The safest way to tell what you have is to make a blade and then test it for toughness and edge holding by using it to chop wood and cut rope or cardboard to see how it holds an edge and that it doesn't break. If it passes the tests then finish the knife. Carbon steel is so cheap to buy that it's hardly worth the effort to make knives from unknown types of files....

[Frank J Warner]

My father was a packrat. Kept everything. Most of it was just junk. But, when he went to the trouble to label something, it meant it was valuable in some way, either functionally or otherwise. And he had taken a lot of time and trouble to surface grind these files to a nearly polished finish, which leads me to believe the steel is better than average.

I'll try making a knife and heat treating, then test it to destruction. If I can't break it easily, there'll be more to come.

-FJW

[Davis]

Uh, who is telling my life here?
*g*

Hiya, Frank, my dad was a machinist too, like you, I got all his tools and "stuff" .. lots of stuff.

He was also a packrat and if it was labelled, it's important, must be a machinist-thing.
Found a slew of "labelled" W-2 last winter, it's good to keep things.

Make a blade. Oil quench it, just about any seel can handle oil and see what you've got....
Good luck Fun going through the tooling, isn't it?
Just found some 40 year-old dies yesterday... It's like Christmas.

Trish

[Jason Cutter]

But the simple tests Ray and Trish have suggested may make the difference. The problem with a lot of larger files is that the #### thing may have been case hardened and anything more than 1/10th inch down is just plain useless.

In Australia, I use Wiltshire brand files (no rasps) because after a fair bit of trial and error, I've never had one turn out to be anything but ... I also almost always use 1095 with clay-backed hardening and work for hamons etc. so the type of steel becomes deadly obvious soon through the process of making the knife.

Nicholson is another company that uses a high carbon steel consistently. However, from what I've heard, rather than straight old 1095, they feed it steroids !! I hear its got up to 1.25% carbon, as opposed to the usual 0.9-1.0% carbon in 1095. For sure, Nicholson brand files are more difficult to forge - they move less well under the hammer. I am actually not certain if it is just a case of higher carbon or whether it is potentially W-2, which is 1095 with a little vanadium in it. This could explain why it seems a bit red-hard - moves slowly when forged. Either way - I can attest that they make good knives.

Good luck. Jason.