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11-24-2015, 12:04 PM
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Enthusiast
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Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Michigan
Posts: 91
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truck leaf spring
Question, would steel from an old truck leaf spring make good blades?
Cleaning my shop the other day I found under my work bench a couple lengths of leaf spring from repairs made to a 1983 Ford puck up a few years ago. The main spring had snapped off at the linkage to the frame. I remember that it was hell cutting through the other end to get it out! Took over half an hour to cut through the thin part even with a carborundum blade in my reciprocating saw.
In the middle it looks to be close to a quarter inch thick.
If it would be good for a blade, should I start by heating to over 1500 degrees, then air cool to draw out the existing temper?
Or, just take it to the scrap yard?
AL C
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11-24-2015, 12:58 PM
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Founding Member / Moderator
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Wauconda, WA
Posts: 9,840
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The steel is potentially decent for a blade. The fact that you say it snapped off in the truck indicates that this spring has been seriously stressed in its life time - a common problem with old springs. That, in turn, indicates that the steel is probably laced with stress fractures. If you plan to forge your blade, and if you work the steel carefully with the intention of closing and welding up these tiny cracks that you can't see, then you could produce a good blade from it. If you were planning on stock removal, I wouldn't....
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11-24-2015, 01:35 PM
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Enthusiast
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Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Michigan
Posts: 91
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Long story on how it broke, short version: While my son was driving down the highway the u-joint at the differential broke, the drive shaft slid out of the transmission and bounced a couple times, punched a hole in the gas tank and snapped the leaf spring. There was actually a dent in the spring where the drive shaft hit it. The whole back end of the truck was lifted up off the pavement. He did a great job not getting into a horrific accident.
The truck was 7 or 8 years old when this happened.
I don't/can't have a forge, city issues.
Scrap it?
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11-24-2015, 03:12 PM
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Founding Member / Moderator
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Join Date: Jun 2002
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Especially not having a forge, I'd scrap it. The time, effort, and materials you would have to expend to make a blade from it without a forge - only to have a blade you couldn't fully trust - would easily pay for some good blade steel that wouldn't have all those issues. It would be annealed, straight, clean and you would know exactly what it needed for heat treatment......
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11-24-2015, 04:28 PM
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Enthusiast
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Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Michigan
Posts: 91
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Thanks Ray, it was just a thought.
May be I can get a couple bucks from the scrap yard to help pay Aldo for some good tool steel!
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Tags
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back, bee, blade, blades, common, degrees, forge, heat, knife, made, make, materials, problem, reciprocating, shop, steel, stock removal, temper, tiny, welding |
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