New Jersey Steel Baron & Niagara Specialty Metals

[Matthew Gregory]

Hey gang,
Some of you may remember a thread or two I did a few months ago touring Niagara Specialty Metals... well, during that visit Bob Shabala, NSM President -and my tour guide- mentioned that his firm had some of the coveted and rare L6 that many smiths crave. Some being about 40,000 pounds of it!
Assuming that I'd at least throw the idea out there and maybe I could get enough folks interested in going in on a batch, I posted the steel's chemistry on a few forms with a note that I knew where we could get it.
Next thing I know, there's a strange new van rolling into town:



Sho' nuff, good ol' Uncle Aldo was wheelin' and dealin'!

He met with Tim, Bob & Jeff at NSM to work out some of the arrangements:



The deal was made, and the New Jersey Steel Baron pondered his most recent conquest upon a dais fit for a man of such high caliber... 20 tons of L6!!!



Here the Steel Baron holds court with Bob:



While Jeff, Bob & Aldo worked out the details of their new business proposition, Tim was kind enough to give me a second tour. I asked if I could see the yard where all the billets were kept again, and he smiled and said "There's been a few billets that have come from the mills recently that you'll want to see."

Remember, gang - these billets are around 1,700 pounds a piece!

Crucible CPM-10V anyone?



...or would you prefer Crucible CPM-S30V?





How about Crucible CPM-M4?



Nothing beats Crucible CPM-3V for a hard user:



King of the tool steels, D2:



I stopped taking pictures of billets around this time, as no one really needs to see any more, but NSM has piles of this stuff, including every single one of the D-series steels, the A-series steels, CPM-15v, 9v, 154CM, CPM-154CM, CPM-D2, 440C... and lots of other stuff like every kind of titanium you can think of. They even had enormous billets of pure molybdenum for a special job!

[Matthew Gregory]

Another project they've been doing is mating aluminum to stainless steel. Tricky, to say the least! Here's a shot of one of the scraps from the latest run:



These are solid blocks of 6AL-4V titanium - and yes, those are the weights marked on there (420 lbs, etc):



Here's a shot of one wing of the yard:

http://gallery.me.com/totalnrg/10061...12750716030001

You think our grinders are expensive? Try the new Timesaver these guys just invested in! Just shy of a million bucks! Timesaver's on-sight technician was in from Denmark doing the final adjustments to the machine when Aldo and I were there.





I asked Aldo and Bob to hold one of the belts for this monster... 63"x103"!!!!!





The belts cost over $200 a piece, and they don't last these guys any longer than they do us.

[Matthew Gregory]

Aldo negotiated for more than just the lot of L6, though... here he is meandering through some of NSM's CPM stock that's already been rolled and cut, and ready to ship:



I keep hearing rumors that Crucible steel is no longer available - folks, nothing could be further from the truth. The mills are running, the steel is flowing, and brother, these guys are rolling it!

CPM-S30v:



CPM-154CM:





CPM-S35VN:



D2, CPM-3V, 440C...



...and Uncle Aldo picking his stock to sell to us!



It was fun to be an observer - Aldo was like a little kid!





If even half of the plans that these guys were discussing (that I managed to hear) come to fruition, this is merely the beginning. This is going to be a relationship that is going to benefit both stock removal makers and bladesmiths alike! Stay tuned!!!!

[Ed Tipton]

All I can say is WOW! I've seen huge quantities of steel before, but I've never seen such quantities of as is in these pictures in anything other than mild steel. Being a mfr. of machine tool cutters, I'm sure Niagra has had inroads into the specialty steels for years, but companies such as Niagra don't typically give access to their stock to those who are not in their company.

I hope Aldo is able to secure a source of these magnificent steels for us. It would be nice to not have to beg for small pieces of our steel, and to have someone who is sympathetic to our needs who is able to provide us with the steels we want and need.