Caught a guy at the forge using rebar for a knife blank yesterday

I was helping out at a local demo up in Greenville and this younger smith was hammering on a piece of rebar like it was 1095 steel. I had to pull him aside and show him the spark test (which he'd never even heard of, can you believe that?). Rebar gives off those long branching sparks that just scream mild steel, plus it's got that high manganese content that makes it crack if you quench wrong. He was pretty bummed but I gave him a few blanks from my own stash to practice on. Has anyone else run into new folks trying to forge junk metal without knowing the difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

ellis.charles16d ago

Well I'll be. I have to admit I used to think rebar was just fine for knives. Back when I started out I grabbed a piece from a job site and made a decent looking blade from it. Then I tried to harden it and the thing cracked right down the middle. That was a hard lesson but it taught me the value of knowing what you're working with before you put hours into it. Now I always tell newcomers to stick with known steels like 1084 or 5160 until they get the heat treat down.

the_seth15d ago

Did I learn that one the hard way too?