Thread: Melting Down Old Steel

I can't speak for Bruno but if I was writing a casual post, talking about the Swedish "Skatteverket", I would probably just lazily write IRS instead of looking up the proper translation.

Originally Posted by bluesman7

You had to register with the U.S. IRS from Belgium? Or does Belgium have an IRS too.

I should explain. No, not the US IRS, the Belgian one (we do have taxes here too, y' know?... sadly... ) Like Baxxer says, in Dutch they're called 'Belastings dienst' or 'De belastingen' or certain less flattery names which I won't mention here but which revolve around the concept of them going after the little self employed people who cannot afford the big lawyers that keep the big businesses from paying taxes

Basically, when you want to start a business, you have to incorporate and you get a VAT number which is also your incorporation number. (actually there are 2 numbers but let's not make things overly complex).
The VAT number is what you use for taxes and accounting. You CAN run a business as a private citizen too, but then you don't get to deduct costs before taxes etc. In any case, the VAT number is also linked to your activity. This is done for census data (how many carpenters are there) and auditing (auditors may specialize in certain types of business) but also for checking regulatory requirements.

For example, if you want to do certain things which have an environmental impact, or legal requirements (such as being a certified land prospector who stakes out property lines) you have to have certain degrees, or certificates, or you may possibly have certain environmental requirements. When you incorporate, you have to choose which categories your business is active in, so that it is immediately clear if there are requirements or not. For what I do there aren't. Others may need specialized degrees or require certain environmental permits.

Thanks Bruno,

Sorry you had to revisit all that on my account.

Meh. No problem

I have to admit I was surprised that knifemaking was specifically recognized as a professional activity.

I use regularly an inert-atmosphere furnace that can go up to 1600 degrees, should be no problem getting a full melt on steel.

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

I use regularly an inert-atmosphere furnace that can go up to 1600 degrees, should be no problem getting a full melt on steel.

Is that Tmax Centigrade? 1600 F won't be enough.

Yeah sorry, max T is probably around 3000 F.

Then you have enough, iron melts at 2700F/1482C. Having a controlled atmosphere is pretty nice.

Well it will be melting point from the Fe/C system, which will change depending on the composition but is easily found from the phase diagram, and in any case is generally under 1500 C, all the way down to under 1200 for the eutectic. We can hook up any gas, typically we use argon, but could do nitrogen or air as well.



(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/c...arbonPhase.png)

Damn I haven't seen this chart since I was doing metallurgy as an apprentice in about 1988