Thread: Melting Down Old Steel

Another problem you would run into is heat treating the blade of the unknow steel.... or steels in your case. A good heat treat and temper can be tricky with known steel and a heat treat recipie to go with it. Mystery steel heat treat can be very difficult and frustrating. It would be pretty frustrating to go through all that work to smelt and grind yourself a blade and then not be able to get a proper heat treat.

One more problem you would run into is decarb. Heating the steel hot enough to melt would cause a lot of the carbon in the steel to leave in favor of the oxygen. There is a good chance you would be left with a steel that didnt have enough carbon in it to heat treat it even if you tried.

Just some food for thought.

I've spent over 8 years in a foundry/rolling mill. Molten metal is EXTREMELY dangerous. However, you can melt down old "unknown" metal objects and re-use them. We would "spark" the scrap metal to see what it was comprised of. Then we would sort it into different types or categories. After they were melted down we would pour samples and "spark" them to see what the composition was. From there we could add the appropriate alloys to get it to where we wanted. At that point we would cast it into ingots and then roll the ingots into sheet and plate up to 10 inches thick.

So yes it can be done. However, it's probably not something you'd want to do at home or even have the proper tools and equipment to do so safely. You also have to do a whole bunch at a time to make it cost effective.

The insurance companies have convinced the local university, long known for graduating shop teachers, that casting any materials such as iron and steel are a no- no! The foundry is closed and is used for long term junk storage! The only folks seeming to be able to do hot work, other than welding, are the art students...for now!

I have developed a healthy respect for molten metals without regard to their composition.
~Richard

Originally Posted by Geezer

The insurance companies have convinced the local university, long known for graduating shop teachers, that casting any materials such as iron and steel are a no- no! The foundry is closed and is used for long term junk storage! The only folks seeming to be able to do hot work, other than welding, are the art students...for now!

I have developed a healthy respect for molten metals without regard to their composition.
~Richard

When I registered with the IRS I had to pick a category for my activities, which is officially 'Manufacturer of knives and hand tools', which is a subcategory of 'Metal working, with the exception of casting or mold injection'. Seems that if you want to do the latter as a job activity, that's a separate registration, possibly for environmental reasons (and permits etc).

Originally Posted by Bruno

When I registered with the IRS I had to pick a category for my activities, which is officially 'Manufacturer of knives and hand tools', which is a subcategory of 'Metal working, with the exception of casting or mold injection'. Seems that if you want to do the latter as a job activity, that's a separate registration, possibly for environmental reasons (and permits etc).

Different regulators. Molten metal has it's own set of rules and laws for safety and environmental reasons.

Originally Posted by Bruno

When I registered with the IRS I had to pick a category for my activities, which is officially 'Manufacturer of knives and hand tools', which is a subcategory of 'Metal working, with the exception of casting or mold injection'. Seems that if you want to do the latter as a job activity, that's a separate registration, possibly for environmental reasons (and permits etc).

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

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.