Thread: 4140 steel and other steel for post anvils?

Hey guys

Today I picked up steel from an Internet auction lot that I won.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/randyd...57653852821309

Everything in the pails/crates is 4140 steel and is small ( good for peening anvils?)

The other steel is of an unknown type except the one block marked D2.

My intent is to make a post anvil, ala Charlie Lewis. My question is 2 fold. Regarding the D2, roughly 3" x 3" , will heat treating it be enough to use as an anvil ...or.... should I weld on some 4140 steel to the top and heat treat that?

2nd question...The other potential pieces for a post anvil is the big block to the right of the D2 block, 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 7", The steel type is unknown. To play it safe, should I weld some 4140 to the top and then heat treat it? The other blocks under consideration are the 2 tall pieces with orange on the end. They are 2" x 4" x 12"+

Oh ya, also, what else can I use the small pieces of 4140 for? Ideas please.

nice score
I think the 4140 can be used for knives also maybe not sure about Razors but

my knife steel book notes D2 as a semi stainless and basically a 10XX steel with a bit more chromium, it will still rust but it is a little less susceptible to corrosion than regular carbon steel

at worse they would all be good for Damascus etc by the bucket load

I think a couple of my 10XX series bars had yellow ends also, I try remember to check them tonight let you the grade mine are it may help ?

D2 is an air harding steel commonly used in knives, but it supposedly works better when you go off of the "factory spec" HT which gives BIG carbides. The old joke about D2 was that it takes a crappy edge and holds it forever. IIRC, Bob Dozier was one of the first guys to really come up with an alternate HT regime to get a finer edge without the huge primary carbides. 4140 is not really suitable for knives but a number of guys use it for things like tactical tomahawks.

D2 has half again as much carbon as 1095, enough chrome to make it almost "officlally" stainless steel and a fair bit of other alloying elements like vanadium and moly. it requires an austenizing temp 350-400F hotter than 10xx steels. close to the low austenizing temperature of CPM 3V. For tooling, it is highly wear resistant.

Originally Posted by Substance

nice score
I think the 4140 can be used for knives also maybe not sure about Razors but

my knife steel book notes D2 as a semi stainless and basically a 10XX steel with a bit more chromium, it will still rust but it is a little less susceptible to corrosion than regular carbon steel

at worse they would all be good for Damascus etc by the bucket load

I think a couple of my 10XX series bars had yellow ends also, I try remember to check them tonight let you the grade mine are it may help ?

I will not be using the 4140 for any knife or razor work. It is simply not suitable.
The small pieces of 4140 could obviously be used as peening anvils for razor. Some larger pieces possibly for hammer heads. Perhaps use some of it for hardy hole tool making? There are a few pieces of round bar 4140 that could be welded to the top of a hardy hole tool, or make a hardy hole cutoff tool, etc ?

My main question is about using the D2 block as a post anvil and the second question is about the need to weld 4140 to the tops of the other blocks to serve as post anvils.

the hammer heads idea sound great

You have to figure that 4140 makes very nice anvils and should make nice hammers and tools too. It gets plenty hard enough to whoop up on stuff, just not hard enough to slice real fine. It also works great for gun barrels. Do you think that the other stuff is mild steel? If so, then the 4140 idea sounds like a plan if you can pull it off. My only uneducated concern with D2 is that it is not considered to be a "tough" air hardening steel like A2. It is known more for its increased abrasion resistance compared to A1 and O1 and for its dimensional stability in heat treat..

That's a nice pile of steel you have there!

I made my hardy hot cut tool from 4140 and it works really well. The other pieces I have are going to be turned into other hardy tools as well as axe and hammer heads.

Originally Posted by JDM61

Do you think that the other stuff is mild steel? If so, then the 4140 idea sounds like a plan if you can pull it off. .

I have spoken with a few people about what the other steels might be. The recommendations have ranged from spark testing, file hardness testing and ball peen hammer testing.
My thoughts at present are
1. Just how hard do I need the steel to be to hand forge razors? I honestly think that it is nowhere near the requirements of hand drifting a hole for a hammer head. Plus I have no intention of using this steel for any heavy forging of any kind. I have another 170 lb anvil for that stuff.
My plan is to use the ball bearing drop test to get some initial idea and the spark test. I will try hitting the side of the steel piece with a ball peen hammer to see if it dents the material.
I will go from there.
The piece of D2 I will have heat treated because that is a known steel.

For testing I can just lay the steel on its side on my big 170 lb anvil and start forging a razor to see the results and go from there.
I guess I gotta order some 1095 from Aldo Bruno, the New Jersey Steel Baron and get started on this.

How much do you need? I have enough for 48 razors so I probably could spare some.