Thread: Does anyone else shave with old car springs?

Many years ago there was a Sword Maker in Colorado Springs that made Katanas from old spring steel. We got to talking one night at a Martial Arts seminar and one thing that stuck with me was him saying that when he went to the Junk Yards to pull springs, he looked for the oldest trucks he could find..
Said they had the best steel for the swords, I have no idea, it just stuck in my brain for about 40 years now

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Many years ago there was a Sword Maker in Colorado Springs that made Katanas from old spring steel. We got to talking one night at a Martial Arts seminar and one thing that stuck with me was him saying that when he went to the Junk Yards to pull springs, he looked for the oldest trucks he could find..
Said they had the best steel for the swords, I have no idea, it just stuck in my brain for about 40 years now

Could it be that the old steel was not a recycled steel?

Bob

Just keep in mind old cars like from the 50s with leaf springs suffered the springs simply snapping over time. Newer ones rarely suffer that fate so when you think about modern steel quality.....

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Newer ones rarely suffer that fate so when you think about modern steel quality.....

In the UK, almost no cars or light trucks have leaf springs, they went the way of running boards and cranking handles a long time ago.
Broken coil springs are very common on European made vehicles, mostly caused by poor quality springs and stiff sidewall, low profile tyres. Poor road surface maintenance is also a major factor.
When I started my apprenticeship 50 years ago, removing and re-tempering sagging leaf springs was common. I can still remember taking leaf springs to the 'Britannia Spring and Radiator Company' for re-conditioning. The name has stuck with me.

My dad had a 53 Studebaker and the leaf springs broke every few years and needed to be replaced. It had nothing to do with the brand but was a commonplace thing affecting all cars back then. No different really than cars needing to replace shock absorbers every few years.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

My dad had a 53 Studebaker and the leaf springs broke every few years and needed to be replaced. It had nothing to do with the brand but was a commonplace thing affecting all cars back then. No different really than cars needing to replace shock absorbers every few years.

Interesting..... years ago an old guy told me that Studebaker springs made great knives. I wonder if he just had a bunch of broken ones to play with?

Anyways, I guess what got me wondering about this in the first place is that while car springs make decent knives (I prefer D2 personally), they make excellent razors. I just find it interesting that they make better razors than hunting knives.

Originally Posted by DVW

Interesting..... years ago an old guy told me that Studebaker springs made great knives. I wonder if he just had a bunch of broken ones to play with?

Anyways, I guess what got me wondering about this in the first place is that while car springs make decent knives (I prefer D2 personally), they make excellent razors. I just find it interesting that they make better razors than hunting knives.

Could it be that the older springs snapped because they had a higher Carbon content and were slightly Harder???

Which would also be the reason they were better for Knives ???

Just spitballing