Grader Blade

[Jim R. Glines]

Ed, can you or one of the guys tell me what kind of steel a grader blade is, and how to harden and heat teat it?
Thanks
Jim

[LShull]

It is very close to 1080- 1084, it can be water hardened (1450-1475)bring up to non-magnetic and let the color leave it a little and 1 quick swish in room temp water. or oil hardened (1500-1550) bring up to non-magnetic and and into oil 130-160 F. let cool in oil.easiest way.
tempered at between 375-400 F for about 1 hr depending on what rockwell hardness you want.
Generally if you temper it till it is about a straw color it should be about right.

[Ed Caffrey]

Much is going to depend on the company that made the grader edge. Cat makes theirs out of 1050-1060, JD's replacement blade edges are 4140, (or they were when I retired 4 years ago) and with all the newer makes of graders in use, especially the imports, saying exactly what it is with any certainty is at best, a guess.

A very general test you can do is to forge a small section down to approx. 1/8" thick, then bring it to critical and quench.....if you can break that piece by lightly tapping it with a hammer, chances are good that you have something you could build a blade from. The rest of the heat treatment is going to require that you experiment and figure out the proper times/temps for that particular piece of steel.

This is the reason that many have gone to only using new, known steels. Once you establish a heat treat for the given steel, you don't have to do it again. Where as with recycled items, your required to "re-invent the wheel" each time you use it. There was a time when you could rely on a specific item being made of a specific type steel, but those days are long gone, due to industries' lust for the dollar. In many cases quality has taken a backseat to what is most economical to produce, that provides an ACCEPTABLE level of quality that the customer will purchase.

The moral of the story is: Steel is still reasonably cheap, and if you don't want to go through the whole process of trial and error each time you build a blade, its the way to go.

[jjh]

Originally Posted by Ed Caffrey

The moral of the story is: Steel is still reasonably cheap, and if you don't want to go through the whole process of trial and error each time you build a blade, its the way to go.

That beats the fun of trying to recycle and all the learning from the problems of your own making!

[Jim R. Glines]

Once again thank you guys for all the help.
Jim