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High-Performance Blades Sharing ideas for getting the most out of our steel.

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  #1  
Old 10-11-2006, 01:38 PM
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B.Finnigan B.Finnigan is offline
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Alloying to save money.

I was just looking up some prices and availability on some invar. A 6x6x1/4" plate of it cost's $60! It is an iron nickel alloy and does not expand or contract very much under drastic heat changes.

A few weeks ago I made an iron nickel alloy out of twelve nickels (60 cents) and some scrap iron pieces for a guard on a future knife. Even when you factor in the propane needed to forge the billet out and the labor I am still way ahead when it comes to savings.



Smelting steel is not very cost efficient even when compared to the very high steel prices but alloying is another story. So aside from being fun, educational and original you throw in cost effective sometimes to.
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Old 10-11-2006, 10:15 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is online now
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How old were those nickels? I was looking the other day to find some info on copper alloys and the article stated that most modern US nickels are mostly copper. If you used nickles made between 1942-45 there is no nickel in them at all. My "blue book" on US coins lists Jefferson nickels from 1938 to date, except for the war nickels, to be 75% copper and 25% nickel. Hope that this doesn't mess up the alloy.

Doug Lester
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Old 10-12-2006, 01:00 AM
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B.Finnigan B.Finnigan is offline
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I factored in the copper and it will actually make the ingot easier to machine. Invar is 36% nickel and 64% iron. Because of the high temps (carbon/tungsten arc) used some of the copper will have burned off also. It is going to be used as a guard so I don't see copper as a liability. It was still a tough little bugger just to forge out to flatten it a bit.
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