Entrenching tools

[The Good Dr]

I recently bought a lot of entrenching tools from a friend and I was wondering what kind of steel they are. it throws some healthy sparks on the spark test and I could forge them into something funky maybe a folding spear/tomahawk or something to that efect

anyway any insight would be helpful

thanks

[prizzim]

Having wielded the famous E-Tool for a few years, and having broken a couple in hard use, I think they're too thin on their own to forge into anything useful. Given the bends I've gotten from them, I also think they're relatively low carbon compared to what you want in a knife. If you're going to scrap a perfectly good emergency digging impliment, I'd reccomend welding several shovels up into a large billet first, then making something out of it. Of course then you loose the connection to the handle, but if they're just going to sit and rust, then you might as well experiment.

On the other hand, you could probably cut and grind out several good pocketknife blades from a single shovel with no hammering at all - now there's a thought.