[Jewelry making - Article 00035] - Re: [Orchid] Key-steel for chasing tools

[Jesse Brennan]

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    Most  keystock sold is only 1018  a  soft relatively non hardenable 
    low carbon steel .    You can   buy  drill rod  from local machine
    shop  tool suppliers and from places like ENCO, MSC, Mcmaster Carr  
    and other catalog  and Internet sites. You should  probably get:
    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0898158966/qid=1010088903/sr=2
    -1/107-1364034-1713327 This will help a lot in making tools. Learn to
    identify steel by the spark pattern  produced  when grinding. Low
    carbon steel  gives a small spark pattern with  only a little fern
    like branching. Higher carbon steels  give a large basic spark
    pattern with a lot of branching side sparks off the main stream.  
    Unfortunately I can't give you a better guide to  find spark test
    pattern photos. This is a place where  a picture  or demonstration is
    worth  much more than a thousand words. A lot of the steel sold in
    places  like Home Depot  has a high enough  carbon content to make
    hardenable tools. This stuff should be low carbon  and not
    hardenable but  some of it is actually  glass hard and really  a high
    carbon material ( very  poor process and  quality control) .  It is
    cheap. Finding it is pot luck  and  you will need to check it out
    with  spark tests. Jesse

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