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Ed Huntress
 
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Default "homemade" tool steel

"George Watson" wrote in message
...
I have notice when buying tool steel the smaller the quanity you buy the
more expensive it gets

so I thought would it be possible to make my own in a crucible by mixing
scrap stainless, mild steel and a measured amount of powdered graphite to

up
the carbon content

anyone got any idea if this could work?


Yes, and the idea is "no." They don't mix alloy steels that way. There is an
order, and there are fluxes (some constituents are pellets coated like M&M's
with fluxing and intersolute materials). They don't use scrap to make tool
steel. There is a lot of metallurgical control required to make anything
worthwhile.

Without remelt capabilities (electroslag or vacuum-arc remelt; don't even
consider it), the quality you could produce would be so much lower than any
European- or American-made tool steel that it wouldn't be worthwhile. You'd
be competing with China at the junk end of the scale.

Sorry to sound so discouraging, but you're barking up the wrong tree. Why
don't you consider getting a bunch of people together to buy in some
quantity?

Ed Huntress