On Tue, 17 Oct 2017 19:03:42 -0500, Martin Eastburn
wrote:

If you buy metal from these and in little chunks you pay more
and a lot more.

I used to buy AR500 (expensive) by the 4x10' have it cut into 4
so I could carry it. 3/8" thick weighs like 1/2" A36. It is
extremely dense and full of exotic metal. It is a registered
product. (with the FBI).

I bought mine from a MILL company. They barge the large sheets
in and use 80' rail cars to tote them from the barge to their
facility.

Martin

Well, Crucible CPM Rex 121 is hot-isostatically-pressed powdered
metal. You can put their biggest pieces -- a lot of them -- into the
back seat of a Fiat 500. g

As for maraging steel, most customers are governments. We embargoed
maraging steel to Iran, because one of its critical uses is in making
uranium centrifuges.

It's not something that you buy in large quantities unless you're
making ICBMs, air-superiority fighters, or equipment for making
nuclear warheads.

There's a growing use for it in 3D printing, but that's another story.

--
Ed Huntress




On 10/17/2017 11:52 AM, Ed Huntress wrote:
On Tue, 17 Oct 2017 09:21:55 -0700 (PDT), Christopher Tidy
wrote:

Am Montag, 16. Oktober 2017 23:46:54 UTC+2 schrieb Ed Huntress:

The most expensive *commercially available* steel I've even seen is
Cricible's CPM Rex 121, although it must have come down recently,
because it's even being sold for making knife blades. It's an extreme
high-speed steel.

As for steel used in structural applications, the maraging grades are
'way up there.

So how much do those steels cost?

Chris

Just checking one place for the Rex 121 (Alpha Knife Supply), a 0.142"
thick slab, 23.0" long and 6.0" wide, is $394.00. That must be for
making some kind of nasty little sword, I guess.

When it first came out, most of it was sold for making gear hobs.
Those blanks were a lot more expensive then.

OnLine Metals will sell you 3 ft. long bar, 1.5" diameter, of maraging
steel for $920.51.